I was thinking of doing my own oil changes again now that the weather is warmer, I was looking for some 5w20's and noticed the Castrol Syntec synthetic 5w20 has a small yellow sticker or badge on the label mentioning it's specifically formulated for Honda, Ford, and something else.. chrysler?

Does this mean anything? I was planning on just using Mobil1 but it got me curious. I tried to look over at bobistheoilguy but the information there is just overwhelming and sometimes incomprehensible.

So.. is there any major difference with this "specifically formulated" synthetic 5w20 vs mobil1 5w20 or any other for that matter? Is the honda regular 5w20 good enough? I drive about 50,000km's a year through freezing winters and scorching summers (mostly city and slow highway or major routes that are 80km/h max)... currently about 44000km's on the car and was thinking if I was gonna go synthetic then about 14000km's ago would've probably been ideal.

Of course I can also just go to the dealership and get the regular oil change with the B12 service light that just popped up today.

 

M1 has 5w-20 as well. It's also labeled as "formulated for Honda, Ford, etc".

Any 5w-20 is fine. Honda's 5w-20 is fine, since oil prices are going up, no use in going synthetic if ur car is just a plain daily driver. Heck, i'm thinking about just sticking to good ol' Honda oil for 09 Fit if i get one.

You can just buy the oil and change it yourself, saves some dollar, unless the Honda oil is close pricing as synthetic. Use the M1 filter though, or Amsoil. Filters much better than Honda's.

 

the only places around here I have seen M1 5w-20 is the Walmarts and it's around $33-38 a jug (almost 5L?) but I didn't see any mention of Honda/Ford formulations on the bottles hence my post.

Filters are another story, the only place I've seen that actually carry anything other than Fram is Napa.. and they carry Napa filters :P sure the stores have those catalogs with part numbers for all kinds of filter brands but on the shelves all they have is Fram or a store brand. So it's most likely fram, napa, or honda.

Even though it's a daily driver it's a city daily driver with a minimum of 120 kilometers per day (like 70 miles). Stop and go Start and stop 7 days a week, I don't leave it running since I'm at most stops for 5-10 min (delivery car). Outside temps can be -30c(-22f) to +35c(95f) Does this qualify as severe service? heh

 

stop n go, yes. severe. synthetic would be nice to have, but always optional. The car was made for Honda oil, so regular oil will be just fine. BUT you have to keep up wtih oil change intervals of course. Synthetics can hold much longer intervals. Yup, walmart sells 5qt jugs of them. Orielys had a special here for 5qts of M1 5w-20 + M1 filter for 29.95. I stocked up on them for sure.

Wow, no M1 filters in your area? No autozone/pepboys/orielys? Stick with Honda then.

Amsoil filters can only be bought online thru their store, unless u have a local Amsoil dealer, but they'll have to order online anyways.

 

it doesn't hurt to use full synthetic oil, and you can go a longer between oil changes.

i have used mobil1 5w20 since the first oil change. and ive used it in all my hondas.

 

The "formulated for" only means it is 5W-20, which these car manufacturers call for.

 

I have been using Shell Rotella T Synthetic SAE 5W-40 in my Fit since the initial oil change. Its full synthetic and sells at walmart for around 16 a gallon. Works great on motorcycles and ATV's also due to its wet clutch compatability.

 

My oil reminder comes on every +7K miles. I did an oil analysis (T. Dyson) on the OEM oil and found that the oil should've been chaged around 5K. With the advice of T. Dyson I switched over to Renewable Lubricants 0-20w biosythetic oil (corn oil). I did another oil analysis @ 7k miles and found that the oil could have been left in the engine for another 2K miles. I haven't found a oil better for my FIT. I hope this helps becuase I frequent bobistheoilguy and find it overwhelming too.