quote:
Originally posted by Ugly3:
1911 - Well, I don’t know, I wasn’t in on the decision making process. There are a few things I do know.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s millions of engines were run on 20 weight oil. Those engines were “loose” by today’s standards, the 20 weight oil was “poor” by today’s standards, the cooling systems were poor by today’s standards, and the crankcase ventilation was “poor” at best. Still, the engines ran.
Mobil did a study in the early 70’s to determine the ideal motor oil viscosity. When Mobil 1 was introduced it was a 5w20 viscosity. It would not sell because it was viewed as being too thin so they reformulated to a thin 30 weight and sold 5w30 which became 5w20 after a short term of use. Bingo, marketing success and performance success.
Now, on to Honda specifically. Honda is not even close to EPA problems with CAFÉ, they are beating the CAFÉ standards in all portions of their fleet. I conclude from this that Honda does not have a “need” to get the small MPG benefit of going to 5w20 motor oils.
I repeat, I don’t “know” why Honda changed the oil recommendation to 5w20 but I will share my conjecture.
Honda knows the vast majority of their fleet will operate just fine on 5w20 motor oil that meets particular specs. There are some exceptions and they do not recommend 5w20 in those applications. Honda wants to be seen by the American public as an environmentally friendly company and saw the opportunity to get on the 5w20 bandwagon early and get whatever marketing advantage they could from the change.
On the other side of the coin, I can not imagine that Honda (or any other company) would recommend an inferior oil in order to get some miniscule MPG benefit at the expense of engine performance and durability. I realize that car company executives are not necessarily the brightest lights on the planet but there ain’t anyone that stupid.
In conclusion: I was there in the 50’s and 60’s when multi-vis oils were introduced. I saw the “experts” proclaim that this engineered oil was crap and if you use it your engine will blow up. I also saw the development of excellent multi-vis oils and watched the “experts” get drug “kicking and screaming” into the world of milti-vis oils. The road to progress is not a straight line to perfection (shades of 10w40), the technical people will continue to develop better oils and better engines, there will be bumps in the road but progress will be made.