2007 Honda Fit Oil Recommendation

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1. What kind of vehicle you have:
2007 Honda Fit Sport with 27K miles, manual transmission, bought used a couple weeks ago.

2. What your owner's manual says -- not just viscosity, but certifications (look for acronyms like API SM, ILSAC GF-4, etc.) and change intervals as well:
5w-20 for all temps, API seal. No change interval listed, I have heard that it can take up to 7K miles before the Maintenance Minder says it's time for an oil change.

3. Where you live:
Western Pennsylvania

4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?):
I would say easy because I drive mainly for gas mileage. If a dangerous situation is occurring around me, I will probably drive hard and fast to get out of it (for example, insane people that don't know how to merge), but generally try to press the gas as little as possible to maximize my fuel economy.

5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?)
My daily drive is 50 miles round trip. Starting with 2 miles in my neighborhood, 8 miles on highway, then 15 more miles that are mostly rural/suburban into the city, almost no sitting in traffic stop and go, and mostly in 3rd and 4th gear, but with frequent stops at stop signs, just no real sitting.


6. Whether your car has any known problems:
It does not.

If you have any preferences -- synthetic vs. conventional, store-bought vs. ordered online, how long you'd like to go between oil changes, etc. -- or any other info you think might be important, let us know that as well.

Knowing that this car might not tell me to change the oil for 7K miles, I would prefer a synthetic. I do not care if it has to be mail-ordered. I'm not trying to maximize the time between changes, but I also don't plan on changing earlier than the Maintenance Minder tells me, since I will want to reset it each time, and I won't know if that will screw with other maintenance it plans on telling me.

I was told the oil was changed around 5K miles ago, and have heard that the maintenance minder will sometimes go as high as 7K, maybe more. I have always liked changing conventional oil at 3K, and for my turbo charged car, I changed the synthetic at Subaru's recommended 3750, even though Blackstone told me I could go farther and had more life left. I liked the added security of knowing my oil was good when I put the air pedal to the floor.

I would like this car to last a very long time, that is why I bought a Honda. I joke with my wife that I want to see 400K miles from it. I don't plan on doing any modifications in the near future, and it came with an excellent warranty (lifetime power-train, 7yr 100K bumper-bumper) but that doesn't mean I want to neglect it in any way.

From what I have researched, I guess it is between Mobil 1 5w-20, or one of Amsoil's 5w-20s, the OE or Extended Life. Obviously Mobil 1 would be more convenient, at all of my local stores, it is the least expensive synthetic, but I'd be worried that it would shear to thin to protect in 7K miles. I stopped using M1 in my Subaru and switched to Rotella for that very reason. On the other hand, I used to work in an auto research lab where I only changed the synthetic Mobil 1 15w-50 once a week, on a GM 350 that ran 24/7 at 3500 rpm pulling a dyno load of 1750 ft lbs per axle side. After 4000+ hours, I checked the compression and it was 165 across all cylinders... but I wouldn't expect 15w-50 to get to thin.

Which brings me here! Maybe you guys can help point me in a nice safe direction towards getting the most out of this Fit!

Sorry this got so long, but I wanted to try and cover all bases and throw in some of my own opinion and experience so you know where I'm coming from.

Thanks
 
I am going to assume that honda engine is easy on oil so I assume you could pickup mobil 1 and run it 7k no problem. I think the shearing problem in your subaru wouldn't be present with M1 in the fit. From what I've read you might want to consider a 0w-20 for better colder weather pump-ability if it gets near single digits around you.
 
Even M1 is way more than enough for 7k even with much harder driving. If you can get to Walmart, there's Motorcraft Synthetic Blend 5w20 which can easily make it past 7500 miles for $14 per 5 qt jug. Valvoline MaxLife Synthetic Blend 5w20 could also be had for $13.50 if you're lucky. Just consider the HM additives a bonus. For a dino that can go 7000+ according to UOAs here, get some Formula Shell. $2.59/qt at Target.

Among full synthetics, Quaker State Ultimate Durability 5w20 goes for $19/5qt at Walmart. Supertech Synthetic 5w20 for $17/5qt is an even better value.
 
If it was a CPO car, then the oil should have been changed before you took delivery of it.

On my friend's 09 Fit, the Maintenance Minder goes about 11k before it reaches 15%, and this seems to be common with the 2nd Gens. Not sure if this is the case with the 1st gens. The engine does get very noisy and rattle-y on 5w-20 after a few thousand miles, so lately I've just began ignoring the Maintenance Minder and just having the oil changed every 5k.
 
We run M1 0w-20 in ours. It runs pretty quietly on it, even when following the OLM. It gets changed according to the OLM, so around every 10-12k miles.
 
