Just a concern but I notice a pronounced gasoline smell coming from my oil. 2018 Fit Sport M/T now with nearly 9900 miles. Its gotta be a byproduct of the higher pressures of the Direct Injection system and gas is undoubtedly getting past the piston rings by nature of its design. Glad I live in a hot climate since the heat hopefully helps deal with the issue. I am wondering if its better now to perform oil changes every 5000 instead of my usual 7-7500k intervals to be on the safe side.

 

You can pull a sample of oil and send it off for analysis, which will tell you how much fuel dilution, if any, and whether the oil is still serviceable.
Oil analysis kits from Amsoil for sending to Oil Analyzers Inc can be bought postage paid or bare, and the cost of the kit includes the cost of the analysis.
Blackstone Labs is another source.

 

The current Fit 1.5 DI engine has been in use since the 2015 model and there are no reports of any widespread problems with gas contaminating the oil. If there have been any such incidents then it is a defect in a specific car and not indicative of a widespread problem with DI engines. Yes, some gas will get past the rings, into the oil, and then back into the engine where it will be burned off but as you mention that's allowed in the design and Honda will have taken all of this into account with the recommended oil change intervals. Now personally in general I don't like Honda's oil change calculations so I follow my own rules on oil changes which is once a year or less than 5000 miles for me since I don't drive a lot.

Stop sniffing the dipstick and instead look at the oil level marker. If the oil level stays steady and doesn't start increasing (perhaps indicating a lot of gas dumping into the oil) then don't worry about this issue. Whatever gas gets into the oil is being drawn out again and recycled to the engine as part of the emissions system and burned off there.

Honda does have a serious problem with the DI Turbo engines in Civics and CR-V's where large amounts of gas are getting dumped into the oil in cold weather. The problem was serious in China and is also becoming an issue here in North America, especially the colder areas. If Honda does put a turbo in the next Fit redesign then that's something that I would never buy.

 

9900 miles on the oil? (maybe I didn't read that correctly)
Just change it if you're concerned with the odor. Oil is cheap.

Fuel odor in the oil and crankcase is not unusual IMO. Short trips can be a contributing factor.
Is the oil level rising ? If the oil level is not mysteriously rising, it's probably not a real problem.
Wipe the oil off of the dipstick with your bare fingers then rub your fingers together...Does the oil feel slick, or does it feel like there's a 'grainy' texture to it?

 

Mine always smells like gas. I analyzed twice. There's was a lot of debate. I'm not worried. Here's the thread.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/3rd-...their-oil.html

 

blackstone labs uoa, has helped me ignore/no longer care about the fuel smell i get when i empty my oil catch can

 

Good info @robs and @evilchargerfan thanks. The metal data in evil's report looked great. Always good to run one test to at least get a baseline for peace of mind.

 

Yesterday I took cold samples from my oil catch can and my crank case oil. The car has 1100 miles on it. The samples were tested on an ATR FTIR. The viscosity of the catch can fluid was less than 500 centipoise and had multiple sharp peaks between 750 and 800 1/cm, indicating the presence of gasoline. The crank case oil Spectra showed no sign of gasoline. I smelled the crank case oil and couldn't really tell weather or not there was a fuel smell. Honda's oil life value was 90%. This suggests that the blow by so far hasn't had any effect on the oil.

I'll be checking the oil every 1000 miles until the first oil change. If any gas is detected in the FTIR tests I'll run a TGA to see to figure out what the weight % of gasoline is and at what temperature it is driven off the oil.

Perhaps we can gain some quantitative insight into actual oil dilution risk and mileage. We may also be able to track additive depletion, sulfonation, and soot formation.

I'll upload the spectra when I get back to a computer.

 

I don't see what the point of doing all this is.

 

no , i've got 9900 miles on the odometer. Changed oil once so far around 6k. I will stick to Honda's maintenance minder for oil changes. This topic was brought on after Scotty Kilmer on his channel brought up the issue specifically with the current CR-V Earth Dreams engine. He therefore recommends 5k oil interval changes and using good quality gas to deal with oil dilution on the CR-V. I have not noticed any rise in oil level. Just wanted to provoke some discussion and see others thoughts and insight on the matter.

 

Scotty Kilmer is a dipstick. His YouTube video blamed the problem on Honda's EarthDreams Direct Injection engine. He doesn't seem to be aware that the problem is with Honda's EarthDreams DI TURBO engine. That turbo engine is in the Civic and the CR-V and is causing all kinds of oil dilution problems in these vehicles in North America and especially China. There is no problem with the EarthDreams DI non-turbo engine as used in the Fit.

 

Totally agree on that one for sure.

 

Anyone do an analysis on the catch can catches? Just curios what the makeup of that stuff is...

 

The top spectra (yellow) is motor oil from the crank case. The bottom spectra (red) is the liquid condensed in the catch can. It appears that the catch can contains a mixture of gasoline and oil. The additional peaks from 800 ish to 730 ish cm^-1 are present in the catch can sample due to substituted C-H bond bending from aromatics found in the gasoline blend. It is also interesting to note that both samples are free of water (no broad peak around 3500 cm^-1)

This was a quick and dirty test with a drop of each liquid on an ATR FTIR so we shouldn't try to assume actual concentrations of anything from the peaks.

The fact that no gasoline appears to present in the crank case oil is a plus. This indicates that while gasoline vapor may get into the crank case, Honda's PCV system probably does a decent job of removing it.

The sample's were taken from a cold motor, which would have allowed any extra gasoline in the crank case to condense. I'm using the cheap Chinese oil catch can that can be bought anywhere for $25. I have added steel scouring pad to the baffles. The can catches about 75 ml of liquid every 600 miles.






Red is from catch can - Yellow? is from crank case - Not certified data

 

my god... do you guys hear yourselves? lol wtf?? testing oil in a 20000$ daily driver car. its a honda,,,change it when the minder tells you and dont worry about it, and dont get me started on this valve adjustment crap too. never adjusted valves since my transam days (about 20 years ago) i had a 2015 civic si before this car, and i drove the crap out of that for 97000km raced with it on a legal track most weekends and maybe only put 3 maybe 4 full tanks of super gas in it...got 7.8l per 100 km on avg , car ran like a dream and purrred just like a kitten when i returned the lease for this new fit... and ill drive the crap out of this one too... and the next ,, and the next..... you guys think wayyyyyyy to much of this stuff...

 

I was just bored and curious after work. Lol

 

It's just my nature to take care of the things I own. I paid good money for them so, why shouldn't I? I put 223,000 miles on a Harley-Davidson until it was wrecked by a left turning car two weeks ago. I treat EVERY vehicle I've ever owned as though it's the last one I'll ever own. someday, I'll be right.

 

Same here, well said @Uncle Gary

 

^ Your vehicle , your right . ^

 

So you got $20,000 lying around, I'll take it!!

You lease your vehicle soooo...yeah!! This is why I don't buy leased vehicles.

I was taught to take care of the things I spend my hard earned money on.