Best oil for 2001 Honda Civic

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Hey guys, new person to the forums here. I'm a pretty big car nut, but am only versatile in Audi/VWs. What kind of oil is best for my 2001 Honda Civic LX commuter? It has 128k miles on it, driven 100 miles a day, 90 of them highway, usually around 75-80mph, with the occassional traffic. I don't drive crazy or super fast with this commuter car. I live in Southern California, so the weather isn't too extreme. Before I started doing the maintenance on the car, the dealer did all the maintenance, so I'm assuming they used 5w-30 conventional. The first oil change i did on it was M1 5-30 with a Fram filter, which I left in car for about 7500 miles before the next oil change, which Autozone ran out of M1 synthetic so I used Castrol GTX conventinal. Currently coming up on 3k oil change, and would like to know what is the best oil for my use. I know AutoZone has Castrol Syntec or Edge on sale currently with a Fram filter, should i go with that, or another brand? I am looking to extend my OCI and also prolong the life of this engine. Thanks
 
To start with, you can go 5-6k miles with your commute on that GTX. It will be fine. 3k on conventional oil is very old-school. Even 7500 on M1 is conservative!

If you REALLY want to extend your OCI's, I think you'll want to get some Amsoil SSO. With how easy your commute is on oil, you could go 20-25k miles on a fill of SSO and be fine.
 
Keep the GTX in for another 2000 miles and repeat the 5k OCI with any 5w-30 oil and you'll be just fine.

Bill

PS:
welcome2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: BovineScapegoat
Just ditch the Fram filters.


The Fram lovers are gonna get you!
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Would you guys recommend i use Castrol Edge, or stick with Syntec? Only reason I mention Castrol is the Autozone deal. Like stated above, I would like to extend the life of the engine and OCI. In my Audi, I am a religious Motul user, however I find that overkill for a civic.
 
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I would first suggest getting rid of that Fram oil filter on your next oil change. Get a high end filter such as a Purolator PureOne, a WIX or a Napa Gold.

My recommedation for oil would be Valvoline MaxLife (Synthetic in the silver bottle or the Blend in the red bottle). Change oil out between 7500 and 9000 miles. A 5w30 0r 10w30 should be Ok in SoCal.

I would also suggest that you add a fuel system cleaner to your gas about twice a year. I've had great results with the Chevron Techron Complete Fuel System product.

_____________________________________________
2003 Ford Focus SE (2.3L) / 82,000
Valvoline MaxLife Syn 5w30
Purolator PureOne Oil Filter
Chevron Techron / twice a year
 
I would first suggest getting rid of that Fram oil filter on your next oil change. Get a high end filter such as a Purolator PureOne, a WIX or a Napa Gold.

My recommedation for oil would be Valvoline MaxLife (Synthetic in the silver bottle or the Blend in the red bottle). Change oil out between 7500 and 9000 miles. A 5w30 0r 10w30 should be Ok in SoCal.

I would also suggest that you add a fuel system cleaner to your gas about twice a year. I've had great results with the Chevron Techron Complete Fuel System product.

_____________________________________________
2003 Ford Focus SE (2.3L) / 82,000
Valvoline MaxLife Syn 5w30
Purolator PureOne Oil Filter
Chevron Techron / twice a year
 
GTX will provide all the protection (as will any other SM rated oil) in your Civic as Syntec or Edge.

Bump the OCI up to 10-15k and thing *may* be different. UOAs and other factors figure in then.

Bill
 
I have an 02 Civic and have used GTX in the past with no problems. For the price of the AZ oil change special you could probably go to Wal-Mart and pick up a jug of Pennzoil Platinum or Mobil 1 and a Super Tech filter.
 
The manufacturer OCI for that car is 11,500 miles on conventional.

Use the GTX longer. Personally, if that were my commute I'd be doing a synthetic for at least 10,000 miles.

We had an 03 Civic EX, we did 7500 on conventional for 80,000 miles, but needed a four door with our second kid so that's where our Accord came from.
 
having a honda engine means you can extend your OCIs with whatever you have

if you went 15k miles on that M1 given the fact that you don't push that car, you probably would have been fine
 
Originally Posted By: sangyup81
having a honda engine means you can extend your OCIs with whatever you have

if you went 15k miles on that M1 given the fact that you don't push that car, you probably would have been fine

lol what?

Honestly i would use the gtx for 5k or a synthetic for 10k, both with a good filter. How to chose which one? Choose the cheapest.
 
Run the GTX to 5 or 6k like others have said. Then the synthetic of your choice and run it for 10k. As long as the Fram that comes with the oil change special isn't an Extra Guard then I wouldn't worry too much about it. Afterall, Honda's A02 is pretty much a Fram. But of course I would use a PureOne if I were to choose.
 
I have put on 260,000-340,000 miles on Honda engines(Toy's too) without any engine oil related issues and only used dino oils(name brand and store brand). And beleive me, I've used lots of W*M SuperTech, AAP oil, ProLine, Spectrum along with alot of Hovoline Formula 3 when it was SF/SG/SH. Had used mostly FRAM Orange Can of DEATH. All of this was happening before I discovered BITOG. Pulled valve covers and oil pans too with these miles on the engines to fix some leaks and the engines were clean top to bottom.
 
I have also put several 100k's on several Honda's. They don't care what kind of oil you run in the normal 4 bangers, just used what the OEM calls for, and also follow the manufacture OCI (my 02 Accord is 7500 miles, I assume yours is close, but you need to find out.) I like the Castrol Edge, also Mobil, PP, whatever it does not matter. Truth be told the conventional oils work perfect in these engines, and you can maintain your car with less cost than synthetics...unless stocking up on rebates etc on synthetics.

I have pushed 15k OCI using Mobil 1 EP, and that was long enough for me, now I shoot for 15k when using extended drain oils, but cave in around 12k-13k. I would not dump in any kind of oil expecting it to last 20-20k without a lot of oil samples sent off, which will cost you enough for an oil change using many over the counter name brand oils, synthetics even.
 
I've always liked Motorcraft Syn Blend 5w20 in our 01 Civic. AFAIK, the 01 specs for 5w20 and that's what I've used. That said, 5w30 will work too though personally I don't see any advantage.

Really, any name brand dino on sale will get the job done just fine with a standard 5k/6month OCI. GTX will work but I wouldn't pay more or go out of my way for it.

IMO, running dino or synthetic for 3k/3month OCI is a waste. I would consider extending the OCI to 7.5k with synthetic. The engine is easy on oil.

Lastly, you can use the orange can if you choose. But, I'd use a less expensive a Super Tech #7317 before that if I wanted to go cheap. Or, for about the same price as the orange can you could get a Puro Classic. If you want to extend the OCI to ~7.5K (or more) and use synthetic, you could pick up at Pure One at Kmart of Amazon for a very reasonable price.
 
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