The most mileage on 5w-20

[LarryL]

I'd like to hear from those that have some miles on new vehicles (original owners) that have only seen 5w-20 oil.

The arguments about good/bad can go on forever, but it would be interesting to here some facts, good or bad. The subject came up after talking to someone that drives an Odyssey between San Diego and San Francisco two to three times a month. He got into excessive oil loss (no leaks) and swithched from 5w-20 dyno to a polyol ester 5w-20 for an improvement then to a polyol ester 10w-40 and now burns less than half a quart every 5k miles. He said that he will never go back to an oil that burns off like the 5w-20 dyno did, 1 to 2 quarts every 5k miles. Maybe his situation is not average but I think he imporved things by switching.

 

[Johnny]

I would say the Honda should be checked. I drive a Ford Taurus that now has 74,000 miles on it. I use Pennzoil 5W20 and change it every 5,000 miles and have absolutely no oil consumption.

 

[ruking77]

I have 6800 miles on 5w20 Honda oem factory fill oil (conventional oil made for Honda by EM). NO oil use or addition's. I will change oil to Mobil One 0w20 (synthetic) at the Honda's recommendation at 10,000 miles normal. This Civic automatic is used primarily for 50 mile daily R/T commute, mostly freeway. I have been using Mobil One in other vehicles for 694,000 miles (on various cars) and OCI's of 15,000 miles to 25,000 miles.(5w30 and 5w40 respectively)

[ March 06, 2005, 09:45 PM: Message edited by: ruking77 ]

 

[Triple_Se7en]

I'll bet the max (two cents) the oil-usin' Honda on 5W-20 going from San Fran to San Diego averages at least 80 MPH in the passing lane & the Ford moves about more sensibly. I've personally found working an engine too hard with that-thin of oil in usually constant warm-hot weather regions makes the liquid on your dipstick go bye-bye faster.... lol

[ March 06, 2005, 10:07 PM: Message edited by: Triple_Se7en ]

 

[ruking77]

That would be my guess also. There are massive stretchs of that leg, where 90-100 mph is pretty common. Of course that would tend to use oil.

 

[AHC]

I don't have a lot of miles. Only about 22,000 on a 2001 F150 5.4L V8. I'm not replying to this thread because of the amount but rather how they were obtained. Most of my miles are short trips, towing, 4x4ing, extended high speed operation. I work my 5.4L hard. I don’t hold back. I’ll hook up a 6,000 pound trailer and stomp on it up the cascade passes.

Anyway, I’ve only used the original group IV/V Amsoil 5W-20 or Mobil 1 0W-20. I’ve posted a few UOA’s. Rig seems to be holding up. Motor feels strong. Time will tell.

No noticeable oil usage on full syn. I did however see some use (~1/2qt in 2000 mi) with the factory installed 5W-20. Attributed some of that at the time to a new motor

[ March 07, 2005, 01:14 AM: Message edited by: AHC ]

 

[Triple_Se7en]

No noticable oil usage on full syn. I did however see some use (~1/2qt in 2000 mi) with the factory installed 5W-20

================================================

I agree that synthetics are the way to go if you're demanding alot from the vehicle in warm/hot weather found in a vast majority of California. Personally, I would not use 5-20 there or any geographical location where snow does not accumulate periodically during winter months.

 

[tenderloin]

10w-40 and now burns less than half a quart every 5k miles

He has problems not related to the oil. Even 1/2 qt used in 5,000 miles on a modern engine is unacceptable...especially with a 10W-40.

Don't blame it on the oil...

High speed driving? LOL What's he turning even at 90 mph on that Honda, 3,000 rpm? LOL Yeah High speed. Come on guys. Get real. You are letting your built in anti 20W prejudice come through way too easily

Unreal

 

[ruking77]

The thing that goes unsaid is not 3000 rpms at whatever speed but how it is wound up to the speed. If he does a lot of redlining or high rev no load routines, it almost doesnt matter what oil is used.

I really don't think it is the oils "fault". For me if the oem calls for 5w20 I would tend to use that.

Conversely highway miles are usually the best or cleanest miles you can put on a vehicle.

[ March 07, 2005, 01:46 AM: Message edited by: ruking77 ]

 

[JohnnyO]

We bought our '03 Taurus wagon used with 16,000 miles. I can't say what was used in it before but I've used Mobil 1 0w-20 along with one change of Motorcraft 5w-20 to compare UOA's (both were great), at almost 40,000 now it runs fine and uses no oil.
Right now it has Mobil 1 5w-30 simply because I bought it for my truck but traded it in before I could use it. Given that a 5 qt jug of M1 5w-30 at Wally-World is about $5 cheaper than five 1 qt bottles of 0w-20, I may just keep using that.

