Honda 1.5T fuel dilution and OCI's

Does it matter? Several owners with various models of Honda all have the same complaint.
What additional information do you need to realize there's an issue?!
It does matter, your engine/vehicle is completely different than theirs. Stop digging for problems that don’t pertain to your vehicle. Follow the engineers recommendation on fluid requirements and you will be fine.
 
It does matter, your engine/vehicle is completely different than theirs. Stop digging for problems that don’t pertain to your vehicle. Follow the engineers recommendation on fluid requirements and you will be fine.
Since they all have VTC failures on 4 cylinder 1.5 liter turbo (some admittedly are NA) engines from the same manufacturer (Honda), that makes them different than my engine?
o_O
 
Out of everything you have posted, which 90% of are just short noise complaints and not failures, how many of those were a 1.5T found in the CRV in question
 
100% unscientific post coming. Never had an oil analysis done, but it might be something to do & post so someone can dumb it down for me 😆. Gf has a '19 Civic with the 1.5Turbonium & 20,7XXmi. She bought it new with 8mi on it. Mainly sees short trips with an occasional freeway venture. We follow the OLM, change the oil & filter each time, & do this with 40% to 30% life left. This has resulted in intervals of 2700 to 3500mi with the longer ones having more freeway driving. It takes about 6 months for these miles to accumulate & I use M1 AFE 0W20 & the Honda A02 filter. I buy the oil in 6qt cases from Costco when it's on sale so using conventional to save money won't make a noticeable difference for us. I check the oil weekly to see if I can notice a difference in oil level & I can't. No issues with the car, gf really likes it, it scoots pretty good for a tiny lil motor, & it drives quite well.
 
and still VTC issues, interesting....
Do you recall what the % the oil life monitor indicated at the time of the OCI?
No I don’t but I know it wasn’t even down to 15%. I do mostly highway driving though. For instance, I currently have 4,900 miles on my current oil and MM is at 50%. I will change it as 7,500 miles regardless. Like I said, I do have the VTC rattle and had it since 30k miles, now sitting at 112k miles and she’s still going strong. I’m really not worried about it.
 
60k miles on various 5w30 for my 1.5T. Yes, there's a fuel dilution going on (anywhere from 2.5 to 4.5% - confirmed by OilAnalyzers UOA) but it doesn't have any effect on the particles readings. I've ran oil sump as long as 8k miles and as short as 4k miles. No difference. My car has seen primarily long highway trips pre-covid and mostly short trips for the past 1.5yrs. Again, same rate of the dilution, no increase on the dipstick. I'm not sure what you relation to these engines (no idea if you have a car that employs one), but if you do have honda - then just enjoy great and reliable cheap to own car. If you're considering gettting one - get it, it's an awesome car with great powertrain that is super easy to maintain and cheap to own. But for pit sake don't create unnecessary FUD, we all have enough of it in our lives as is.
 
The worst problem with later model CRV's? Battery and systems control software. That's whole different thread.

Run 0W-30 and don't look back.

PS Ours has never fuel diluted, but a vehicle that you can't throw in N and roll back...................what was Honda thinking?
 
As someone who has worked for NA Honda for years there really isn’t many problems with the 1.5T engine other than injectors running out of spec and turbochargers starting to go bad around the 150k+ mark. After servicing many 1.5T engines I have not witnessed anything related to timing chain component or vtc failures since the inception of the engine. I would recommend on sticking with factory recommendations on approved 0w20 oil and change it earlier if it helps you sleep better at night.

I have a friend who bought one either a ‘17 or a ‘18. She drives until the monitor tells her to get the oil changed and her oil changes are done at the Honda dealer. She has 110,000 on it at last check which was last summer so she does drive it quite a bit. She hasn’t had a lick of trouble with it.
 
I’m not sure what you want to hear. To answer your question again use the factory recommended 0w20 oil and not an out of spec inferior product. Doing so will void your warranty and give you issues down the road.
No it will not. Please post the text from either the owner’s manual or the warranty book that states that the grade is tied to the new car warranty.

And what “issues down the road” are you referring to?
 
As someone who has worked for NA Honda for years there really isn’t many problems with the 1.5T engine other than injectors running out of spec and turbochargers starting to go bad around the 150k+ mark. After servicing many 1.5T engines I have not witnessed anything related to timing chain component or vtc failures since the inception of the engine. I would recommend on sticking with factory recommendations on approved 0w20 oil and change it earlier if it helps you sleep better at night.
I have ran Mobil 1 0/40 in my 2.4L and my J37 for years. No issues. These same engines over seas recommend everything under the sun except for 20wt oils. Look up the euro manuals yourself
 
Have you been having a lot of issues with yours? What year do you have?
Had the VCT replaced under "Hondacare" warranty...they claimed that it's a revised part, but it's literally no different than what was originally installed at the factory.
Only at 40k miles, but was still prevalent at lower temps.

