Castrol Syntec 5w-20, 8120 mi, '04 Honda Odyssey

[bfax011]

14689 mi on vehicle. Honda filter (the small one).

Blackstone report:

ALUMINUM 7
CHROMIUM 1
IRON 25
COPPER 67
LEAD 3
TIN 1
MOLYBDENUM 61
NICKEL 0
MANGANESE 1
SILVER 0
TITANIUM 0
POTASSIUM 0
BORON 0
SILICON 17
SODIUM 4
CALCIUM 2460
MAGNESIUM 12
PHOSPHORUS 664
ZINC 803
BARIUM 0

TBN 1.7
SUS Viscosity 56.9
Flashpoint 400F
Fuel Antifreeze 0
Water 0
Insolubles 0.5

 

[T-Keith]

Now some might say that your engine is poorly made because of the high wear metals.

Sorry about that. I'd say the oil looks pretty good, but it may have been in a little too long.

-T

 

[leanintoit]

Is this UOA from the first oil change after factory fill? If so it really doesn't look too bad. Warranty OCI is 7500 miles max. suggest you plan on earlier changes than the max. so you don’t go over again.

 

[Palut]

quote:

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Originally posted by T-Keith:
Now some might say that your engine is poorly made because of the high wear metals.

-T

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We'd only say that if the engine was out of the break-in stage. Hondas usually show good UOAs once they're done breaking in.

 

[T-Keith]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Palut:

quote:

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Originally posted by T-Keith:
Now some might say that your engine is poorly made because of the high wear metals.

-T

---

We'd only say that if the engine was out of the break-in stage. Hondas usually show good UOAs once they're done breaking in.

---

The engine has more miles then this engine.

 

[bfax011]

quote:

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Originally posted by leanintoit:
Is this UOA from the first oil change after factory fill? If so it really doesn't look too bad. Warranty OCI is 7500 miles max. suggest you plan on earlier changes than the max. so you don’t go over again.

---

It was the first change after the factory fill change. Based on the notes from blackstone, it looks like it is perfectly proportional to the universal average amounts (apparently the average reported interval for my engine is 5500 mi. My numbers were almost all exactly 1.5 X the average, which seems to make sense to me.

Yes, I did go over, and I don't expect to do that again. Combination of being out of town (me that is, with wife still driving the van) and foul cold weather set me back a week or two past what I had planned to do. I know, lame excuse... Part of the reason for getting the analysis was because I had gone over - just in case something does happen down the road, I have at least some evidence that the oil wasn't to blame. No idea what weight that has with Honda - not that I expect to have any issues...

Of all the numbers reported back, I was most surprised that the TBN had gotten so low. Blackstone said should be good to 9000 mi, but there is no way I'll be doing that with Syntec, even after the warranty is up.

I appreciate all of the advice in here.

 

[Brett Miller]

Looks like Mobi1 1 is a better built oil for the same $ (or less with the Pep Boys calendar)

 

[bfax011]

quote:

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Originally posted by Brett Miller:
Looks like Mobi1 1 is a better built oil for the same $ (or less with the Pep Boys calendar)

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M1 0w-20 went in after the syntec came out. We'll see what it looks like...

 

[pinoy99]

Not bad for 8k miles on 2nd OCI. Typical wear metals on breaking Honda v6's. Very good flash point. What is the OCI interval? Mileage mostly highway?

 

[leanintoit]

Oops, forgot to roll out the

mat.

Sounds like you have been hanging out here for a while as you seem to have a good idea of what's what. So, was your interest in oil brought on by the 5w-20 on your oil cap? Mine was.

Good luck with the M1, I'm sure it will serve your Ody well.

 

[bfax011]

quote:

---

Originally posted by leanintoit:
Oops, forgot to roll out the

mat.

Sounds like you have been hanging out here for a while as you seem to have a good idea of what's what. So, was your interest in oil brought on by the 5w-20 on your oil cap? Mine was.

Good luck with the M1, I'm sure it will serve your Ody well.

