Hey Fit owners, I have a question for you all. I changed my oil back in summer and used synthetic oil with Fram Extra Guard oil filter. It is now time I do another oil change as my maintenance reminder has come on, 10% remaining. So the question is how many more kms can I get from using synthetic over regular?

P.S. Im new to this site and yet still to figure out how to post pics. Help?

Thank you

 

None.

You change oil primarily to get rid of contaminants that have been collected in the oil. These are primarily combustion by products. Some stuff also make it into the oil through the air induction system. One big one is an acidic byproduct of combustion that eats bearings.

Change your oil by the maintenance minder and use the proper weight oil as specified by Honda. On a Fit that is usually 5w20 or 0w20 depending on year. Also look at using a better oil filter. Wix, Napa Gold, or Purolator are 3 decent ones.

You will notice that Honda now recommends synthetic oil in later year Fits but they did not change the maintenance minder intervals. This is because synthetic oil gets contaminated at the same rate as conventional oils.

There are some pluses to using synthetic oils but longer oil change intervals is not one of them. If you doubt this, get an oil analysis on your next few oil changes.

 

We have used synthetic oil in our Fit since the third oil change. Because the GD's MM is "calibrated" for conventional oil, we reset it at ~50% then change the oil at 15% (when the wrench comes on). That's about 8 - 12K miles depending on weather.

Did a valve adjustment last year, and the insides of the engine looked pristine. No issues.

Our Fit is NOT a short-trip car. The commute is about 45 minutes so corrosive moisture is "baked out" of the oil.

You will get varied opinions whenever you bring up the term "Motor oil". I'm just saying what has worked well for us.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to say: YMMV.

 

I agree the use of synthetic oil doesn't increase the time or mileage between service intervals. Honda advises owners to follow the service alerts from the maintenance minder and that system doesn't adjust based on the type of oil used.

While I don't dispute the benefit of the using synthetic oil, my owners manual doesn't require it.

Recommended Engine Oil

• Genuine Honda Motor Oil
• Premium-grade 0W-20 detergent oil with an API Certification Seal on the container.

■ Synthetic oil

You may also use synthetic motor oil if it is labeled with the API Certification Seal and is the specified viscosity grade.

I recently received a dealer coupon for an oil & filter change just prior to the first anniversary of ownership and decided to have the service done with them since the VSA recall was also needed. The dealer wouldn't honor the quoted price because they only used synthetic oil. I would have left and performed the service elsewhere had it not been for the required software update.

There's a difference between what's required to maintain warranty coverage and extend the life of the vehicle and those items that are discretionary.

 

Short answer: just follow the maintenance minder.

 

I "believe" all 0w20 is synthetic oil. I do not know of any company offering 0w20 non-synthetic oil. There was one Brand offering 0W20 "synthetic blend" oil. I believe it was Phillips or 76. I could be wrong on this, but I have never seen a multi-weight mineral oil offered in 0w20.

I have no idea who makes Honda Ow20 oil. A lot of companies make private branded oil and the supplier contracts frequently change.

Keep in mind that all conventional multiweight oils get their multi-weight property by adding "viscosity improvers" to a base oil at the lowest number . So 10W30 is 10 weight oil with a polyimeric "viscosity improver" added to it. The problem with "viscosity improvers" is they provide little if any lubrication quality. So you would prefer to keep the amount used to a minimum. The other thing that happens to "viscosity Improvers" is they tend to mechanically shear during use into smaller chains or pieces. So what starts out at 5w20 could end up 5w10 or in an extreme case 5w5 oil over time.

 

I was under the impression Honda branded bottled oil was provided by Conoco now, and yes the 0W20 "non-synthetic" is a synthetic blend by CP.

I also don't believe there are 0W20 straight dino oils.

 

Hey buddy. After some research, I'm not such a fan of fram oil filters. That's why I don't use the Honda OEM filter, which is made by fram. I use NAPA filters, which are made by wix. Don't think it's that big of a deal but if we're talking 5$ Vs 3.50$, I'd rather get a quality filter.

Also, unlike the maintenance minder's recommendation, I change the filter every time I change my oil.

 

Fram filters are OK, they are just not a great value.

The Honda/Fram filters are the equivalent of the premium Fram Toughguard, which are $9 or $10 USD around here. The Honda A02 filter can be had for $5 - $6 in lots of 6, and some of the Honda parts sellers include the drain bolt crush washers at that price, so it's a good value.

http://fram.com/oil-filters/fram-tou...il-filter.aspx

I've never had a problem with a Honda filter. I once had a Fram orange can stick closed on me, so it never did any filtering. The uplevel filters seem to be decently made.

 

Good catch. I believe you're correct. I assumed since the owners manual stated you may use synthetic oil that conventional lubrication alternatives were available. Apparently not.

What really upset me was the difference between the coupon price & actual charge due to the type of oil used. I know now what to expect & may do the OC's myself going forward.

Thanks for the information.

