Considering Making A Change, Honda has disappointed me

Joined
Jun 15, 2021
Messages
438
Location
Central Pennsylvania
After several disappointing UOA'S with the last one showing oil dilution after 4000 miles exceeding 3.5 % in my 2020 CRV (MM indicates 50% oil life, yeah, right!) and constantly rising oil level on the dipstick. I'm considering leaving 35+ years of Honda ownership to get away from the small-displacement DI Turbocharged engines that seem to be the problem, apparently it's just the nature of the beast. One vehicle I'm considering is the Toyota C-HR with it's 2L port injected engine. Other than the quirky styling it seems to be a fairly solid design. Any C-HR owners out there? I'd like to know how actual owners have done with this car, engine and transmission. I've driven the Honda HR-V and didn't much care for it or it's solid rear axle, other than a slightly larger engine, it's basically a Fit.
 
Drive one first....MIL was looking at one....very noisy and underpowered. Ended up with a CX3. That said, just drive it, and change oil a little more ofter.....buddy is a service Mgr, and newer ones dont seem to have any issues where they have to come apart. Thats problem being on here/knowing a bit....I think we obsess about oil too much.
 
how much do you stand to lose, as opposed to just really frequent oil changes until your original planned exit from this car? I mean, if you are a 5 and done sort of person, planning to drive to 60-100k or so, just do extra oil changes and trade-in then. OTOH... if you are planning on driving until the end of time... the really small CUV's seem to me to have gotten some really low reviews. Might be a big backwards step.
 
Drove a C-HR when they came out. Badly underpowered. Opted for a CX-3. Not a rocket either, but it would sure embarrass a C-HR.
 
There is one recipe against fuel dilution that thousands of Honda owners are using in their 1.5T engines. That recipe is 91/93 Octane fuel in the gas tank, and Euro rated 0w40/5w40 oil in the crankcase. Simple and effective. Try it before bashing.

P.S. Recommendations in owners manual are just CAFE compliant minimum requirements for the vehicle to last the warranty period before it develops major issues shortly after warranty period is over. Yes, there are exceptions, but previous sentence applies to majority. Mentioned exceptions usually have little to no cold starts, and lots of highway driving.
 
Put a ValvoMax on it to make it easy to change the oil without spilling a drop. And then just change it more often. Run Fram Ultra oil filters so you have peace of mind about not changing the filter every time. If it were mine, that is what I would do. The ValvoMax or Fumoto are slow, but you can connect them up to drain and do something else while they drain. I like big plastic bottles left over from cat litter. They are plenty big enough to hold enough oil when on there side if you park facing up hill and have the mouth of the bottle facing up hill. My 2016 Honda CR-V drians nice when parked facing up hill. Is the oil drain on your 2020 also towards the back of the engine?

The Fumoto are tougher to install because they require more room while threading into the oil pan. I had to grind about 1/8 of an inch off of an edge of an exhaust flange so my Fumoto could clear it as I threaded it into the oil drain hole. And also the orientation of the valve on the Fumoto is not somethign you have complete control over, because how the threads in the oil drain hole and the threads on the Fumoto happen to start determines where the valve on the Fumoto is orineted when you get it threaded all the way in and end up tightening down on the washer on it. I had to over-tighten mine to get the oriention of my Fumoto valve into a usable location. There was a very real danger of snapping off the brass Fumoto valve when I overtightented it. If I had it to do over again I would go with the ValvoMax instead of the Fumoto.

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Once I talked to a man who was an aircraft mechanic during WWII in Alaska. He said they use to thin out the oil with gasoline so the aircraft engines could be started in the extreme cold. Of course most of those aircraft had extra oil tanks that made up for loss in flight. And those tanks of oil could be filled with non-diluted oil to add in flight once the engine was started with the thinned out oil.

If you are doing UOA and the wear metals are still in the low good range then I would not be concernde about the oil being a little thinner. Kinda like running a 0W-16 instead of a 0W-20. If it is not throwing off wear metals then it is very likely that all is OK. There are plenty of owners of the 1.5 who are oblivious to oil dilution and only change it when the OLM says to. My sister has a 2018 Honda CR-V EX-L and she is happy with it. Her and her husband are not mechanically inclined. And do not seam to want to learn anything about improving the maintance of there vehicles. They just take them to the dealers for recommended service.

