Synthetic Oil Question.
 

I have about 70,000 miles on my 2002 Civic EX and I was wondering if its still possible to use Synthetic oil?

yes your ok to switch to synthetic oil.

According to Mobil, it doesnt matter if you mix oil, you just wont get the same oil contents as advertised.... thats all!!!

This myth comes from al long time ago...

Clif notes: if you have blown gasket that is being held together by carbon deposites, synthetic oil will disolve the deposite and make it "appear" that the oil has blow a head gasket. This comes from way back when people used oils that didn't have detergents, so this really is not a problem today.

You are correct. Just fine for cold winters.

0w-20 = fine for winters/cold season
5w-20 = all season
5w-30 = for very heated season, not intented for daily driving.

A 5W30 will do you perfectly fine year round, actually flow in the winter when its below -20 and if you pull anything with your car in the summer it'll do the trick.

the manual says 5w30 for our car....
how come it's not intended for daily driving?

You might want to double check your manual, and your oil cap. Honda specifies 5w20 or 0w20 for the d17. If the oil is FULL synthetic in either grade it will stand up to extreme cold, or extreme heat. It will still be liquid at -45C, and not burn up in the summer. I would be very cautious about using anything above a 5w20.

quite a few people on here have used 5w30 without many problems. I don't reccomend doing it, but you can do it. I see no advantage to using 5w30 over 5w20, unless you really want to void an engine warrenty :shrug:

bs 5w30 is fine thats what i use for mobil 1

I use 0w20 all year round ... usually it doesn't get extremely hot where I am ... maybe 90 tops. Although sometimes I have driven to LA where it is around 95-100.

hmm ... correct me if I'm wrong, but 5w20 will protect just as well as 0w20 will when hot? ... I thought the 5 weight was a cold temperature rating and the 20 was a hot temperature rating?

in any case, I think 0w20 works well in the winters and 0w30 would be good for the summer.

mobil1 0w20 full synthetic is very hard to find ... I have about 4 un-used, un-opened quarts left, but I no longer need it since I don't have a d17 anymore ... wanna buy 4 quarts of it? :D

The manual says 5w20 is good for all seasons. 0w20 can be used in cold weather BECAUSE it is a thinner oil that will allow the engine to start easier. As the temperature drops, the oil gets thicker, when it is well below freezing it is VERY hard to start the car, the thicker oil may not be able to lubercate the engine properly, and hence cause premature ware on your engine. That's why if you live in a cold area you should use 0w20. The manual even give the range of outside temperatures that 5w20 is good for. I beileve it says that if the tmeperature (at the time you start the car) is consistantly below 20F, you should use 0w20, I'm not sure about the temp though.

are you crazy? You can run 10w-30 all season perfectly fine.

Think of it this way:

Do you think 20W50 Grand-Cheap-O no name regular oil will protect your engine better than 0W20 Mobil1 full synthetic?
If you do, I have some nice real-estate to sell you in the arctic.
I know people will use 5w30 with no problems, but the engine is just not designed for it. You can probably use it when you have tons of miles on the engine and it's starting to burn oil, but I wouldn't use it otherwise. Besides, you'll be long out of warranty by that point.
If you want to know what the multi-grade oil numbers mean, check out http://www.7thgencivic.com/memberrid...0/ppuser/30907

Also keep in mind that 0w20 and 5w20 oils are (mostly) designed for fuel economy, and we know where gas prices are going these days.

keep this in mind.

engineers design and build an engine based upon several different things. the engine is then tested with different viscosities in extreme heat, cold, and normal temps. that is how a manufacturer determines what oil you should use. that's why you see cars vary so much on what is required. it's all determined by the engineering of the engine itself.

if the car has high mileage and/or boosted, yeah i could understand.

use 5w20 it is what honda says and honda knows honda best and the only time i would start getting a heavier weight is when your engine starts to burn oil fast i had an 91 accord and it had 175k i used mobil1 10w30 and it would burn off a quart in a week then i changed it to 20w50 and it stop burning oil not completely but after a few weeks it would burn off less than a quart.