I would recommend you consider Pennzoil Platinum 5w-20. We use it in our Honda Element; it is a great oil that is readily available at any auto-parts store. Honda engines are known to be easy on oil, so shearing will be a non-concern. 7k will be easy to attain with the PP; in fact run an oil analysis to confirm it.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. The car is some sort of CPO, but we bought it at a Toyota dealership and it came with their dealer specific warranty. The oil was changed, but from the (little) paperwork I found, it looks like they changed the oil and then used it for around 3-5K. When I picked it up, it had 60% oil life left. I checked the oil around 50% and it was still at the full line, so it's safe to assume it didn't use any. I'm going to head to Walmart and change it this weekend, so look for a UOA from me in ~50% oil life left, or 5K miles, whatever feels right to me at the time.
 
This car was designed for very light oil.
Honda's 0W-20 would be a good choice or Toyota's version.
Castrol Edge 0W-20 would also be a good option.
I wouldn't use any other 20wt as they are much heavier at start-up.
 
I have a friend that drives a fit and takes it about 7.5k on M1 0w-20, but he just switched to Amsoil to go longer.

Since your car is newer, I wouldn't worry about an oil filter filtering to capacity in that span, but rather get a good filtration filter like Mobil1, Amsoil etc.

Then, if you are really interested in pushing your oil change interval, send it in for a lab test on your used oil.
 
One of the delivery vehicles I drive is a 2006 Honda Fit, not sure of the difference with a 2007 you are referring to but we use bulk Pennzoil 5/30 (dino) and Pennzoil filters. Oil is changed at about 30% on the maintenance minder, which is about 6500 miles. The vehicle has 250,000+ miles on it, doesn't use any oil and still runs great. Daily miles are between 200 and 300 a day (5 days a week) so the oil gets changed about once a month. If it were my personal vehicle I would probably opt for synthetic but it has done well on regular dino so far.
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
This car was designed for very light oil.
Honda's 0W-20 would be a good choice or Toyota's version.
Castrol Edge 0W-20 would also be a good option.
I wouldn't use any other 20wt as they are much heavier at start-up.


Now that is just silly. The same vehicle and engine when sold in the UK specifies 0W-30 or 10W-40 motor oil. I'm not saying the OP shouldn't use 5W-20 or 0W-20 as specified by Honda USA, but saying that the engine would have a problem with a "heavy" 20wt is not supported by any facts.
 
Originally Posted By: wgtoys
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
This car was designed for very light oil.
Honda's 0W-20 would be a good choice or Toyota's version.
Castrol Edge 0W-20 would also be a good option.
I wouldn't use any other 20wt as they are much heavier at start-up.


Now that is just silly. The same vehicle and engine when sold in the UK specifies 0W-30 or 10W-40 motor oil. I'm not saying the OP shouldn't use 5W-20 or 0W-20 as specified by Honda USA, but saying that the engine would have a problem with a "heavy" 20wt is not supported by any facts.

Depends on the definition of "problem." For some, any loss of mpg even minute is a "problem"
 
I went with Honda's recommended 5w-20, used a Honda filter, and Mobil 1. (It didn't affect my gas mileage from what I could tell. I averaged 35.2 mpg over the last 9K miles, getting about 33/35 around town and 42 on the highway.) The maintenance minder went off at 5,599 miles, so that is when I changed it. Here is the UOA from Blackstone.

fitsu.jpg


I ended up getting a ridiculously unbelievable deal on Valvoline SynPower 5w-20 at Walmart, so every oil change for a long time will be on that oil. The next one will be that with a Bosch filter, I look forward to seeing how it goes.
 
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here is the first of a long string of Valvoline SynPower 5w-20 UOAs.. I used a Mobil 1 filter because it was more convenient at the time. And although the lab report talks of extending my change interval to 8K miles, I have no interest in that. I will continue to change it when the maintenance minder goes off because I wouldn't want to void my lifetime powertrain warranty!

blackstonereport2.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: ruralcarrier
One of the delivery vehicles I drive is a 2006 Honda Fit, not sure of the difference with a 2007 you are referring to but we use bulk Pennzoil 5/30 (dino) and Pennzoil filters. Oil is changed at about 30% on the maintenance minder, which is about 6500 miles. The vehicle has 250,000+ miles on it, doesn't use any oil and still runs great. Daily miles are between 200 and 300 a day (5 days a week) so the oil gets changed about once a month. If it were my personal vehicle I would probably opt for synthetic but it has done well on regular dino so far.


Pennzoil YB 5W20 with a Honda OEM, Purolator Classic or Fram filter when the oil life monitor shows about 30%. The engine will out live the rest of the car.
 
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