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There have been a few post on BITOG where some claim that certain brands of oil decreased or even stopped fuel in the oil for them. I do not remember the make or engne or oil. Maybe someone can add some details about that?
 
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Oh, and yes - forget the CH-R. You will regret getting it on every drive. A Corolla Hatchback will be a lot more fun to drive though.

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After several disappointing UOA'S with the last one showing oil dilution after 4000 miles exceeding 3.5 % in my 2020 CRV (MM indicates 50% oil life, yeah, right!) and constantly rising oil level on the dipstick. I'm considering leaving 35+ years of Honda ownership to get away from the small-displacement DI Turbocharged engines that seem to be the problem, apparently it's just the nature of the beast. One vehicle I'm considering is the Toyota C-HR with it's 2L port injected engine. Other than the quirky styling it seems to be a fairly solid design. Any C-HR owners out there? I'd like to know how actual owners have done with this car, engine and transmission. I've driven the Honda HR-V and didn't much care for it or it's solid rear axle, other than a slightly larger engine, it's basically a Fit.
What engine problems have you had as a result of this dilution?
 
After several disappointing UOA'S with the last one showing oil dilution after 4000 miles exceeding 3.5 % in my 2020 CRV (MM indicates 50% oil life, yeah, right!) and constantly rising oil level on the dipstick. I'm considering leaving 35+ years of Honda ownership to get away from the small-displacement DI Turbocharged engines that seem to be the problem, apparently it's just the nature of the beast. One vehicle I'm considering is the Toyota C-HR with it's 2L port injected engine. Other than the quirky styling it seems to be a fairly solid design. Any C-HR owners out there? I'd like to know how actual owners have done with this car, engine and transmission. I've driven the Honda HR-V and didn't much care for it or it's solid rear axle, other than a slightly larger engine, it's basically a Fit.
Fuel dilution is nothing to fear, I have had over 5% through the winter with one year with minimal fuel dilution. No wear metals out of the ordinary. That’s on a turbo car that gets thrashed daily. I have some fuel dilution in the summer too with my current tune. Once you test and test and finally except that if you don’t have wear metals out of average, why worry about wear metals that are not there.
 
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What engine problems have you had as a result of this dilution?
None as of yet, was planning to keep this CRV for 5 years or more, just concerned about the long-term effects of oil thinning. Situation: I'm 74, live in a townhouse and am unable physically to do my own oil changes. I have the Hondacare 120/7yrs so probably should stay with 0W-20 or 5W-20 for warranty requirements, I'd really like to go to 5W-30 if I could get away with it. I guess my best plan, short-term, is to go to 3k change intervals. Still might drive a C-HR just to convince myself. My 2019 Civic Touring Coupe was able to have excellent UOA's with 5K intervals on Mobil1 0W-20 AFE, pretty much the same engine but definitely less load, seems like the CRV is much harder on oil. The CRV is going in for an oil change on Monday, they're going to check programming, injector performance and the PCV system, perhaps something is awry. My dealer has a friendly service manager and I've got a young, eager Honda Certified Master Mechanic who is going to give it a good going over.
 
Just my opinion but the RAV4 is the perfect size, and the Corolla Cross is very close as you say. I could not imagine buying smaller than those two unless it was a very urban area.
I appreciate that, however, I drove Civic Coupes for 35+ years, the CRV still feels kinda big to me, it was almost a paradigm shift. My absolute favorite Honda was my 91 (last year produced) CRX Si, it was like driving a go-cart.
 
I appreciate that, however, I drove Civic Coupes for 35+ years, the CRV still feels kinda big to me, it was almost a paradigm shift. My absolute favorite Honda was my 91 (last year produced) CRX Si, it was like driving a go-cart.
Hey i love small cars too. Just even a Civic today is like huge. We probably will never see anything like a CRX again.
 
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