---

Why thank you very much! Yes, I've been lurking since past spring. And yes, you nailed it - that oil filler cap got my interest picqued (sp?). That and getting handed a thimble when I asked for a filter at the honda parts desk.

My only slight hesitation on M1 is probably unfounded - my prior car, a '98 accord v6 with verrrry low miles (20K) was going through about 3/4 qt of M1 5w-30 on a 3500-4000 OCI. Not huge, but more than I expected. I didn't mention it in my initial post, but I only had 1/2 qt of makeup oil in the 8K OCI on the odyssey with castrol. It was down perhaps another 1/4 qt when I changed it, but less than 1qt makeup for 8K miles seemed fine to me. Be interesting to see what the makeup story on the m1 will be - although I will probably be closer to a 5K or 6K run on this fill.

 

[bfax011]

quote:

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Originally posted by pinoy99:
Not bad for 8k miles on 2nd OCI. Typical wear metals on breaking Honda v6's. Very good flash point. What is the OCI interval? Mileage mostly highway?

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It was just the two changes so far - ~6500 mi (4.5 months) on factory fill, ~8100 (4.5 months) with the Castrol syntec. Book is 3750mi for severe, and 7500 for normal. Mostly longer trips, but not on interstates (30+ mi at a time) - with a few short hops thrown in. To give you some idea, my avg mpg since new is 20.0. Best highway so far has been 23 - worst mixed has been 15. I suspect most Ody owners will get a sense of what that means in terms of driving mix.

 

[JohnBrowning]

This is odd becasue the Honda 3.5 has a good track record. I am going to guess that this OCI and oil was not a good match! On a postive note lead,tin,nickle and aluminum were nice and low.Insoluables and fuel were great as well! Copper was higher then I think it should be but not bad when you look at the OCI of 8100 miles. I think I would try another brand of 20Wt. oil and retest! M1 and Motorcraft 20Wt.'s have both done well in UOA!

 

[buster]

TBN of 1.7

 

[vad]

quote:

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M1 0w-20 went in after the syntec came out. We'll see what it looks like...

---

Mobil 1 UOA will get better results, no doubt.
Since the wear metals will continue to decrease as the engine wears in.
And then the majority of folks here will unanimously declare another case of Mobil 1's superiority.
Jeesh...

You have to run an oil for at least two consecutive OCI's in order to establish a relatively undistorted baseline.
And only then switch to another brand, run it for 2 oil changes, preferably during the same seasons and under the same conditions, and only then compare the results!

 

[LarryL]

Could the uoa for M1 be worse because it might start cleaning up stuff the previous oil didn't get? Could the Syntec have done that to the previous dyno oil? Aren't uoa's better in bunches? Syntec just might be a good oil and could have been used in the next oil change. Each new oil will make reading a uoa less useful. You should keep the changes to as few as possible, like only the miles acumilated. By the way, was the TBN a little low?

 

[speedtc]

Why not go syntec again? It did it's job well.

 

[Dr. T]

Fe=25 after 8k mi...

So, now does anyone still have to ask why they don't use 5-20's year-round in Europe? For kicks...try out an A3 oil (eg. GC) and then report back your wear #'s....

 

[HondaMan]

This van is:

1. Fairly new.
2. Has VERY few miles on it for its age... almost too few.
3. Has had only ONE change in 14k miles with the first oil from ZERO being the FACTORY FILL.

So with a UOA @ 14k ... ... A few are ready to bash 5w-20, or suggest a different oil?

I would say what speedtc says, go with Syntec again... why mess with another weight? ( I know it is too late in that regard, but I see over and over this same issue, fuzzy logic. )

 

[The Critic]

quote:

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So, now does anyone still have to ask why they don't use 5-20's year-round in Europe? For kicks...try out an A3 oil (eg. GC) and then report back your wear #'s....

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And obviously you aren't familiar with the wear pattern of a Honda V6 engine.

Like Hondaman said, the initial change was done around 6K, so this is only the second oil fill. Some of these wear metals could've been leftover from the factory fill.

With that said, this report is actually quite good. I've seen much higher Fe #s on the second oil fill for a similar, 3.2L 6-cyl engine from a TL.