- Joined
- Feb 15, 2023
- Messages
- 10
The last time I was regularly changing my own oil, I owned 1998 and 2003 Hondas. I then moved from the US to Australia, bought 2012 and 2016 Hondas, and no longer had a garage, so I've had the oil changed by my mechanic. Now I have a garage again and it's time for some oil changes, so I pulled out my owner's manuals and found something surprising: my recollection is that my older Hondas recommended one oil weight for cold conditions, and one for warmer ones. My new ones recommend from 1 to 4 possible weights across three different temperature ranges. For example, this is from my 2012 Honda Jazz (Fit) manual:
-30 to +40C: 0W-30, 0W-40, 5W-30, 5W-40
-20 to +40C: 10W-30, 10W-40
-15 to +40C: 15W-40
The manual itself gives no indication of how I would choose between these, other than the operating temperature conditions. Needless to say, where I live in Australia the lowest winter temperature might be 0C on a couple of days, which suggests that I could choose any of these 7 weights of oil! My mechanic used 5W-30 at the last change. The car has 166k kms on it, I've only owned it for 2 years and have no prior service records. So: what else should I take into consideration here, when choosing an oil weight?
-30 to +40C: 0W-30, 0W-40, 5W-30, 5W-40
-20 to +40C: 10W-30, 10W-40
-15 to +40C: 15W-40
The manual itself gives no indication of how I would choose between these, other than the operating temperature conditions. Needless to say, where I live in Australia the lowest winter temperature might be 0C on a couple of days, which suggests that I could choose any of these 7 weights of oil! My mechanic used 5W-30 at the last change. The car has 166k kms on it, I've only owned it for 2 years and have no prior service records. So: what else should I take into consideration here, when choosing an oil weight?