Tifosi Red

I came across this in 'Under the Hood' from a bulletin sent to US Honda dealers:



This isn't a TSB but it certainly is in line with my understanding of things. Note particularly the penultimate paragraph. As has been said many times before - synthetic oils are not recommended prior to 7500 miles, only mineral oil should be used for oil changes and topping up to this point if you want to be 100% 'by the book'. Note also that UK service intervals are supposed to be 9000 miles not the 7500 elsewhere.

Tif

Tonky

Just keep a very regular check on your oil folks. It's become very clear that some engines will consume lots of oil initially and some wont. I don't think there's any need to worry whichever camp you fall into ..... just keep checking! FWIW I've used Mobil1 10-40 in my cars for yonks.

gaddafi

It's worth being extra careful when checking the dipstick. I find that I get a false high level unless I wipe the dipstick completely clean before taking the reading.

It makes a significant difference.

By way of comparison with other owners, I have done about 1500 miles now and used probably a teacup's worth of oil.

I still can't get over how clean the oil in there is. Looks better than the olive oil in my kitchen! Must be years of driving "classics" lubricated by treacle.

bert_smith

I drove to Monaco at 100+ mph pretty much all of the way there and back. In 2000 miles driven during that week my car used a pint of oil.

I use GTX Magnatec 5w30 which gets changed every 2500 to 3000 miles. Apart from the pint mentioned above and the regular oil changes I have never had to put any other top-ups into the car. I have driven the car for 23000 miles now and it is often utilising the VTEC technology.

The issue of mixing oils is more often than not just a case of downgrading all of you oil to nearer the quality of the poorest oil used. If this is still adequate then it should not cause problems. You should however change the oil in high revving engines very regularly so buy in bulk and then you always have plenty of the same oil for topping up.

The car is designed well enough that an oil and filter change can be acomplished without having to get anywhere near to the floor. Drain bolt and flter are nicely accesible from above making it a nice easy job to do yourself wearing your sunday best outfit.

Dont rely on dodgy service from Honda, make sure that you know what's going in by doing it yourself

patrick

Anyone use Halfords own brand of 5W - 30 Mineral based oil?

I'm wondering just because its Halfords, should quality be a worry?

I've done 2400miles and used 1 litre

S2000RJ

Chiswick Honda used Castrol SLX Fully Synthetic when they performed the product update on my car. This is 0W-30

NeilW

Yep, that's what I've been using. 2l in 6500 miles. The I don't see why quality should be an issue, just because it's halford own. Also, the point is you shouldn't use top quality (ie synthethic or semi-synthetic oil) before 9000 miles, so Halfords own should be fine for that period, but upgrade to fully synthetic after that.

Amuse Boy

I've been using 10w 30 mineral oil which I bought from a Ford Garage - will switch to synthetic after the 9000 mile service or year - whichever comes first!

Lurking Lawyer

I couldn't find any 10W-30 after I started this thread, so I ended up buying Halford's 5W-30 mineral oil.

I've done the best part of 3,000 miles in 5 weeks, and have had to put a bit over a litre of it in - no problems experienced with it to date.

(I checked the oil at the end of this weekend, having covered about 600 sunkissed miles in the two days, with extensive VTECing, and found it had dropped to 2Xs, even though it had only been topped up the previous weekend! )