Switch conventional to synth, used 2014 Odyssey?.

[BrocLuno]

0W-20 will be a "synthetic" in the USA sense. In Germany, synthetic carries a different connotation. But as long as it meets all the Honda specs a USA oil will be just fine.

We all have our favorites. Mobil 1 is not on my short list, but it's good oil and MANY folks use it w/o issue

I own XOM stock, so I think you should use it and shorten your oil change interval to 1,000 miles

 

[abird4]

If you plan on using the OEM maintenance reminder I would use a full synthetic. In my opinion the reminder pushes the envelope on how far you can stretch the OCI.

As for the VCM on Honda engine they work great. There is some issues with oil fouling the spark plugs on the cylinder's that deactivate. This is caused by someone at the engine assembly plant that can't install piston rings correctly, and line all the end gaps at the same point which allows oil to enter the combustion chamber while the cylinders are in valve pause mode. I have repaired may of these engines and can say once the piston rings are installed correctly there is no longer a issue with plug fouling. With this being said, NOT ALL vehicle are effected, just the ones that where assembled incorrectly. [/quote]

Thanks. I will play it conservatively with type of oil and OCIs. And maybe I need to check plugs periodically. Maybe I should have bought a Sienna!

 

[abird4]

Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
0W-20 will be a "synthetic" in the USA sense. In Germany, synthetic carries a different connotation. But as long as it meets all the Honda specs a USA oil will be just fine.

We all have our favorites. Mobil 1 is not on my short list, but it's good oil and MANY folks use it w/o issue

I own XOM stock, so I think you should use it and shorten your oil change interval to 1,000 miles

I only prefer Mobil 1 bc I researched it many years ago and have used it since then without issue. Most people on this site know more about oil than I ever will. What is better than M1 and why?

 

[4wd]

Stay with your M1 research (so you don't have to do it all over again) ...

 

[abird4]

Originally Posted By: 4WD
Stay with your M1 research (so you don't have to do it all over again) ...


Something to be said for not fixing what ain't broke

 

[Indydriver]

FYI, because our car was in the class action, I followed manufacturer recommendations to the letter. I used Honda Full Synthetic during the warranty period (yes, they make a 0W-20 semi-Syn). I changed it at 5% OLM which generally worked out to 6300 miles. I also had the oil analyzed at each OCI. [This revealed that my VCM shed incredible amounts of metal during breakin-ever see CU over 250!?] I proved to myself that Honda's OLM is accurate. I also proved to myself that Toyota oil wears better than Honda oil.

For your reading pleasure, here is the settlement website. There is a lot of very interesting and high quality lawyering in here by Honda. For starters, the original complaint was "oil consumption". Knowing this to bring in a very large number of vehicles, Honda's attorneys got the complaint narrowed to VCM "engine misfire" and four specific CELs. Brilliant. I'll bet you never heard about this and thought Honda's engineering was beyond reproach, right? They screwed many very good customers in route to this.

http://settlement-claims.com/enginemisfire/

And, LOL, I did buy a Sienna the next year because they don't use cylinder de-activation. They suffer a 15% mileage disadvantage vs Honda and that must eat at their collective craw every day but they've resisted because they know what is really going on.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: Crownedroyal
Originally Posted By: abird4
Wow, I'm going to need to look into this VCM some more. Obviously not going to deactivate it until I learn a whole lot more.

In the meantime my working plan will be Mobil 1, 5k OCI, frequent oil level checks.

Was planning AFE--would EP make a difference? Any other suggestions?


If you plan on using the OEM maintenance reminder I would use a full synthetic. In my opinion the reminder pushes the envelope on how far you can stretch the OCI.

As for the VCM on Honda engine they work great. There is some issues with oil fouling the spark plugs on the cylinder's that deactivate. This is caused by someone at the engine assembly plant that can't install piston rings correctly, and line all the end gaps at the same point which allows oil to enter the combustion chamber while the cylinders are in valve pause mode. I have repaired may of these engines and can say once the piston rings are installed correctly there is no longer a issue with plug fouling. With this being said, NOT ALL vehicle are effected, just the ones that where assembled incorrectly.


I disagree what you are saying makes no sense, assembled wrong results in a recall for the effected engine if what you are saying is true they put them together wrong for years. That's hard to buy.

 

[tig1]

Originally Posted By: abird4
Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
0W-20 will be a "synthetic" in the USA sense. In Germany, synthetic carries a different connotation. But as long as it meets all the Honda specs a USA oil will be just fine.

We all have our favorites. Mobil 1 is not on my short list, but it's good oil and MANY folks use it w/o issue

I own XOM stock, so I think you should use it and shorten your oil change interval to 1,000 miles

I only prefer Mobil 1 bc I researched it many years ago and have used it since then without issue. Most people on this site know more about oil than I ever will. What is better than Mobil 1 and why?


Mobil 1 oils may very well be in the top five oils in the world. How can one say which oil is the very best? You can't, IMO. I have used Mobil 1 for 38 years, and have found their lubricants to be consistently outstanding.

