2010 Honda CR-V Wrong Oil? 5W-20 instead of 0W-20

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I live in Pittsburgh and my daughter goes to college in Atlanta with her 2010 Honda CR-V AWD. As she'll soon graduate and stay there, the car probably will not be back here again. Today was her first "non-daddy" visit to a car dealer (Honda) for a recall. So I told her to have them change the oil while she was in there, even though the oil was "just" changed in July. I never thought to give her more detailed instructions and she is still too young and naive to even know that oil comes in different specifications.

I see on the receipt that they gave her (she emailed) that they put in 5W-20 oil instead of the 0W-20 oil required by Honda. The Atlanta dealer charged $3.27 per quart for the 5W-20 versus the $1.98 that the Pittsburgh dealer charged for the 0W-20 last July. I have no problem with the $1.29 per quart extra. My point in mentioning the pricing is that I can't imagine the Honda 0W-20 oil is synthetic for that money. That being said, will 5W-20 non-synthetic be any worse than 0W-20 non-synthetic? There are two issues here...one is that a "trusted" manufacturers' dealer (Honda) should automatically use the right stuff. The other issue is that, OK, if the dealer DID put the wrong stuff in, will it cause any harm? Specifically the Honda mileage minder assumes 0W-20. Will relying on that mileage minder now be invalid?

One other thought. Atlanta gets VERY hot in the summer. I can't imagine that this would be a reason to use the wrong oil, but perhaps the dealer rationailizes 5W-20 is better for that climate??
 
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I keep hearing that, yet I checked my prior oil change and the dealer charged $2.37 for 0W-20 per quart. If it were truly synthetic how can and why would they charge only $1.98 or $2.37 per quart? Maybe other late model Honda owners can confirm the cheap 0W-20.
 
For either $3.27 of $1.98/quart you aren't getting synthetic oil, and if you are - don't tell anyone you are. Both of those prices are probably for "from the drum" 5w-20.

And it won't hurt a thing.
 
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OK, so if that's the case, what are other late-model Honda (requiring 0W-20) oil paying? Am I the only one who is getting such good prices from Honda, in both Pittsburgh and Atlanta?
 
No Honda has a 0-20 that is not 100% synthetic made by Conoco. All of this is to make more$$ and who could blame them?? :)American Airlines can tell you how important making a BIG profit.
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Originally Posted By: Brenden
0w20 can only be synthetic, I am sure 5w20 will hold up just fine...
 
I would agree with your profit motive thing except the dealers are selling the oil cheap. Maybe Honda saves on the initial factory fill. Actually Honda dealers COULD sell synthetic as a profit center and make more money. But the two dealers we've used have not even mentioned it.

But my REAL question is still this: will the (approx) 10,000 "mileage minder", that "thinks" the oil is 0w-20 "Made by Conoco not 100% synthetic", make false assumptions of oil quality if, as is my case, the dealer installed dinosaur 5W-20?
 
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The "mileage minder" doesn't care what kind of oil is in the sump. You could fill it with vegetable oil and it wouldn't know the difference.

I really doubt the Honda 0w-20 is synthetic. It must be at least a synthetic blend, but no dealer would sell you synthetic oil for less than $5.00/qt.

Tell your daugher to change the oil at 50% life if it makes you feel better.
 
You gotta love the STealerships, it seems like NONE of them want to follow the manufacturer recommended service.
 
You're lucky they didn't install dealer bulk 10W-30. If that had been installed in that
super tight Honda engine, it would have seized it up cold. 10W-30 is like wet concrete.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
You're lucky they didn't install dealer bulk 10W-30. If that had been installed in that
super tight Honda engine, it would have seized it up cold. 10W-30 is like wet concrete.


Actually the typical bulk oil at many import dealers is 5w-30 straight dino.

I think this is what Honda specced for years in many of their products and most likely is what they still have in bulk.
 
I'm gonna call Honda (not the dealer, but the company) tomorrow and complain. In the meantime it's still not clear if the apparently-not-synthetic-because-it-is-$2/qt 0W-20 that is recommended is any more long lasting than the definitely-not-synthetic 5W-20 that the dealer put in.
 
Originally Posted By: Brenden
0w20 can only be synthetic, I am sure 5w20 will hold up just fine...


That is not true. 76 makes a conventional 0w-20. Honda has both conventional and full synthetic 0w-20 oils available.

Honda 0w-20 conventional: 08798-9036
Honda 0w-20 synthetic: 08798-9037



Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
5W-20 doesn't have near the cold start protection of 0W-20.
Sadly, your Honda is gonna suffer some cold start damage.
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Love your sarcasm.
 
That brings up an interesting point. I have worked for 3 Japanese make dealerships and NONE of them ever cared or ASKED what bulk oil we used. It was totally up to the Parts manager and dealer principle what they wanted to pay for. Toyota/Lexus, Nissan and Suzuki have never asked nor do they require anything for the bulk oil their PREMIER dealerships use. The only oil requirement they ever had was engine repairs completed under Warranty had to have bottles of factory oil billed out as opposed to bulk, I am not defending this process I am just pointing out the interesting observation of the countless thousands of hours spent on this board debating oil weights when I know for a fact that many many dealerships are using 5-30 and 10-30 bulk, that includes Ford dealerships and Honda dealerships. Again I am not defending this but it has been this way for years and no motors are grenading from the differend weight I actually brought the point up with the Toyota Factory Technical rep back in the day of the 3 liter V6 sludge campains and he said that the reason they do not ask is because they know that the same engines spec much heavier oil in europe, he used Russia as his example and the engines are fine.
Originally Posted By: 91344George
You gotta love the STealerships, it seems like NONE of them want to follow the manufacturer recommended service.
 
Daryll,

That engine was spec'd for 5/20 for years. I had a '07 CRV and it too was spec'd for 5/20 in the U.S. Not much difference between the 0 and the 5.

It doesn't matter in the least that they put 5/20 in it. You'll never know the difference and neither will the engine.

That engine btw is spec'd for 0/20 thru 5/40 in other parts of the world. I've seen the manual for both the Japanese and Australian versions that people have posted links on this site.

And contrary to the bunk Merkava is spreading 10/30 won't seize your engine in the cold. I had 5/30 yellow bottle in my CRV most of the time in Wyoming winters and I can assure you 10/30 isn't like wet concrete.
 
Originally Posted By: Boomer01

And contrary to the bunk Merkava is spreading 10/30 won't seize your engine in the cold. I had 5/30 yellow bottle in my CRV most of the time in Wyoming winters and I can assure you 10/30 isn't like wet concrete.



5W-30 is a little bit better than 10W-30. It's like hot tar instead of wet
concrete. Roofers use 5W-30 as a fill-in whenever they run out of hot tar.
 
$1.98 for "real synthetic" installed at a dealer?
I'm just not sure I would trust any dealer to put "synthetic" at that cost.
IMO With regular 5W20 i don't know if I'd want to go 10,000 miles on an oil change. Even more so if she drives in Atlanta traffic like she went to Georgia State or Georgia Tech. 5000 or 6000 miles I would be comfortable with
 
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