Honda Civic Oil Question

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jrsdws

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My so just bought a nice little 2000 Civic Coupe with just 70k miles. The selling dealer changed the oil prior to sale with 5W-20 oil. The manual specs 5w30 oil is recommended.

He needs to start driving regularly tomorrow for work and college which is roughly 500 miles per week.

Is the 20w ok at all or for a week or should we just change today?
 
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Originally Posted By: jrsdws
My so just bought a nice little 2000 Civic Coupe with just 70k miles. The selling dealer changed the oil prior to sale with 5W-20 oil. The manual specs 5w30 oil is required.

He needs to start driving regularly tomorrow for work and college which is roughly 500 miles per week.

Is the 20w ok at all or for a week or should we just change today?


It will be fine

are you in a COLD Climate?
 
You will be fine, I ran 5w20 GTX in my Integra last winter and have in the past on my d16y7 civic with no ill effects, just a slight increase in oil consumption on the civic.
 
Nahhh....Central Illinois and no real cold before next oil change interval.
 
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If you're concerned just change it out earlier but I would take 5w20 bulk oil to 4 or 5k with no sleep lost.
 
Originally Posted By: Brenden
If you're concerned just change it out earlier but I would take 5w20 bulk oil to 4 or 5k with no sleep lost.


+1

5w20 is the recommended grade for my sister's 2005 Civic with the 1.7L. 135,000 HARD miles and it runs great. I believe the 2000 Civic came out before Honda started recommending the 5w20, so I bet your car will run just fine on that oil, probably get a bit better mpg as well.
thumbsup2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: jrsdws
My so just bought a nice little 2000 Civic Coupe with just 70k miles. The selling dealer changed the oil prior to sale with 5W-20 oil. The manual specs 5w30 oil is recommended.

Honda's J-letter updates the manual to specify 5w30 for the Civic until the '01 model year for the US market. My copy of the J-letter is dated 2009. It's possible that Honda has since issued a later version. If I were you, I'd change out the 5W-20 for the correct 5w30.
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
The Civic has been back-spec'd to the 1998 model year for the 5W-20 grade so you are using the "correct" grade in your 2000 Civic.

Do you have the doc that says so? If so, could you please email it to me? I'd love to have it.
 
you are fine for now, but next oil change i will switch to 5w30. i have also honda civic 00' lx manual 5 speed. all time on this car i was using 10w30 til 270k miles, then start using 10w-40, high mileage. car is running strong. currently i have 295k. good luck....
 
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Just leave it for the full OCI, it won't hurt anything. I have ran 5w20 in my 02 Caravan that calls for 5w30, its not a big deal.
 
Originally Posted By: max45
you are fine for now, but next oil change i will switch to 5w30. i have also honda civic 00' lx manual 5 speed. all time on this car i was using 10w30 til 270k miles, then start using 10w-40, high mileage. car is running strong. currently i have 295k. good luck....

You haven't provided a technical reason to ever run a heavier grade than the specified 20wt oil for the life of the car. There is only one reason which would be to maintain adequate oil pressure, an unlikely situation even in high mileage cars or to deal with very high oil consumption.
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
You haven't provided a technical reason to ever run a heavier grade than the specified 20wt oil for the life of the car.

Do you have the document that says that 5W-20 has been back spec'd to the '98 Civic? If so, could you please email it to me? I'd love to have it.
 
Strange. You (Tegger) are on this site and looking for the factory spec oil viscosity?

Although if you're using synthetic in a car with that many miles on it (signature), I'd have to guess that it's not the first motor. Is it?
 
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Originally Posted By: davebarnum
Strange. You (Tegger) are on this site and looking for the factory spec oil viscosity?

I was looking for documentation; I collect that stuff. Documentation is like money: You can never have too much.

Originally Posted By: davebarnum
I'd have to guess that it's not the first motor. Is it?

Original engine (also: original transmission, but second clutch). The Mobil 1 is a personal preference; I don't much care if I spend a few dollars more a year for it.

Incidentally, I've just had a used oil analysis done by Blackstone. They sent me the report this evening, but they made a small error on it. Once the error is clarified/corrected, I'll post the report. Some may find the report interesting, considering the engine's mileage.
 
Originally Posted By: jrsdws
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Tegger, the Honda Oil Recommendation chart's in the following post:

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/honda-0w20-engine-oil-application-chart.153630/



5W-20 acceptable. Moving forward, is there any significant advantage of one over the other?

Following the lubrication tenet; "As thin as possible, as thick as necessary", it's usually best to run the lightest oil recommended as that oil will still meet all the lubrication requirement of the engine even on the hottest days and during extreme usage.
There are no lubrication advantages to using the 5w30 grade unless the engine is a very high mileage unit and obviously well worn. Then the 5w30 grade may be necessary to maintain minimum hot required oil pressure. If that is the case the engine also likely has high oil consumption where a heavier oil grade is already being used to deal with that.
 
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