 

[abird4]

Originally Posted By: tig1
Originally Posted By: abird4
Originally Posted By: BrocLuno
0W-20 will be a "synthetic" in the USA sense. In Germany, synthetic carries a different connotation. But as long as it meets all the Honda specs a USA oil will be just fine.

We all have our favorites. Mobil 1 is not on my short list, but it's good oil and MANY folks use it w/o issue

I own XOM stock, so I think you should use it and shorten your oil change interval to 1,000 miles

I only prefer Mobil 1 bc I researched it many years ago and have used it since then without issue. Most people on this site know more about oil than I ever will. What is better than Mobil 1 and why?


Mobil 1 oils may very well be in the top five oils in the world. How can one say which oil is the very best? You can't, IMO. I have used Mobil 1 for 38 years, and have found their lubricants to be consistently outstanding.
Originally Posted By: Indydriver
Yes, I know. My '11 Accord was included in the class action so I have followed it very closely. Mods were made in '11 engines to oil control rings and moly impregnated piston skirts. It has worked so far on our car as it doesn't burn oil at 55,000 miles. There's no question that Honda stonewalled a LOT of loyal customers between understanding they had a design problem and finally settling it. Among other things, they made all their dealers lie to all their customers with the charade that 1 qt/1000 miles of oil consumption is "normal".

OP, don't mean to make you nervous but is their anyway to find out if your vehicle has any history of oil consumption? It's a little odd for owners of these vehicles to give them up after only 24,000 miles.


Carfax indicates that the car was leased, so that doesn't rule out oil consumption, but it does give another reason as to why car was sold after 2.5 yrs with low miles. Anyway, it belongs to me now, so I guess I will find out for myself.

 

[abird4]

Actually Hon
Originally Posted By: jayg
Originally Posted By: abird4
Hey. I have lurked and searched here on occasion for years, and finally have a question I'd like to ask. 4-5 years ago I switched from conventional oil to synthetic in a 2004 Mazda6 wagon with about 90K miles. Within 10K miles I had significant leaking from engine seal(s) which along with some other issues made me decide to sell the car. I didn't know for sure that the switch caused it, but I came across a lot of information suggesting that it was possible.

Today I bought a 2014 Odyssey with 26K miles. Manual calls for 0w20 oil and says that synthetic can be used. I am reading that Honda make both a blend and a full-synthetic in that weight. Carfax shows that oil changes were done at a Ford dealership, every 7500 miles. I'm going to assume that they used conventional or a blend (which I understand is mostly conventional anyway). We plan to have car serviced at a local independent shop. I usually go with a 5k OCI. We plan to keep the car a good long while.

1) I'm a little gun-shy after my experience with the Mazda. What is my risk of leaks or other issues if I switch to full synthetic?
2) Aside from that risk, does it make a difference to go with full synthetic over a good conventional/blend with 5k OCI?
3) I usually pick Mobil 1 synthetic. Any reason to go with anything else?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts re: the above.

Tony


The manual calls for 0w20 and I have never seen a conventional 0w20 so of course synthetic can be used because that is what it is specced for. I would run the cheapest 0w20 I could find and not think twice about it. It only has 26k miles, it's not 100k + of conventional.


Actually Honda does make a 0w20 blend, but all the responses so far make me more comfortable running synthetic. Hope this VCM thing doesn't turn into a disaster. Usually I research my car purchases to death but I was in a bit of a rush, the usual edmunds and car and driver type sources didn't raise concern, consumer reports reliability was OK, and my best luck with any brand has been with Honda.

 

[jayg]

Originally Posted By: abird4


Actually Honda does make a 0w20 blend, but all the responses so far make me more comfortable running synthetic. Hope this VCM thing doesn't turn into a disaster. Usually I research my car purchases to death but I was in a bit of a rush, the usual edmunds and car and driver type sources didn't raise concern, consumer reports reliability was OK, and my best luck with any brand has been with Honda.


What I said was:

"The manual calls for 0w20 and I have never seen a conventional 0w20 so of course synthetic can be used because that is what it is specced for."

You were worried about using synthetic with is what Honda is telling you to do. 26k miles is not decade of running conventional oil. You won't have any problems switching.

So basically, any 0w20 is not going to be a conventional oil. I.e. It's either a synthetic blend or full synthetic.



Bottom line: The cheapest 0w20 you can find will be a good oil and will do just fine in your van.

 

[Nickdfresh]

Originally Posted By: Ethan1
Originally Posted By: ET16
Did your car have a Ford duratec? Those engines leak.


Duratec is a catch-all brand name that Ford uses for passenger car engines. You might be thinking of the 3.0 DOHC Duratec when you think of leaks LOL


It's one specific 3.0L DOHC 24v, so there's only one V6 engine that is Duratec...

 

[Evili]

Originally Posted By: abird4
Originally Posted By: Evili
In my opinion, I'd say your Odyssey is perfect for switching over to Full Synthetic. If you go the Full Synthetic route, you should feel safe extending the OCI to 7.5k, perhaps even 10k. If you insist on a 5k OCI, you could save a few bucks by using a conventional/synthetic blend.

