ottotheclown

Thank you for that link Auto Education found the point about flash point interesting. The part about air filter is a bit confusing sponge like filter????

seoul4korea

lol ummmm $200 for an oil change is crazy!! Just come to my house i'll do it $100 cheaper!! that is if you like throwing your money away all the time! Oil change shouldn't cost you anything more then like $40 (maybe $50 is you get some good ****). Spending your own time doing this will cut cost by far!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

the only part i agree with is the air filter info. oiled foam is far superior to anything else ive used at keeping the engine and intake completely clean even from very fine agriculture dust.

tinnguyen123

me either until my GirlFriend told me

1200winger

I've just recently joined this forum. Lots of good info and some not so, like all forums. But I would like to offer my opinion on synthetic oils. I do think they provide better engine protection in severe operating conditions and I think it's been well documented over the years. If your operating conditions can be classed as "severe" then you would benefit from their use. Operating invery cold and very hot conditions and situations of high loads on the engine over and above standard usage can be called "severe". In my own experience, I ride a 1985 GL1200 Honda GoldWing motorcycle and have used Amsoil 10W-40 for years. I think my Wing operates quite often under "severe" conditions (even highway touring) and I found it ran smoother and quieter with synthetic oil. I'm a believer! That said, I'm not sure my 03 Civic will ever be used in anything other than normal conditions and therefore will live long on good quality dino lube.
Cheers 1200 Winger

maverick27

Changing your oil and filter is the cheapest thing you can do for your car. I put synthetic because I believe that it is better than conventional oil. It's up to you though. I change my oil and filter at about every 4000km. The car runs noticeably smoother with clean oil. I think that for a few dollars you should make the switch to synthetic or at least do the complete oil change at every 5000km...

Warzbird

I only get synthetic oil when its on sale, usually a bit cheap than reg oil(when on sale) I can def tell it runs smoother..

hms50

New to this forum so this may be slightly off topic.

Have 2007 civic hybrid with maintenance minder. I drive very little, so after 6 months, I have 30% oil life left. Question: should I change oil at 6 months or wait till maintenance minder gets to 10% or less which may be at 9 months. This would be my third oil change for this car.

Thanks,
Howard Siegel

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i would change regular oil at 6 months yes. it loses too many additives over time, even if you dont drive much.

edmcohen

My `06 Civic LX coupe, run with Mobil 1 changed at the intervals dictated by the "Maintenance Minder," now has 145 k mi. The oil remains in spectacularly good condition between changes, and oil burning is nonexistent. I think I begin to have evidence that synthetic oil helps.

There is another, related practice that I recommend. Honda recommends against automatic transmission flushes, such as the B&G products machine. I can see where doing that might mess up an older, highly contaminated transmission. However, I started doing this at 50 k mi. I just had it done for the third time in the car's life. So little nasty stuff came out with the old fluid that I think I jumped the gun. So, I now think this ought to be done every 50 k mi.

http://www.bgfindashop.com/bgservices/transmission.htm

kbook

Does this thread become BITOG already ei ei ?

Here's the key and it's been stressing all over the places over that site is Synthetic is good if you decide to do extended drain (10k). 5K or 6K probably too low to change. I did change it around 6k or 7k even on Synthetic since I got it cheaper than conventional.

Waste of money or not depends on your oil change interval. you do the math.

In my opinion, even the conventional oil does have pretty good additives added already. I don't worry too much. I used to be crazy about Synthetic but not that much now. I still use it because of Michigan winter.

Find the deal and buy bunch of them.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

if you use lubecontrol.com LC20 additive with conventional oil, you can do 10k drain intervals and its a ton cheaper, plus you get alot of other benefits that synthetic doesnt offer. a gallon of LC20 is around $40 i believe, and you need 14 oz over the course of 10k miles (the whole jug is good for almost 10 separate oil changes). that comes to around $4 extra per oil change just for the additives. then add whatever you pay for oil and filter. conventional is normally around $10 a jug for more than a whole oil change with valvoline. synthetic is prolly at least double that or more depending on brand, prolly $30. so youre saving close to $20 an oil change by using conventional and getting the same 10k life with better benefits and a cleaner engine.

add a jug of FP-plus to use with the gas for $50 and add 1oz every fillup. it will last you well over 100 tanks of gas and cost a measly $0.40 per fillup and you get an extra 4mpg on average. thats more than a gallon of gas saved over the course of a tank, or $3.00 at todays price. so basically the fp-plus pays for itself and then saves you another couple bucks each fillup. not a bad deal, all while keeping your fuel system in new condition.

Nosepicker

I run nothing but Full Syn on all my vehicles (cars, trucks, motorcycles). You'll notice a huge difference the moment you swap from conventional oil to full syn according to butt dyno.

In fact, I swap it to full syn the moment I bring the vehicle from the dealership to my house.

Never experienced any engines problem on all my vehicles.

kbook

Yeah, I heard that a lot from the Bob is the oil guy forum. Even though, it did increase the horse power for sure but that's just a bonus.

People sure choose synthetic for different purpose.

gearbox, I'll try the LC20 and FP also. They are very interesting products.

Nosepicker

Who is this Bob guy you speak of? Cuz there's this Amsoil guy on a motorcycle forum I'm on and man does that guy bug. Amsoil this, amsoil that. It's the shizzle my nizzle.

But when I mentioned Mobil 1, he caught me off guard when he admitted that shiet was some good stuff. He said of all the tests they've done with other oils Mobil 1 rated really high. This coming from an Amsoil representative.

