Pennzoil Platinum started leaking

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Ok I would just like to get some feedback from the community. My 2005 Honda Odyssey with 125,000 miles had been on an OCI dictated by the maintenance minder all its life usually 8,000 miles and mostly on valvoline conventional at the Valvoline instant oil change place down the road. Now after hearing horror stories of sludge and other issues I switched to Pennzoil Platinum and immediately loved it. Indeed quieter and it felt smoother. Also when I look down the fill hole it's cleaner than before and the slight stains on the dipstick cleaned off. Not to mention now when I pull the dipstick there is a bit of solid black stuff at the very bottom that wipes off easy. All this to say it did a great job of cleanup. Now the other day about 500 miles into my second OCI with it I notice small leaks on the floor where I never had a leak before. I took it to my mechanic and he said it looks to be coming from the Vtech Selonoid and he says it's rather common in older Odyssey vans. So it looks like switching to synthetics did help clean up things but uncovered an area that may have been covered up with gunk holding back a leak. With that said I'm now afraid to use it again or even M1 HM. Will Maxlife help this small leak or should I be worried about new leaks from other places by using synthetic oil going forward? Any recommendations? Thoughts? Should I have left well enough alone?
 
Originally Posted By: Jake777
Ok I would just like to get some feedback from the community. My 2005 Honda Odyssey with 125,000 miles had been on an OCI dictated by the maintenance minder all its life usually 8,000 miles and mostly on valvoline conventional at the Valvoline instant oil change place down the road. Now after hearing horror stories of sludge and other issues I switched to Pennzoil Platinum and immediately loved it. Indeed quieter and it felt smoother. Also when I look down the fill hole it's cleaner than before and the slight stains on the dipstick cleaned off. Not to mention now when I pull the dipstick there is a bit of solid black stuff at the very bottom that wipes off easy. All this to say it did a great job of cleanup. Now the other day about 500 miles into my second OCI with it I notice small leaks on the floor where I never had a leak before. I took it to my mechanic and he said it looks to be coming from the Vtech Selonoid and he says it's rather common in older Odyssey vans. So it looks like switching to synthetics did help clean up things but uncovered an area that may have been covered up with gunk holding back a leak. With that said I'm now afraid to use it again or even M1 HM. Will Maxlife help this small leak or should I be worried about new leaks from other places by using synthetic oil going forward? Any recommendations? Thoughts? Should I have left well enough alone?

It cleaned to well in your case. Just go back to conventional and see if it slows. Either way you got some extra cleaning. Today's conventionals are likely better than some of yesterday's synthetics. That our fix the leak. I had the same thing on my old Nissan. I just kept with Platinum and it eventually stopped and never dripped again, though it was so slow that i only lost about 10oz of oil over 7k miles.
 
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Not a news flash. Just say no to synthetics in older HM vehicles that have been on dino their whole life. Try Maxlife blend, it should help.
 
There is no way to know whether this very same leak may have showed up, at the same time, with your old conventional regimen.

If it were me, I would fix the problem where the leak appeared, and continue with the synthetic oil. But that is just me.
 
Jake if you're near Sarasota I have some defy,rotella t5 and trop artic you can have. I am moving and have zero extra room. It's all under a year old and i have about 10qts.
 
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Originally Posted By: zach1900
Thanks to bitog everybody thinks they have a crankcase full of black tar😜
And they're OCD about it.
 
Originally Posted By: zach1900
Jake if you're near Sarasota I have some defy,rotella t5 and trop artic you can have. I am moving and have zero extra room. It's all under a year old and i have about 10qts.


Zach. I just sent you a PM. I am near Sarasota. Thanks.
 
Does your EX-L have the VCM engine? If so, 8K miles OCIs with dino oil are quite a stretch, despite what the MM says. These engines (especially gen 1) are brutal on oil.
 
