is it possible that somewhere in the first 5K miles someone inadvertently reset the OLM?...good luck with your choice
Bill
Bill
Oil Life Monitor ??
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Patman
Staff member
Not for your wallet
Depends on whether or not you trust Honda. People experience this weird disconnect where the have trust in a brand in terms of perceived dependability but when it comes to the brands said OLM they think the brand is trying to screw them over into buying another car early. So which is it? Do you trust them or not? That's what you have to figure out.
On an aside these OLMs are rarely a mile-for-mile counter.
My 2020 Equinox 1.5T was gone down to 20% on the OLM comes out to a little over 5000 to a little over 6000 miles. I did uoa on Pennzoil, RP and Valvoline ep all 0w20. BS came back excellent and recommended I should try 8000 miles. When I put Mobil 1ep in next I’ll go to 10% and send it in for analysis.
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The Honda OLM has been proven to work perfectly. Every study has shown that extended OCIs work. There are NO studies supporting short OCIs for synthetic oil. No idea why dinosaurs would give you wrong advice telling you to change it at the same interval used 50 years ago!
Do those studies look at recent Honda DI turbo engines?
50 years ago the standard was 3 months or 3k miles. That's a lot different than 12k miles. Those were larger displacement engines not working nearly as hard as modern small displacement DI turbo engines. Yeah, oil today is better, but now you have thin oil, fuel dilution and carbon concerns that warrant more frequent changes than envisioned.
Current manufacturer recommendations aren't solely based on what is best for the engine. EPA influences the recommendations, and weights them towards fewer ones due to environmental concerns. For them, 100k miles before an engine wears out is sufficient. BITOG members here are the outliers wanting a 300k+ mile vehicle
Anecdotal evidence is admittedly worthless, but all the cases I've seen with one million mile vehicles have had an owner that changed the oil at intervals much shorter than manufacturer recommendations.
For a DI turbo Honda, 5k miles is a good starting point. I wouldn't go much over without sampling showing it was warranted. Of course, if you only want a 100k mile engine, change per the OLM and don't worry about it.
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Me 5000 miles a year at 80. I'm down to probably one OCI a year. When I get back from Texas the end of this month I'll change it. While the weather is still nice.
Triple_Se7en
$50 Site Donor 2024
This isn't about price-point. 1.5T is a fuel diluter turbo.
Patman
Staff member
But yet if someone has one of these and they are not doing any short trips, they are not going to have a problem with fuel dilution and they can easily go more than 5k. Honda has SO MANY vehicles out there with the 1.5T and I would be willing to bet that a very large percentage of owners follow the oil life monitor and go beyond 5k. But yet we aren’t hearing about high numbers of engine failures with these engines at all. There is a lot of fear mongering here without any evidence to support it. Honda knows what they are doing.
I would disagree.... Especially if the car was for my daughter (anyone's daughter/kid starting out honestly) I would say 5k OCI's is a much more cost effective insurance, than the plethora of oil issues that follow many turbo engines owned by average owners. I would never own another used turbo as a DD, its just a hassle of maintenance that I'm not interested in catching up on and resolving issues from the past, for DD activities.
I'll say it like this.. I would never buy a used TURBO engine, unless it was owned by an well informed BITOG member! I have not witnessed even one average car owner that understands the importance of oil maintenance in a turbo engine.
Still waiting for all those 1.5T with thrown rod bearings. <Sarcasm>
The flip side to this is that oils have become much better as well in that time, especially base oil combinations, which can withstand the extra hurt these newer motors are putting on them. I’ve never owned a vehicle with an OLM, however, they seem like the way to go after reading about them on here and elsewhere. Taking into account much more than just miles which makes life easier. Very hard to believe companies with excellent reputations such as Honda and Toyota would butcher their OLM algorithms and tarnish said reputations…
The “oil is cheap, engines aren’t” mantra of short-changing goes out the window with these short changes though.
Like Patman said above, there are plenty of these small displacement turbo motors out there doing just fine being driven by people who care less to know about oil.
I thi
none of them been around for 10 or more years, and the very few that have high milage are mostly highway driving, so fuel dilution is not relevant in those cars. Lets see when city driven cars get to 150-200k miles
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imho the OLM is more accurate than what it may look or seem to be. If we were talking about a fleet, we'd maintain systematically and using science. But since this is personal/pleasure, I would say if it makes the owner feel better, replace the engine oil.
Again wife's GM, tends to say replace oil at 3,800 or so. She is 110% city driving.
There was one stretch where it was all highway, and it was in the 7k's before it said to replace. Subjectively, that showed me there is something to the olm.
Again wife's GM, tends to say replace oil at 3,800 or so. She is 110% city driving.
There was one stretch where it was all highway, and it was in the 7k's before it said to replace. Subjectively, that showed me there is something to the olm.
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then we switch the topic to brake fluid. fluid is cheap, components expensive. The entire thread will say it's not necessary to replace brake fluid every 2 years. I haven't done it in 30 so why start now. This tells me the responses are a "feeling," or "hunch."
This is cool and goes along with what I have read on them. To manually keep track of what these do would be quite the task for the average owner.
After looking things over and evaluating all the responses this is my plan.
I will have the oil changed no later than 6K miles. She wants to get 250,000 miles out of the car. That engine is known for fuel dilution.
If she were one to just trade every few years I would tell her otherwise. The last car that she had she bought new and got rid of it almost 10 years old when the torque converter went out among other issues. So she sees cars pretty much to their grave. Still using an 07 SantaFe with about 200K on it as a second car. That one gets 5K oil changes and runs remarkably well.
BTW mostly highway driving.
Now about those brake fluid changes....
I will have the oil changed no later than 6K miles. She wants to get 250,000 miles out of the car. That engine is known for fuel dilution.
If she were one to just trade every few years I would tell her otherwise. The last car that she had she bought new and got rid of it almost 10 years old when the torque converter went out among other issues. So she sees cars pretty much to their grave. Still using an 07 SantaFe with about 200K on it as a second car. That one gets 5K oil changes and runs remarkably well.
BTW mostly highway driving.
Now about those brake fluid changes....
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But says who? We are talking about long term reliability, these cars are designed to be throw away cars unless people like us do what it takes to make them more reliable or as reliable as they can be.
Meaning who says, rather who KNOWS that all of these small displacement engines are doing just fine?
That's my point, most are not even aware they have an issue. Others consider 100k as done, others know they have issues but they do not understand the root cause or that it is an oil issue, and yet others simply do not care as its a throw away vehicle.
Whereas, again within the criteria I mentioned above, I have yet to actually witness any type of long term reliability from an average owner that did not understand the oil needs. Yes, I would agree that you have a few of these that will run forever on any oil, but look at what they are. Engines like the MZR, GM 2.5, certain FORD 4cyl, many HONDA 4cyl of the early 2000's and prior and a few more. But notice NONE of them are a modern DD DI Turbo... I would definitely still subscribe to the belief that you just simply do not get the forgiving nature of care free reliability with a modern DD DI turbo 4cyl, unless you make it do so. Could this change? Absolutely as technology continues to be refined.
edit: added DI, resulting in DD DI (daily driven, direct injected)
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