I am finishing up a cycle of ARX on this car, Civic 2000 LX with 120,000 miles. Under the valve cover looks very clean, looks almost like new. OCI's have been every 3500 miles since it was new. My question is, should I consider synthetic or continue dino? Also what brand and grade. I see some people running 5w-20 synthetic in civics. Is this just for the newer models? I am considering Mobil 1 and 7500 mile oci's. Any help would be appreciated. I need to get at least 225,000 miles out of this car so as I can turn it over to my daughter in two years and she can finish high school and maybe college with it. With the average mileage, I figure 225,000 will meet my goal for this car.
2000 Honda civic LX Oil Question??
- Thread starter tarboroheel1
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if you drive a decent distance every time then go with a synthetic (PP, M1, Syntec, etc) and the 7500 mile oci. i would to one uoa at 5000 just to be sure its all good in the engine.
if the car doesnt get driven much on each trip then do a dino oil and change it every 6 months or so.
either way you should get to 225000 miles without an issue. i would suggest the PP for a synthetic, a lot of people like it, its reasonably priced and its readily available at walmart for $18/5qt or $4/qt. Any dino will do well. supertech, mobil, castrol gtx, havoline, chevron, etc. all are good options.
if the car doesnt get driven much on each trip then do a dino oil and change it every 6 months or so.
either way you should get to 225000 miles without an issue. i would suggest the PP for a synthetic, a lot of people like it, its reasonably priced and its readily available at walmart for $18/5qt or $4/qt. Any dino will do well. supertech, mobil, castrol gtx, havoline, chevron, etc. all are good options.
Mobil 1 and 7500 oil change intervals is a good plan. You'll have to check your manual for the grade. Probably someone here knows it. If you want to help yourself out consider getting an oil analysis if you are considering 7500 OCI's. Its well worth the money and you might get addicted to it.
5w30 is what that engine calls for
5w20 is for 2001 and newer Civics.
My wife has a 1998 Civic and specs 5w30 oil. When I tried 5w20 oil for a 5K OCI, I was expecting to squeeze a bit more gas mileage out of her Civic using a thinner oil, but gas mileage dropped. I like keeping accurate mileage records and after 5000 miles I switched back to 5w30 and mileage went back up.
I would stick with a 30 weight oil, considering 5w30 is spec'ed and you have over 120K miles.
225,000 miles is VERY easy to obtain in a Civic, as long as you do regular maintenance.
As for Synthetic verses dino oil:
Both are great, how much do you want to spend on oil? My wife and parents have Civics, I just use the least expensive oil I can find at clearance sales. You can find many high quality oils for less than $1
My wife has a 1998 Civic and specs 5w30 oil. When I tried 5w20 oil for a 5K OCI, I was expecting to squeeze a bit more gas mileage out of her Civic using a thinner oil, but gas mileage dropped. I like keeping accurate mileage records and after 5000 miles I switched back to 5w30 and mileage went back up.
225,000 miles is VERY easy to obtain in a Civic, as long as you do regular maintenance.
As for Synthetic verses dino oil:
Both are great, how much do you want to spend on oil? My wife and parents have Civics, I just use the least expensive oil I can find at clearance sales. You can find many high quality oils for less than $1
I’m going to suggest running your current oil (5w/10w-30…?) to ~ 6,000 miles.
Most of the public isn’t aware that there was a huge technology change in motor oils in the 1990’s with the move from Group I solvent based oils to Group II hydroprocessed based oils. These newer off-the-shelf (regular) Grp II oils are far superior to the old oils and are really more like synthetics over medium drain intervals (5000 -7500 miles) than they are like the old Grp I based oils.
A 6k mile change using regular oil versus a synthetic at only 7500 miles would unlikely produce any significant wear difference and engine cleanliness since your service (fair amount of miles in a short time) doesn’t look particularly severe. I even think 6k on a Grp II oil is being somewhat conservative given your service conditions. The rest of the car will likely fall apart before the engine does.
Not saying don’t use synthetics -- as they provide a good extra safety margin and some people want that, but considering the cost you’d have to run them well past 7500 miles to get the cost/mile down to a regular motor oil. You could consider an 8-10k mile OCI with synthetics as they can easily perform very well at those intervals or more (given the type of service). If cost isn’t that much of a factor, a synthetic drain at ~ 7500 miles should produce excellent results (if you want to be on the conservative side of an OCI interval with synthetic). Here’s a recent 17,095 mile OCI on a synthetic. 12-13k miles on BMW 330I using synthetic. 9,211 miles Accord using regular oil.
PS. Don’t run a Grp II oil 45,000km’s like in that etrucker link -- that was in a diesel truck.
Most of the public isn’t aware that there was a huge technology change in motor oils in the 1990’s with the move from Group I solvent based oils to Group II hydroprocessed based oils. These newer off-the-shelf (regular) Grp II oils are far superior to the old oils and are really more like synthetics over medium drain intervals (5000 -7500 miles) than they are like the old Grp I based oils.
A 6k mile change using regular oil versus a synthetic at only 7500 miles would unlikely produce any significant wear difference and engine cleanliness since your service (fair amount of miles in a short time) doesn’t look particularly severe. I even think 6k on a Grp II oil is being somewhat conservative given your service conditions. The rest of the car will likely fall apart before the engine does.
A synthetic will provide longer oil life, especially under severe conditions like trailer pulling or in high performance cars (turbo’s), but in an “average” engine like in your civic there shouldn’t really be any advantage to using synthetics with a medium drain interval these days. The average OCI on GM’s oil monitoring system is 8500 miles. This wouldn’t have been possible with the old Grp I based oils, and I would imagine GM went with a good safety margin even with those figures. I’ve seen several UOA’s posted on regular oil run well past 6k miles and they looked just fine.
Not saying don’t use synthetics -- as they provide a good extra safety margin and some people want that, but considering the cost you’d have to run them well past 7500 miles to get the cost/mile down to a regular motor oil. You could consider an 8-10k mile OCI with synthetics as they can easily perform very well at those intervals or more (given the type of service). If cost isn’t that much of a factor, a synthetic drain at ~ 7500 miles should produce excellent results (if you want to be on the conservative side of an OCI interval with synthetic). Here’s a recent 17,095 mile OCI on a synthetic. 12-13k miles on BMW 330I using synthetic. 9,211 miles Accord using regular oil.
PS. Don’t run a Grp II oil 45,000km’s like in that etrucker link -- that was in a diesel truck.
FWIW, GM's OLM calculations are all based on a 100% 'safety margin'...
I also have a 2000 civic DX with the non VTEC 1.6. I use Mobil1 0W30 in the winter here with a 7k OCI as morning ambient temps are consistently below -15C. I actually tend to drive alot less in the summer and run 5W30 dino (Pennzoil or Havoline). As you don't get as cold in NC in the winter, a good SM dino should be fine year round.
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