Originally Posted By: researcher
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Good call on early change. Still looks good though and im sure the 0w20 would be fine for longer intervals once car is broken in.
Thanks! I had a feeling it was time when my friend started to smell gas fumes.
Originally Posted By: ChiTDI
At what time/mileage did Honda say to drain the factory fill?
Honda goes by a maintenance minder, and there is NO WAY that the oil would last til that indicator comes on (usually around 7000+ miles on average)
Originally Posted By: Colt
on a '08 Civic at 2500 miles my son owned.I was told the engine would blow up.
The car didn't have any issues when it was sold at 110K miles.
Don't ya love those "scare tactics"?? They've shown that Honda stopped using the "magic break in oil" a long time ago. I don't listen about manufacturer stuff like that either.
Originally Posted By: parshisa
Another report with severe fuel dilution (even though the numbers are good but you can tell by viscosity). Metals looks very similar to mine at 4700. Have you noticed how much you were able to drain (volume wise)? Have you been noticing increase on oil dipstick? What highway/city combination on this oil and did you practice gas saving or spiritual driving?
I was comparing this oil analysis with yours, actually! Yours was very similar to this, so at least we know that Honda knows how to build an engine. I have asked my friend to keep an eye on the dipstick to see if volume is increasing, he didn't ask the technician when it was drained.
This is 60% highway and 40% city, nothing crazy, just some quick sprints up to highway speed, but nothing like hard driving or driving like ya stole it.
Originally Posted By: dlayman
The dilution is bad. Often Blackstone reports none or trace even when the real result is over 5%. For them to report a number at all, it has to be bad. They shouldn't even list fuel on their report as they don't measure it even close to accurately. Many owners of this model are going to 3k oil changes because of the severe dilution.
I completely agree, if Blackstone reports fuel dilution it's usually higher than that. Polaris labs is who Oil Analyzers uses, and they do have a gas chromatography tester that can report fuel dilution more accurately. I agree I think 3k is the MAX and even that is pushing it. Look at the viscosity, it's 2 points from min. Ok so it's close, but I sure don't want to be running that thin. I'm thinking somewhere between 2500 and 3000 is when it really needs to be drained/replaced.
Originally Posted By: dlayman
The viscosity is way low as is the flash point. Definitely a bad diluter. Shorten your OCI.
I completely agree with you! Sad that this is only at 2977 (3000 basically) and the oil is that far gone! And this is full synthetic!
Originally Posted By: Danh
The fuel dilution could get better as break-in completes and the rings are fully-seated. Nonetheless, this seems to be a troublesome characteristic of this engine (I think we've seen 4 or so UOAs here and they all show the problem) and a long-term short OCI strategy may be in order. I think a Polaris UOA would be a good idea: if it shows significant dilution take it to the dealer to at least document the issue.
you bring up exactly what I was thinking Danh! I think it was either here or civicx forum where as time went on the fuel dilution actually went down. Since direct injection engines have such high pressure fuel injectors then once the rings seat-in, then I'm hoping (For my friend's sake) that the dilution goes way down.
I am planning on having my friend sent it into Polaris next time around. But document with the dealer, he could, but I'm thinking that with all these people having the same exact issue, it would be a massive recall. I can't believe Honda's engineers would miss this in the lab.
I have looked at the conocophillips oil that Honda is using.. Which is what I had my friend put back in on this first oil change. Actually they spun it off into Phillips66 brand oil. And from what I saw their 0w20 full synthetic is on the thicker side of any 0w20 I've seen so far. I didn't try anything else right now as I can't find anything as thick as what Honda is using for a 0w20 full syn. I keep wondering if I'm wrong in thinking a thicker grade oil could be used since it's going to be thinned out quickly anyway. I'm not recommending anything to my friend as he isn't the car guy type. I'm trying to see if shorten the OCI's until it's fully broken in, and then we can see if the fuel dilution lowers. Plus I'm waiting to see what other oils come onto the market that could match what Honda had CP make for them.
I also looked at other oils like a 0w-30 but that isn't even an SN oil, and WAY thicker than even a 5w30. But I'm keeping that option in the back of my mind for now.
I've also noticed that my friend tells me as it gets closer to the time the oil needs changing, there is a faint gas smell from the engine. Went away when the oil was changed. Interesting. Guess this new technology we get to find a new way to handle it..
I don't think Honda's 0w-20 is unusually "thick", at least at operating temperatures. Probably the thickest 0w-20 you can easily find is Castrol Magnatec, which pushes the upper limit for the 20-weight grade at 100C.
Virtually all 0w-30s are SN-rated, Mobil1 being one of them. And 0w-30s are not typically thicker than their 5w-30 counterparts. You can go to any oil maker's website and look for Product Data Sheets (PDS) or Technical Data Sheets (TDS): look at the viscosity at 100C and you'll have a better answer.
