Truer words have not been spoken.
honda 5w20 just for economy?
- Thread starter aoar
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I just did my 2nd oil change on my '05 Ody at 9300 miles. First chane was at 4k miles. I'm using Honda 5W-20 oil during break-in. My oil life monitor was at 30%, so during hot weather, looks like Honda figures the 5W-20 dino is good for around 7500 miles. For that run of 5300 miles over 10 weeks I didn't see any oil consumption. At around 15k to 20k miles I'll switch to syn.
Off topic, but how is it that many people consider modern engines to come from the factory fully broken in while we see such high wear metals on new engines with these wear metals dropping affter 10k miles or so?
BTW, did another drain/fill (3.5 qts) on the tranny using Honda fluid and noted a goodly bit of metal (fine paste, no particles) on the magnetic drain plug.
Off topic, but how is it that many people consider modern engines to come from the factory fully broken in while we see such high wear metals on new engines with these wear metals dropping affter 10k miles or so?
BTW, did another drain/fill (3.5 qts) on the tranny using Honda fluid and noted a goodly bit of metal (fine paste, no particles) on the magnetic drain plug.
ok - so a month ago when I was still pre-BITOG, I put Castrol Syntec Blend 10W-30 in my girlfriends '99 Accord with the gastly Fram/Honeywell Honda OEM filter (yes, I have come a long way in 30 days). the oil now has about 700 miles on it. should I change it out immediately for 5W-20 M1 with a better filter? or let it go another 3k mi?
You'll be fine. The owner's manual (I have a 99 Accord) says that 10w-30 is fine as long as the temperature is above 20 degrees F. Second, if you look at the thread regarding long engine life ("everyone with over 150,000 miles", etc), you'll notice that many, many people use oil and filters that has been bashed on this site and have still gotten a lot of miles out of their cars. I've used the Valvoline All Climate 5w-30 that the dealer carried, genuine Honda 5w-30, (made by Exxon/Mobil), Kendell 5w-30 and recently have switched to Phillips Trop-Arctic blend with approximately 2k to 3k OCIs, all on Honda OEM filters. With 65,000 hard miles, my 2.3 litre 4 cylinder still has 172 P.S.I. cylinder pressure on all 4 cylinders and gets around 30 MPG. Don't waste your money; keep the Castrol for 3k and then change it to Mobil 1, if you want to extend OCI.
When Mobil 1 first came out (maybe 1972) it was 5w20. Mobil determined that most cars would run just fine on a stable 20w oil. It did not sell well enough (viewed as too thin) so they reformulated to 5w30 (on the low end of the 30w scale) and bingo, a hit. Look at how many miles have been run on an "almost" 5w20 oil.
Here's another way to look at it....
Assume the same engine running on SAE 10w-30 and 5w-20 wears at EXACTLY the same rate. At some point the clearances will increase to the point where bearing and ring/cylinder wear will be affected by using the thinner lubricant, since you can no longer maintain hydrodynamic lubrication. In addition the level of NVH and oil consumption will also increase with the thinner lube.
Therefore it would seem that the optimum strategy is to "spot check" the wear rates using oil analysis, at least once a year. If/when you notice a significant increase in overall wear rates, and/or a significant reduction in oil pressure, it's time to go up one SAE grade - at least during warmer weather. This way you optimize fuel efficiency over the life of the engine, without affecting durability, as internal tolerances change due to normal wear.
Assume the same engine running on SAE 10w-30 and 5w-20 wears at EXACTLY the same rate. At some point the clearances will increase to the point where bearing and ring/cylinder wear will be affected by using the thinner lubricant, since you can no longer maintain hydrodynamic lubrication. In addition the level of NVH and oil consumption will also increase with the thinner lube.
Therefore it would seem that the optimum strategy is to "spot check" the wear rates using oil analysis, at least once a year. If/when you notice a significant increase in overall wear rates, and/or a significant reduction in oil pressure, it's time to go up one SAE grade - at least during warmer weather. This way you optimize fuel efficiency over the life of the engine, without affecting durability, as internal tolerances change due to normal wear.
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