EXL has iVTEC and uses a spool valve on the rear head (drivers side). When long OCI are done on these engines these tend to fail around this mileage, 8K is 4K can be too long with this engine even on synthetic.
You positively 100% have a deposit issue in this engine running conventional oil, how severe it is depends on how much time it spent in eco mode.

The worst thing you can do is leave it alone, it can eventually cover the pick up and starve the engine or the spool valve can get filled with junk and prevent 6 cyl operation leaving you with a CEL and an engine trying to run on 3 cyl.
This will tear the $600 electric hydro rear mount (not inc labor) up quickly and light up the dash like a Christmas tree.

The OLM on this engine is absolutely useless, the geniuses at Honda didn't take into account the intense heat generated by the front cylinders during eco mode, it overheats and tears the oil up.
The first thing to clog is the tiny undersized PCV valve and passages under the valve cover then it progresses quickly from there. Crankcase pressure increases and leaks occur, they are not usually permanent if you relieve the pressure.
The rear main seal area of the crank probably has a lot of varnish on it, as it cleans it will leak, it will also subside eventually.

You need to assess the deposit situation first before taking any steps to correct it, don't mess around with HM oils, it does not address this situation, the seals don't need a seal sweller.
Start by removing the front valve cover (looking down the hole wont tell you much), clean the passages under the cover and change the PCV valve. Depending on what you find will dictate the next steps.

I have found a few different ways to address the problem once its severity has been identified, there is a way to clean the pan, pick up and passages without tearing too much apart using this tool and a solvent.
The procedure is my own and must be followed to prevent damage but it works well and is safe. You must clean the front valve cover off the engine to insure good flow to the PCV.

flush tool
 
Originally Posted By: zach1900
Thanks to bitog everybody thinks they have a crankcase full of black tar😜


+1. But that doesn't mean that the switch over to syn is a bad move. Ive transitioned vehicles as high as 200k miles over to syn. Other than a seal here or there, no issues or worries.

The fact that cars can start to leak when changed to syn is as well known as anything regarding syn oils can be. It is NOT new. To find a leak and fix it on a vehicle worth keeping is best practice.

And cars that start and stay on conventional also develop leaks!!
 
Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
...there is also a Pennzoil Platinum HM as well, either may help.


This is what I'd try. Wal-Mart has it on sale for $4.50/qt.
 
I have a high mileage mini van that leaks in a big way. It started just after I switched to synthetic. I wish I had pulled the synthetic oil out and replaced it with conventional when I noticed the first sign of a leak. Changing back to conventional after a few thousand miles did nothing to slow the leaks. It sits in my driveway now with a pan under it.
 
Every time someone mentions that syn caused an oil leak, you get two camps-the first that says yup that is why you don't use syn in a hm vehicle that hasn't had syn before, and the other is those who say you should be replacing the leaky seals anyways.

I'm in the former, and had the same experience switching to syn on my e36 m3. I noticed massive oil leaks within a few hundred miles of switching (FYI under the valve cover during gasket replacement at the same time it was clean so it wasn't a sludge monster). I replaced nearly every seal that could easily be replaced, and still it dripped. On my vehicles now, unless the car had syn before, I'm sticking to good conventional in hm variety. Live and learn.
 
The real question is why did you put synthetic in a 10 year old car with 125K miles that has had nothing but conventional oil in it its entire life?
 
Originally Posted By: Jake777
I took it to my mechanic and he said it looks to be coming from the Vtech Solenoid


Is that the only leak ?
Is the Vtech solenoid accessible ?
Does it have a little gasket you can change ?
 
If its coming from the spool valve area then its probably the oil pressure sending unit that is mounted on it, the solenoid o ring or the gasket.
Easy to see and check. Its an easy fix, the pressure switch and solenoid o ring can be removed without removing the spool.

I wish people would get over this HM oil kick. It doesn't need it, the seal materials in this engine do not respond to esters which are what HM use to swell seals. The o rings are FKM and the rear seal is FFKM material, both are impervious to this sort of swell additive.
 
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