However, if the vehicle is still under warranty, I'd stick to the manufacturer's recommended OCI, which I think is something like 3,750 miles.


It is CPO and will be under powertrain warranty for another 74k miles. The recommended OCI is when the maintenance minder tells you to change it, and I'm pretty sure that would go beyond 7.5k. Our 2005 Odyssey would have another 40% oil life remaining when we changed it every 5k. Do most people run Full Synthetic 7.5k+ miles?


Well, all I can tell you is that the 3,750 mile OCI came from a Honda Maintenance Schedule for your Odyssey I found on the web.

 

[abird4]

Originally Posted By: Evili
Originally Posted By: abird4
Originally Posted By: Evili
In my opinion, I'd say your Odyssey is perfect for switching over to Full Synthetic. If you go the Full Synthetic route, you should feel safe extending the OCI to 7.5k, perhaps even 10k. If you insist on a 5k OCI, you could save a few bucks by using a conventional/synthetic blend.

However, if the vehicle is still under warranty, I'd stick to the manufacturer's recommended OCI, which I think is something like 3,750 miles.


It is CPO and will be under powertrain warranty for another 74k miles. The recommended OCI is when the maintenance minder tells you to change it, and I'm pretty sure that would go beyond 7.5k. Our 2005 Odyssey would have another 40% oil life remaining when we changed it every 5k. Do most people run Full Synthetic 7.5k+ miles?


Well, all I can tell you is that the 3,750 mile OCI came from a Honda Maintenance Schedule for your Odyssey I found on the web.


Huh. This is what I was going by:

http://owners.honda.com/service-maintenance/minder?year=2014&model=Odyssey

If you have the other link handy I'd like to take a look at it. Thanks.

 

[Ethan1]

Originally Posted By: Nickdfresh
Originally Posted By: Ethan1
Originally Posted By: ET16
Did your car have a Ford duratec? Those engines leak.


Duratec is a catch-all brand name that Ford uses for passenger car engines. You might be thinking of the 3.0 DOHC Duratec when you think of leaks LOL


It's one specific 3.0L DOHC 24v, so there's only one V6 engine that is Duratec...


I was incorrectly thinking that the 3.0 was not available in the 2004 Mazda6

 

[Balrog006]

Originally Posted By: Evili
Originally Posted By: abird4
Originally Posted By: Evili
In my opinion, I'd say your Odyssey is perfect for switching over to Full Synthetic. If you go the Full Synthetic route, you should feel safe extending the OCI to 7.5k, perhaps even 10k. If you insist on a 5k OCI, you could save a few bucks by using a conventional/synthetic blend.

However, if the vehicle is still under warranty, I'd stick to the manufacturer's recommended OCI, which I think is something like 3,750 miles.


It is CPO and will be under powertrain warranty for another 74k miles. The recommended OCI is when the maintenance minder tells you to change it, and I'm pretty sure that would go beyond 7.5k. Our 2005 Odyssey would have another 40% oil life remaining when we changed it every 5k. Do most people run Full Synthetic 7.5k+ miles?


Well, all I can tell you is that the 3,750 mile OCI came from a Honda Maintenance Schedule for your Odyssey I found on the web.


Was it the Severe schedule perhaps? Roof rack, towing, etc? Honda is very forgiving on what they rate as normal vs. severe but they do have some quirks and not all of their vehicles will have a Severe schedule in the manual.

My 08 CRV does not quote any interval (normal or Severe) in the manual, just to follow the MM and change whatever it tells you. Generally works out to ~10k mile OCI for me. I've done many a used oil analysis and an very comfortable with the OCI, but it is the 4 cyl K24 not the J35.

The MDX is an 06, but it's pre MM and VCM, but my used oil analysis show the manual's normal schedule of 7500m is a bit long, so we go with 5k and don't worry about it.

 

[Crownedroyal]

Originally Posted By: Trav
Originally Posted By: Crownedroyal
Originally Posted By: abird4
Wow, I'm going to need to look into this VCM some more. Obviously not going to deactivate it until I learn a whole lot more.

In the meantime my working plan will be Mobil 1, 5k OCI, frequent oil level checks.

Was planning AFE--would EP make a difference? Any other suggestions?


If you plan on using the OEM maintenance reminder I would use a full synthetic. In my opinion the reminder pushes the envelope on how far you can stretch the OCI.

As for the VCM on Honda engine they work great. There is some issues with oil fouling the spark plugs on the cylinder's that deactivate. This is caused by someone at the engine assembly plant that can't install piston rings correctly, and line all the end gaps at the same point which allows oil to enter the combustion chamber while the cylinders are in valve pause mode. I have repaired may of these engines and can say once the piston rings are installed correctly there is no longer a issue with plug fouling. With this being said, NOT ALL vehicle are effected, just the ones that where assembled incorrectly.


I disagree what you are saying makes no sense, assembled wrong results in a recall for the effected engine if what you are saying is true they put them together wrong for years. That's hard to buy.


Yes, they put them together wrong for years... and still do to this day.

 

[crazyoildude]

Are you talking they put together the ford or the Honda engines together wrong for years?