Recommend an oil for my civic

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I have a 1993 Honda civic hatchback with 495,000 kms on it. Out of curiosity I would like to see how far it can go. I bought this new, back in '93 and it has been a great car without any issues except regular maintenance - timing belts, etc.

Historically, I would usually use regular Quaker State dino 5-30 oil and a Canadian Tire filter, but would buy whatever was on sale really. Typical timings between changes would be 5000 kms. I drive about 20 mins on a highway to work and live in the Canadian prairies (often -40 days in the winter); incidently, I never plug in the block heater during the winter either. Sometimes during the winter I have used synthetic as a treat for the engine and I believe it really helps during the cold, and would switch back to dino for the summers. I had a bit of an oil leak recently but fixed with a replaced oil sending unit.

Anyway, what oil should I be using to get max life - or just keep doing what I have been doing with random products?

Thanks all!
 
Over 300,000 miles?! Niiice. I say pick a nice synthetic blend and catch the oil change deals at your local auto parts store and just call it a day.

Its better then regular conventional yet still not as expensive as the supposed "full" synthetic. haha.
 
Years ago I bought some dry ice (-40C) and put some regular oil and some Mobil-1 in a pan. The regular oil clouded up and didn't flow (I think it had wax crystals grow in it). The Mobil-1 stayed clear and still poured.
If you have some of your 5W-30 around you could repeat what I did, or just leave a bottle out in the -40 winter to see how cloudy and thick it gets. Maybe it's formulated differently there than it is in Southern California.
 
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to get the maximum out of your car i would run a good cleaning high mileage syn like mobil 1 high mileage

but it seems like you also have a good thing going so it probably wouldnt hurt to keep doing what your doing
 
As already mentioned I'd continue with what you've been doing. You might want to try a run with Lubro Moly Oil saver to see if you can stop the leak, then continue as you've been doing.
 
You've got nearly 500,000 KM...and you fixed the one leak, so it's not leaking, runs great...and you're asking us for advice?

Seems to me that your choice of maintenance practice has worked out far better than average...though, with those prairie winters (I remember living in Winnipeg well...), I would recommend synthetic in the winter for cold start.

Well done.
 
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Thanks for proving what I've said here for almost 9 years works. I'd keep with what got your vehicle going for almost 500,000 KM/300,000 miles and see how far she will go.

My 1986 Jetta was running great when it died last year @ 394,000 miles. I wanted to see it hit 1/2 million but sadly it did not. All it had seen was conventional oils every 4-6k miles even in winter. Today's oils are Superior when compared to yesterday's that got your engine to get here so no worries about today's conventional oils. Heck, before 5w-30 oil came out I used 10w-30 well below zero. Like you no plug ins here.

Take care, Bill
 
Just keep going....you're doing exactly what you should, as you have more mileage on your car than most do!
 
Thanks for the responses and welcomings to the site. I came across this site a few days ago while doing a search on a type of product to use to seal a light leak. The oil sending unit really was the culprit and now that is replaced, the oil pan is nice and clean - the leak is repaired. Based on the forum knowledge from the members, I figured this would be a good source to determine if I should go with a specific type of oil to keep this car going. I was considering buying a new car, but really this car is doing everything I need - minus some of the new safety features.

I guess, I will continue to buy the cheap Quaker state oil when it comes on sale and put in synthetics of some sort for the winter months.
Thanks everyone.
 
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