 

[tenderloin]

IMO the 5W-30 will be perfect. Hard to beat those WalMart jugs for pricing...

 

[Jay]

I never go less than 7,000 mile OCIs in my Acura RSX with 20-weight. The most I've ever gone is 9,000 miles on M1 0w-20.

I think your friends oil consumption will lessen as his miles increase. Some Honda engines take a long time to break-in. 10w-40 is not a good solution as he'll suffer much poorer fuel mileage with that grade.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

High speed driving? LOL What's he turning even at 90 mph on that Honda, 3,000 rpm? LOL Yeah High speed. Come on guys. Get real. You are letting your built in anti 20W prejudice come through way too easily Unreal

also

The thing that goes unsaid is not 3000 rpms at whatever speed but how it is wound up to the speed. If he does a lot of redlining or high rev no load routines, it almost doesnt matter what oil is used.
Conversely highway miles are usually the best or cleanest miles you can put on a vehicle.


Ever wonder why racing oil gets made? Both of you also didn't include motor & climate heat into this equation. Heat & stress has no factor in this??... It almost doesnt matter what oil is used??.... you're kidding right??

 

[tenderloin]

You are kidding right??

Ever wonder why racing oil gets made? Both of you also didn't include motor & climate heat into this equation. Heat & stress has no factor in this??... It almost doesnt matter what oil is used??....

San Diego to San Francisco in a Honda on the freeways???..Terribly taxing... LOL

Come on. Hot outside temps only a few months and even with that...so what? A normal car eats that alive. No excuses allowed here.

 

[1999nick]

How about the straight 20w that we used to use back in the early to mid-50's? In my 1954 Ford V-8, I used 20w for very long OCI's when I was going to college and then in the Army. By 1959, I had 140,000 miles on this car and it still ran very cleanly. In those days it was usual to go to a straight 30w oil when your engine began to use oil, and mine never did.

I know that the engines in that era did not rev as high as they do now, but I was 18 to 23 years old when I had that car and it was subjected to many, many episodes of revving in low and second gear until it would not rev any higher. It never complained in 5 years or 140,000 miles. The valves, which had mechanical lifters, never required an adjustment to stay quiet. My OCI's were probably every 3 or 4 months or 8-to 10,000 miles. All [95%] highway miles.

If the 0- and 5w-20 oils now are as good as the straight 20's were back then, they should be just fine in most applications. What say you?

 

[STSinNYC]

Our 02 Accord V6 has been running on 5W-20 oil all along, now at 51,000 miles, no oil consumption.

We have six Hondas across our extended family, including an Odyssey. The amount of oil that LarryL was told that Odyssey is burning is unusually high, that engine needs to be checked.

 

[Noladown]

I work at a Valvoline Instant Oil Change, and I have noticed that almost every car that uses 5w20 consumes oil! It doesn't matter if it is Ford, Honda, and now Chrysler. I see an avaerage of 50 cars per day... not all require 5w20, but those that I see that do are at least 1 quart low on a 3k OCI. It doesn't seem to matter if if they use semi-synthetic or conventional... the results are the same.
Corey

 

[LarryL]

Well, back to that oil burning Odyssey. The owner was told by the dealer that his oil consumption is well within the normal range per Honda. He did say the the oil consumption is going down as the miles get added on. He did say that he drive with the flow on 5 which is often 80 to 100 mph for long stretches. I know that for sure because I make the trip several times a year myself. If you drive 75 mph many of the big truck will be passing you, too.

I'm just curious about the engine life using 5w-20 but it appears that changing the oil on a regular basis has more effect on wear than the viscosity.

 

[Cicero]

Only 12,000 on my Honda V6, still pretty new. Not one drop needed so far. Factory fill, 2 x GTX and now M1 5W20. Southern New Mexico highways, 600 miles a week plus 100 or so in town.

 

[jthorner]

1/2 quart consumption per 5,000 miles is not at all unusual on modern engines.

People sometime forget that a thin film of oil must be maintained on the cylinder walls at all times, and that during the combustion stroke that film is directly exposed to the flames of combustion. A little bit gets burned with every power stroke at the minimum. Also for the valve stems to be lubricated a small amount of oil is exposed to combustion as well.

No internal combustion engines consumes zero oil. Some consume so little that we do not notice it, but they all use some.

Minor variations in cylinder wall finish, ring clearances and the like will make different example engines of a given design use more or less oil, but they all use some.

1/2 quart use per 5,000 miles running a thin dino oil on I-5 is not ipso facto a sign of engine problems.

John