safe to use a lighter oil in the winter on my 90?

[mjf6866]

thanks again for all that helped me with my oil question for my challenger. now i got a question for my daily driver...

its a 1990 honda civic dx with the 1.5ltr, 5 speed manual. 121k miles. i got the car at 63k and have been changing oil religiously every 3000 miles with Castrol 10w-30 high milage dino oil. the car sees everything from highways to city traffic to short trips...never had a problem. however after finding this site, i now understand a little better about how the winter can really effect the oil flow at startups so here is my question:

will it be safe to switch to a slightly lighter oil for the cold winter startups that i punish my car with in the mornings? i wasnt sure seeing that the car is almost 20 years old and i dont think 5w or 0w was even really considered by the manufacturer(or was it? i dont know). do they make a 5w hight milage oil? what would you guys recommend.

also, what oil filter would you guys recommend. i've been using a fram filter, but come to find from this site and other places, that i should stay away from them.

thanks as always.

 

[StevieC]

5w and 0w aren't "lighter" oils they just flow better in colder weather.

eg: 5w30 is a 30 weight that flows better in the cold than a 10w30
a 0w30 would flow better than a 5w30 but is still a 30wt oil.

So to answer your question a 5w30 dino would be more than fine in your Honda for the winter. If you want to go to a 0w30 then you are in Synthetic territory then and it will cost you extra.

Quite frankly with that bulletproof engine I wouldn't worry about using anything other than a 5w30 year round.

As for the oil filter, use a K&N, WIX, PureOne, or M1 filter. These are amongst the best off the shelf filters available. (No particular order) Find the cheapest out of these filters and drive happy. Fram is OK, but better filters for the money are available. Like WIX.

to BITOG if you haven't been welcomed already...

Steve

 

[demarpaint]

If the car calls for a 30 grade oil, I would use a 5W30 in the winter, it will help with cold starts. If you have no issues with leaks and would like to run a synthetic oil then give a 0W30 oil a try for even better cold weather starting and protection. If the car doesn't leak or burn oil I wouldn't use a HM oil.

 

[mjf6866]

no leakage, but i do have to add oil maybe once a week, not much though.

 

[StevieC]

Have you thought about doing a piston ring clean up to see if you can make your consumption go down? Products like MMO & AutoRX are good for this and work well. Your mileage would be ideal to do 2 clean & 2 rinse cycles with AutoRX

Also when was the last time you changed your PCV?

 

[JohnBrowning]

Yes a Dino 5W30 will work just fine!In fact with dino oils most 5W30's have better additive packages and base stocks then their 10W30 brother's!GF3/GF4 and SM did wounders for Dino 5W30 oils!

 

[mjf6866]

hmm, i havent even thought about it Stevie. i assume i can find those in any auto store?

also, i've never changed my pcv unless the previous owner has.

should i be running a high milage oil?

 

[StevieC]

Change your PCV first. This could be the source of your oil consumption. If it doesn't stop then proceed to do a MMO/AutoRX additive clean-up.

MMO is available in most US auto parts stores. The AutoRX has to be ordered from their website as it isn't available in a lot of retail places.

The MMO can be used as a fuel additive and oil additive and I would try this first.

Change your oil, and substitue a half a quart of MMO for your oil. You might want to go with a 10w40 when you do this as the MMO will water down the oil a bit.

Good luck

 

[mechtech2]

As mentioned, get the lowest first number you can.

 

[Geonerd]

Yea, running a 0w or 5W won't hurt a thing.

With your history of 3K changes, I doubt your rings are in dire condition. That said, there may well be some carbon and goo that you could do without. If you do decide to clean out the engine, switching to a good Syn will (IMO!) do about the same job as AutoRX and the other additives, although it may take a little longer to achieve the same end result.

Switching to Syn, you could easily go 4~5K right away. After a few changes, as the engine becomes cleaner, increasing OCI to 8~10K is entirely possible.

As stated, buy a well built filter that will withstand the longer OCI intervals.

 

[crazyoildude]

I agree with Stevie C on all accounts

 

[Cxserver]

Im a big honda fan owned 25 or so cars half honda. 88-91 civic originaly called for 10000km oci in the manual. I live in canada and used 5w30 with no ill effects. I had a bunch of engine swapped and driven vary hard at tracks and zero oil related issues.

 

[Nickdfresh]

If you're using HM oils, you should use 5W-30 ALL of the time...

 

[tig1]

Changing oil wts. is old school thinking unless you live in the far north where it hits 10-30 below quite often. Just use 5-30 year round where you live. I use 5-30 in my Fords and they call for 5-20. You know, it's a CAFE thing.

 

[StevieC]

What does 5w20 have to do with Coffee?

 

[Craig in Canada]

OP:

I assume your PA winters are probably about the same as my Toronto-ish winters.

When I had a 1990 Integra, 5W30 was the oil called for in it, and what the dealer used. With the similarity in engines, I'm sure you'd have no issue with 5W30.

If I were running that daily driver, especially if it was parked outside, I would look for a good 0W30 personally, and run synthetic at least in the winter, but a 5W is going to be just fine.

At the time my dealer ran bulk Pennzoil 5W30 dino, as far as I know. I lived in Ottawa for one winter (1994) and when temps got deep into the -20s*C and -30s*C the engine was not so happy at start up.

I switched engine oil to M1 5W30 (which I believe was better back then than it is now - API SJ) and the transmission to Redline MTL a couple of years later and winter became a non-issue. Of course API SM dino oils are all better than they were back in 1994 too (except perhaps for people worried about ZDDP, which you are not)

I would go after your consumption with the PCV change and maybe a round of AutoRX and see if it stops and go from there. If you still have consumption and feel you need something a little on the heavier side to stop it, try GC (German Castrol 0W30). You will probably lose some fuel economy and pep because of the high HTHS, but your consumption might stop and it's still a great cold weather oil.

 

[mjf6866]

thanks guys for all the tips. very much appreciated!

any suggestions on a good oil filter too?

 

[ionbeam22]

I would go with a 0W-30 oil to get maximum cold cranking performance, and possibly toss in 1 pint of MMO.