 

Oil changes are a profit center for a dealer. They buy oil and filters in bulk, spend at most 15 minutes and charge you a gold plated price. It is also a selling opportunity and they look for anything additional (needed or not) that they can tack on to the service.

"How about a $25 pair of wiper blades?" or "You could use a brake job and a new set of tires."

Older vehicles always need struts, or shocks, batteries, ball joints or mufflers.

 

Thanks guys for the comments so far. Moving onto the next question, So from my understanding the Honda filters are equal to Fram, and Napas filters are better? I know my local Honda dealer sell the filters in pks of 3. I have read a few articles that say you can do an oil change without changing the filter. This seems a little bit ridiculous to me, so I wont take that advice.

 

My response to you is to use in order of preference:

Wix - available at most auto parts stores and on the internet.
NAPA GOLD - made by Wix and sold by NAPA
Purolator - available at Walmart

The recommendation a filter change every other oil is from Honda. I have no problem with it but the filters are cheap so I change it anyway. If you do choose to change the filter every other oil change, I suggest that you still remove the filter and drain the oil out of it. If you open up a used filter you find very little junk trapped by it and that is why Honda says it can last longer. You are changing oil to get rid of the pollutants (both liquid and solid) that are traveling around in the oil and are not trapped by the filter.

 

Here is a good thread with oil filter dissections:

Warning link to other forum:
Oil Filters - Dissected - Chrysler 300C Forum: 300C & SRT8 Forums

From what i've read and seen the FRAM Tough Guard is a better filter than the Honda A02 filter you get from the dealership now, which is more like a regular FRAM with a few added "features".

I use Wix filters exclusively on all my cars (aka NAPA Gold filters like n9cv said). They are cheap enough and readily available at Kragen, Autozone, etc. One time I was lazy and both of my local shops were out of stock on Wix so I got a FRAM Toughguard

I change filters every oil change, I don't feel comfortable running the same filter for 20k miles. It's just made out of cardboard, paper, fabric, epoxy, etc, and even if the media is not blocked I don't trust the components to not fail or get stuck open.

 

Synthetic oils like Mobil 1, Castrol or Valvoline pure syntheits roughly doubles the period before changing oil and filter based on our testing here. While Honda recommends 7500 miles, or 12,000 kms, that can change depending on your driving conditions. The harder your driving the shorter the oil change interval. Most of our patrons drive a bit harder (yours, weather, or terrain) than most and include some track miles; we typically recommend 6000 miles for synthetics and 3000 miles for conventional oils (though we don't have any of those.
Oils give up primarily because of viscosity, dirt choked filters, or thermal degradation, synthetics or conventional, so your interval depends how your car is driven.

 

We have, regularly. Synthetics do not degrade in viscosity or tear strength as quickly as conventional oils; one chemical mix is structurally superior to the other.
Contaminants in either better get filterd quickly; any idea that contaminants are that prevalent in the engine and that the way to get rid of them is to change the oil and filter is erroneous.
The reason for switching to synthetics is the gain in mpg and londer engine life. Thinner oils that offer superior resistance to shear in lubricating surfaces will yield better mpg sinply because the oil pump doesn't require as much power to move the oil. Add to that the reduced friction that also consumes power and the reason is well-defined.

 

Particulate matter over 20 micron or so (depending on the filter) is suppose to be trapped by the filter. The amount of particulates has nothing to do with the oil you are using unless you are burning abnormal amounts of oil. Most hydrocarbon contaminants, gasoline, antifreeze, and other combustion byproducts do pass through the filter along with acids etc. formed by moisture. Again the quantity of these liquids and less than 20 micron solid contaminates is not based on the type of oil used and is NOT filtered out by the oil filter.

If you are only concerned with viscosity improver breakdown then you should run synthetics because synthetics do not suffer the the shearing problem like conventional oils.

If you are concerned with contamination, then the oil change interval is the same for both oils.

I'll stick with what I said before, you change the oil and filter primarily to remove contaminants (liquids and solids).

Synthetics do have some redeeming qualities, but if you are consuming oil do NOT use synthetics. When that stuff is burned it sets up a glass like deposit in the cylinders that is almost impossible to remove. We had one guy that decided to use synthetic in his airplane engine. All air cooled engines are built very loose to accommodate a wide range of engine operating temperatures. They do burn oil. 8 to 12 hours per quart is normal. When he had problem and the engine was torn down, the synthetic caused deposits were so bad that the cylinders and pistons had to be discarded.

Questions for the day.

Why is there no FAA certified synthetic oils available for aircraft?

Why do almost all over the road trucks use conventional oil?

Answer: Most over the road trucks change oil based on an oil analysis and not miles or months. Years of oil analysis testing showed companies no increase in change interval between conventional and synthetic oils. Viscosity breakdown was not the major issue on deciding when to change oil. Rotella does make a synthetic oil for diesels but next to no companies use it.

Use what type of oil you want but do not assume that you can cheat on oil change intervals away from the manufacture's recommendations.

 

^Interesting input. Will research further, thank you.