I have four seasons here, 100 deg. to 15 deg.
I'm running 5w20 semi synthetic, and the gas milage improved dramatically from conventionl oil. I've already experienced a 50 mile gain in miles per tank, would recommend synthetic to anyone who asks. 36 mpg city. 2001 Civic EX sedan.

the increase you saw in mpg was likely from driving habits, weather, or any other various number of factors. among the fallacies out there about synthetic oil, one of them is that you'll get a substantial (or even quantafiable) increase in gas mileage. sorry, but the only thing synthetic has over conventional these days is oil change interval and resistance to EXTREME heat or EXTREME cold.

Yup.... Like S2000man01 said, synthetic will at best give you around 0.1-0.2 MPG better than dino oil. Also before you make a claim like that, make sure you have duplicated it 3 times in a row.

hey, just make sure if you switch to a FULL synthetic oil that if you ever wanna go back to reg. oil you MUST step it down with a blended synthetic of the next few oil changes!!!!......im running the valvoline synthetic blend w/no probs......5w20.....and its hotter than a bisnitch in myrtle beach.....

No, not true. You have been able to switch from syn to dino for about the last 20 years now, this is just another myth from back when detergents weren't that common in dino oils, today is a different story.

Here read this
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=272021
This guy Road Rage has been a tripologst for 30 years now, very respected in the oil cumminty.

Ok for one 5 30 is not going to void your warranty. The oil cap is what is "recommended" you can use and should use higher weights like 30 if your summer temps hit more than 100 deg f which they do here. There is a reason that the viscosity is rated for temps thicker is better for high heat and thinner is best for winter. Plus a thinner oil will break down faster under hard driving than a thicker oil. Now I have used a synthetic blend in my v8 ride and it leaked oil after. I switched back. Synthetic is very thin and if your engine is not sealed(or is ) it can start to leak oil. I am not a fan of it yet but if I had to run a certain brand I would go with amsoil. Funny thing is this topic was just on the history channel 3 days ago.

Edit: Btw my ladies car is a 98 ex with a d16y8 and it has 98k miles on it and its been running 5/30 for the last 4 years(since i have been changing it) and it still runs good.

Well, a '98 civic is suppose to use 5w30 if I recall right.

Secondly, yes. I believe I stated this already that switching from a dino to a synthetic oil on an OLD engine can cause leaks. Dino oil can form sludge (specially the lowwer grades) and sometimes this sludge actually seals the engine together. Then when you put synthetic oil in, it will eat the sludge away, hence making it seems as though the engine has just started leaking oil, but really your seals where bolwn to start with, you just tore the band aid off. 5w20 in synthetic is the same as 5w20 in dino oil, otherwise there would be some major class action law suites agianst oil makers for false advertisment. Those numbers on the oil are not just made up, they have meaning, they are viscosties reading at specific temps, and if the oil does not conform to those, that is false advertising.

This stuff about thinner oil breaking down is not true, it will break down at the same rate as thicker oil. What is the different is the ehat capacity of the oil, or the oils abilty to carry heat away from the engine and transfer it out. A thicker oil can do this better than a thinner oil. Hence it takes more heat to heat up the oil (if that makes sence) if the oil is thicker. If you are running say a turbo, it might be a good idea to bump the oil up in wieght, or even better yet add an oil cooler.

And yes, not following your engine oils range WILL void the warranty, I know 5 people who have had their engines blown and the manufacture declined their claims because they put the wrong oil in. A thicker oil will not "splash" in the engine as it was designed to, hence it will NOT lubericate the engine as it is suppose to.

^^You are saying the same things as me. What do you think hard driving will do to the engine..........create heat(ie. friction) and it will break down a thinner oil before a thicker especially if it is hot out side. Plus a thicker oil does have less splash ability it does not just sit in the oil pan. When I had my datsun engine built the builder told me to run whatever i wanted just be sure to break it in with straight 30w. The 5 people you know that have blown a motor and the dealer wont fix it just from the oils weight have a lawsuit on there hands. If one oil weight is what they state or it will void your warranty then it would have that statement written all over the place like your manual or the oil cap and when you go to the dealer and tell them you change your own oil they would say make sure you run said weight or you are out of luck. Btw I bet your friends had alot of other stuff done to there rides and the dealer just used the oil as a excuse!

i wasnt saying you CANT switch....just that once you go to synthetic you have to step back down with the blend before you go straight to regular motor oil...thats all....and you dont HAVE to ....its just HIGHLY rec.....thats all

and thats just if you ever do switch back (which you shouldn't)