My civic's 9 year experience with amsoil

[damanwitdaplan]

i bought a brand new '95 civic and for 9 years ran nothing but amsoil oil and air/oil filters. i stuck to the recommendation of an oci of 25k or one year and did a filter change every 6 months...and what do u think happened? it started burning a quart of oil a week at only 120k and needed a rebuild. big disappointment for my first new car and one with a bullet-proof reputation for reliability at that.

can't help but think that the problem was keeping the oci so long. as u can tell, i always ended up changing the oil at 1 year intervals.

i have never done long oci's since with no regrets

 

[jcbzky]

well, you could've done your homework like a UOA every oil change or once a year, to see where you at. but not too bad, the engine lasted 9 years. what do you expect, its just amsoil not a "miracle oil" of some sort. you should be happy.

 

[Rand]

no idea what happened but it could have been anything.
One year is a long time to run oil if you have anything leaking into it... etc.

 

[Ron AKA]

There is a lot to be said for changing your oil and filter at 3,000 mile intervals and using a low cost conventional oil that meets the latest API/ILSAC specs.

 

[SteveD2]

Amsoil should mandate a UOA for any OCI over 7500 miles. Not all engines and driving conditions are the same. A friend of mine lost his engine to Amsoil. His story was similar as he also did the 25000/ 1 year OCI.

 

[Quest]

LOL!

I run a rather rigid OCI of 6kms irregardless of mileage on full synthetic(touched on M1 4 times, all other times on Q-state full sync 5W50 or 10W30) and when I sold my 16 yr old Mazda 323 with 265,000kms on it, it doesn't burn a drip of oil per 6km interval. What's more? My aircare report is as good as a new car, with HC, CO, etc. so low that every year I get that wicked stare from the aircare station guys ("...did you rebuild your engine?"-->________-no!)

I simply do not see the "feasibility" of keeping the engine oil inside an engine past 10,000kms, letting alone 25,000miles, with all those insoluables and chemical additive deplections. Changing oil filter does helps but not by much (IMHO) for you still cannot filter out those insoulables
my 2c's worth

 

[Auto-Union]

I don't understand the need for longer than 6 months oci except granny-mobiles.

 

[damanwitdaplan]

no uoa's as i was in the pre-BITOG phase of life. i merely trusted the amsoil recommendations...

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

Quote:

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i bought a brand new '95 civic and for 9 years ran nothing but amsoil oil and air/oil filters. i stuck to the recommendation of an oci of 25k or one year and did a filter change every 6 months...and what do u think happened? it started burning a quart of oil a week at only 120k and needed a rebuild. big disappointment for my first new car and one with a bullet-proof reputation for reliability at that.

can't help but think that the problem was keeping the oci so long. as u can tell, i always ended up changing the oil at 1 year intervals.

i have never done long oci's since with no regrets

---

I think Amsoil makes some very good products... but I'm not a fan of the 25K / 1 year OCI.

To me that is just too long without a UOA's and maybe a bypass filter.

I stick with 7K to 10K /1 year OCI's with good synthetics in healthy modern engines run with normal % of short trips, and low to moderate dust enviroments and zero to little towing.

If service was more severe I'd UOA or shorten OCI.

We have a local Amsoil shop that runs 25K/ 1 year OCI's in every car that gets Amsoil and I have never heard of them running a UOA.

I think that may be pushing things too far.

 

[Steelers]

I would be very disappointed to loose a Civic engine at 120,000. These cars routinely go 200-300K because so many people with long daily commutes buy them for their excellent fuel mileage and reliabilty. Personally, I feel comfortable running 10K OCIs on Hondas. The possibility of fuel dilution, silicon contamination or a worn out add pack would keep me off the 25K OCI. Many Amsoil dealers and retail oil change shops recommend 7.5 to 10K OCIs not 25K because they know few customers will perform a UOA or even check the oil level. Too many variations come into play with that long of and interval.

 

[ConfederateTyrant]

Quote:

---

Amsoil should mandate a UOA for any OCI over 7500 miles. Not all engines and driving conditions are the same. A friend of mine lost his engine to Amsoil. His story was similar as he also did the 25000/ 1 year OCI.

---

If I recall correctly, Amsoil did state that extended drains were only supported by the findings of Used Oil Analysis. I went looking on their website, but I could no longer find it. But I could be mistaken.