Anyhow, that's my .02

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

amsoil is really the best oil, period. leaps and bounds better than mobil1. if i cared enough and had money to waste, i would use that and an amsoil filter. btw, the lubecontrol.com LC20 is also fine to use in synthetic oils.

kbook

Nosepicker,

I mean, in general, people in that forum do agree to use synthetic in extended drain rather than horse power.

I usually read topics in the passenger car so there are many Amsoil rep but "Pablo" seems to be informative and rational.

Mobil 1 and Amsoil use the same group IV base stock (PAO) the polyalphaolefine. The additives are different for sure. I haven't read the info in depth. But, Red line uses the group V which is another. I am pretty you can find the info in that website.

TBN and OXIDATION Read this. I think that will explain about the chemical aspect.

I used to use Amsoil 5W-30, Amsoil ATF but nowadays, I use group III Synthetic (some say is not true synthetic because it just a purified version of conventional motor oil) which is cheaper and I can save up more money.

I agree with gearbox that if I have money, I might invest in Amsoil. Since Amsoil 5W-20 is also a group III base stock with better additives, I just stick with the cheapest I can find.

I bought Oreilly house brand syn for 2$ a quart so it's pretty cheap. Amsoil cost at least $8 and it's getting more expensive.

Nosepicker

Good post.

nick060200

i use amsoil and for $35 dollars you can get their oil and filter and change your oil once a year! the stuff is legit and if you have not used thier stuff before it is worth the $$$. i use it in my cummins truck and my civic. love it. and save $$ with it too.

Nosepicker

$35 for Amsoil?

Link please.

nick060200

amsoil.com
perferred customer it costs $20 a year and you get everything at whole sale. if you own more than one vehicle it pays for itself

nick060200

$35 was for a gallon of the Ow-20 stuff that needs to be changed once a year and their filter for a 03' civic which is what i have. you have to sign up and become a perferred customer though. you wont regret the beer $ you spend on that this weekend instead.

nick060200

one last thing......you can also send in a sample of your oil and they can tell you if you need to change it or how much longer you can go without changing it. and they back up all their products so if a dealer says that one of their products caused a problem in ur vehichle their customer service will be on the phone with that dealer. i have even heard of them taking dealers to court and the dealers backing off and upholding peoples warrantys!
if you have not switched yet you need to visit amsoil.com do some research and make the switch.

Nosepicker

$58.23 for one galllon of Amsoil + oil filter.

Um...no thank you. I can get Mobil 1 for a lot less.

Nosepicker

$58.23 for one galllon of Amsoil + oil filter + shipping + taxes.

Um...no thank you. I can get Mobil 1 Full Syn for a lot less.

nick060200

like i said you have to be a perferred customer and if you have more than one car it pays for itself. $35

nick060200

even if your not $58 and you change it once a year. how often do you change mobil 1?

Nosepicker

I don't get it.

You pay $20 to be preferred member. Then pay $36 for oil & filter + shipping + tax which basically comes out to the same price I was quoted as a reg.

I don't get it.

I change my mobil 1 oil three times a year. I average 1800+ miles a month.

BTW, I pay $29.99 for 4qts of mobil 1 plus mobil 1 oil filter.

nick060200

yeah i also have 3 vehicles so the $20 for a perferred customer pays for itself. and u basically just said you pay $90 a year on oil. and above you said $58 for the amsoil once a year?????????????

phil6006

I was using amsoil 0w20 in my 03 ex ever since I got the car. My uncle is an Amsoil dealer and highly recommended it. I enjoyed not having to change my oil every 2 months since I drive over 20k miles a year at minimum. Probably closer to 30k. The first couple of changes were just like any other oil change I had done (except it cost a lot more each time, but it was less frequent). Also, at first I did notice an increase in fuel efficiency by about 2-3 MPG, but now I am back to about 29-30MPG because I drive on the quick side.

I recently ran into a problem with the VTEC system and the p1259 code. I had been less than 20k since I changed the oil/filter which is about when I had previously done it. Amsoil had recommended to change both every 25k, but sent out a recall/warning about the filter clogging up too easily, blah blah. After taking everything apart to check the solenoid, the only thing left to do was change the oil, and I was told on these forums 0 weight is too thin.

I couldn't wait for Amsoil to be shipped, so I went to Pepboys and picked up some Royal Purple and was almost gonna get Valvoline Syn Power, until I saw they had this because on the tests, it seemed the valvoline was about 2nd to the the Amsoil, but I knew Royal Purple was about up there with Amsoil. On the down side, it was about $45 with an $11 purolater filter. That was $8.50/qt or so.

So after a long battle with trying to get my old oil filter off, I MAYBE got 2 qts of old oil out of the car. If I had to guess, probably less. Lo and behold, the lack of oil in my car was causing the solenoid to not function pretty much at all. This was before the 25k mark that Amsoil recommended, and am surprised because it never was that low before.

Shouldn't the oil light have come on? I mean the car was running fine otherwise (other than a persistent annoying coolant leak). The oil light popped on and off for a split second after driving it for a couple minutes after putting it all back together from the solenoid inspection, but that was the first and only time I've seen it go on.

But anyway, I had actually put a fairly high weight oil for this car, and I feel like it is running better. I put in 10w30 Royal Purple, and I could feel the tightness because of the thickness, but it did not feel bad. It actually felt like I had a little more power, especially in the lower rpm ranges, then once it warmed up some more, it felt normal. I am going to order my Amsoil for my next change in about 4-5k miles and put the 5 weight back in and see what I like better.

Has anyone else ever run 10 weight in their civics? Is that too heavy for these motors, and will it damage things if I continue to do so?

Anyway sorry for rambling on, but I guess the point of this short story is that if you get the P1259 code, check and/or change your oil.