So far after 6 or 8 months, no noise yet
🤞
 
Had the VCT replaced under "Hondacare" warranty...they claimed that it's a revised part, but it's literally no different than what was originally installed at the factory.
Only at 40k miles, but was still prevalent at lower temps.

So far after 6 or 8 months, no noise yet
🤞
Glad to hear it's worked out for you so far. What car do you have? Honestly, if the noise does come back I wouldn't worry about it. I have the rattle daily during the winter months here in VA and at 112k miles it's still not an issue. I did the valve adjustment at 97k miles a little over a year ago and I looked at the chain and tensioner (what I could see from the top of the engine) and everything was in good shape and not loose. Just trying to give you peace of mind.
 
Glad to hear it's worked out for you so far. What car do you have? Honestly, if the noise does come back I wouldn't worry about it. I have the rattle daily during the winter months here in VA and at 112k miles it's still not an issue. I did the valve adjustment at 97k miles a little over a year ago and I looked at the chain and tensioner (what I could see from the top of the engine) and everything was in good shape and not loose. Just trying to give you peace of mind.
Much appreciated.
I have a 2016 Civic. So far, it's been an ok car. Certainly not the reputation of the 80s and 90s cars.
🤷‍♂️
 
Much appreciated.
I have a 2016 Civic. So far, it's been an ok car. Certainly not the reputation of the 80s and 90s cars.
🤷‍♂️
I want to say, and I just recently joined these forums. I have my go to oil, which isn't what my search for is whatsoever. The reason I joined is this fuel dilution situation, and I drive a honda clarity which I just recently purchased.

I do almost 90% of my driving on electric. So the engine is nonoperational, so far I had the car for 3000 miles of driving and I didn't want the honda oil in the vehicle. Yet my delay of changing was directly due to not using the engine so what does it matter. According to the dealer they did an oil change prior to putting the vehicle for sale, the vehicle is a CPO.

With everything said in mind, I just did my oil change and honestly it smelled like so much gas it's pretty crazy. I've never smelled gas in any of my oils, guessing cause all my other hondas are not direct injection or whatever it may be that's causing this dilution.

I am just further frustrated by the issue just strictly on the fact I have honestly maybe 400 miles of engine on time and the oil is so nasty. I will find out for certain if honda was just bsing and they did not change the oil as stated.

Also in addition I only use 91 fuel, not sure if that's a factor. I always use 91 in all my cars, and most of them do require premium fuel, but again I was assuming that 91 will combust more effectively further stopping the dilution from occurring. Not certain how accurate that is, I am not a professional.

But I am fairly concerned now, my car has no turbo and honestly keeping my fingers crossed that honda didn't change the oil. I did know you can send oil in for testing, and I do still have the oil, it's in an oil pan. Unaware of how much that may be contaminated or mix with the other oil which was maybe half a quart if that, inside of it. However I do not know the process or the company to reach to have my oil tested.

I am going to do an oil change in another 3000 miles and again at that time I would probably have 300 miles or less of engine on time, hopefully it doesn't smell like this recent change. Not sure if my engine may have different issues than the other 1.5's, I do know mine is running an atkinson cycle or something like that which maybe further aggravating the issue. But this is why I am here.

Not sure if all the other engines[1.5] are the same cycle, please excuse my ignorance.
 
If it is an option (cuz OP has a fam that buys lots of stuff), OP should get a Costco Canada membership and get Kirkland use. $29.99 for 10 quarts in the US. If not use Super Tech.

I change a 1.5T US CRV when the minder hits 40% (yes, 40% is probably overkill, I don't care as the plan is for the car to be in use for long time), which in my case is about 4,000 miles since last oil change.

I have used Mobil 1, Castrol Edge, Quaker State Ultimate, and finally decided that given the short OCI, might as well use Kirkland (Warren) oil.

Have a K24 Accord with 189,000 miles and it survived without a OCI computer and only conventional 5W20 every 8,000 miles pre-corona. (though I doubt that the 1.5T engines are as robust as the old K24.)
 
With everything said in mind, I just did my oil change and honestly it smelled like so much gas it's pretty crazy. I've never smelled gas in any of my oils, guessing cause all my other hondas are not direct injection or whatever it may be that's causing this dilution.
Yes, this is my finding as well.
This is why I have changed to a 6 month OCI. So far in my interval I'm at about 1,000 in month number 5 of my OCI. This is a "grocery getter" that's driven about 3k miles per year...mostly city (therefore should be considered "extreme" use). Despite being an "economy car" I also run it on 91. The engine runs noticeably smoother and starts quicker.

I've also started keeping my RPM's consistently in the 2300-3k range to "burn off" any additional fuel. This is in addition to more "spirited" drives with higher RPM's
So far it seems to have worked. My oil from the dipstick does not smell like fuel (I really have to sniff to smell anything other than the "used oil" smell-a good thing!).
 
Back
Top