I do agree with you, Amsoil should make it more known that a UOA is recommended. The reason you stated is why I refuse to run past 10,000 miles/1 year without a UOA on any of the Amsoil I use.

damanwitdaplan,
What was said to be the need for the rebuild?

 

[Pablo]

I'm sorry but I'm not biting. After 60 posts, you drop this one. Your car needed a rebuild? Why? What were the physical findings on teardown? Where are the worn parts?

Simple math tells me you averaged 13.3K per year, with a new filter and top up. The oil was probably in great shape and your wear metals quite low.

At worst you may have a had a stuck ring or two (AutoRx it), at worst you got a Honda oil burner. (It happens) I'm not trying to be defensive here - lets get the facts out.

Who was your dealer? What did he say? Why didn't you at least sample the last oil?

Some of the responses amaze me, but opinions count.

 

[TooSlick]

This story just doesn't ring true to me, unless you had a undetected mechanical problem this particular engine....

I've been doing annual or even bi-annual (two year) OCI's with Amsoil for 28 years with excellent results. These OCI's ranged from a low of about 10k miles to a high of 22k miles. All these engines were in excellent shape when I sold or traded in the vehicles. In fact I changed recently the oil in the 1990 Audi I just sold to a friend when I got my 2006 Sube Outback. That engine has 250k+ miles and still burns almost no oil over the course of a 10k oil change interval.

A fuel efficient civic going 10k-15k per year will live a very long time with Amsoil; changed once a year. In all likelyhood, the engine will FAR outlast the rest of the vehicle.

I intend to run 15k/1 yr OCI's in that new Sube right from the start and post the results here. I fully expect to get 300k out of that engine if I keep it that long....

TS

 

[buster]

How can you blame the oil without knowing why the engine failed? Sludge, dirt or mechanical failure? Oil is rarely the cause of engine failure. In fact, Amsoil states that dirt is the #1 cause of premature engine failure and excessive wear, not the oil being used. I'm not a huge fan of really long extended drains, but you should have at least tested the oil if you were going that far.

 

[Pablo]

Buster - you raise an excellent point. Without an analysis this engine could have been sucking dirt since new. Too many unknowns.

I'm wondering if the car just started burning oil "a quart of oil a week" why wasn't someone with knowledge contacted to at least document the problem?

A lot can happen in 9 or 10 years of ownership and 120K miles. I look at my commuter car, a 1996 Volvo with 105K miles. It still runs great (1 year oil chages one with 20K) but that car has been through a lot!

 

[Cicero17]

Is this the same guy as the one who posted the pic of a Fram filter with the bullet hole in it?

 

[damanwitdaplan]

hey hey simmer down guys! i can feel the heat from all the amsoil loyalists out there! no offense!

i was merely sharing my experience with a brand new car i bought that i owned for 9 years and used nothing but amsoil for until it became too expensive to use as a top off. never thrashed the car or took it drag racing. but i admit that i did not do any uoa's. they were pre-BITOG years.

BTW i sold it 3 years go when the oil burning problem became annoying...sold it to a coworker that knew of the issue...and it is still her daily driver after 3 years now. i still see that civic every day. don't know whether she ever fixed it. i just might muster the courage to ask her sometime.

as best as i can recall (remember i sold it 3 years ago), sometime after it started burninig oil, i noticed oil in the antifreeze. so i took it to my local mechanic who replaced the head gasket and fixed the leak. he told me it needed a rebuild of the top half of the engine, whatever that meant.

after the gasket change, it continued to steadily require more frequent top offs until i sold it.

and BTW Pablo...at one point in time u had only 60 posts yourself...be kind to the less experienced! i highly respect your opinions

 

[Pablo]

Aha - more information. So the car had a head gasket leak? Not sure why the top end would need a rebuild - but this usually is not a wear issue. Typically it's a valve/valve crud issue. Doing this can make the car an oil burner - the tighter top end can force oil past the rings.

I couldn't find that bullet hole thread. Where is it?

 

[Cicero17]

The bullet hole thread disapeared. Who knows why, I thought it was pretty interesting.

Daman, no one, especially Pablo, would accuse me of being an Amsoil loyalist. I don't have anything negative to say about Amsoil, but lots to say about some Amsoil sellers. I am a loyalist for honesty. It gets me into a lot of trouble sometimes.

 

[damanwitdaplan]

i think some of u may have missed my point. i am not bashing amsoil products. i'm sure they're oil is as good as any other good synthetic...

if u read my earlier posts, i am questioning the long oci that they recommend and the potential pitfalls that may pose.