5W20 oil for 2005 Acura MDX

[Donald]

This vehicle calls for 5W20 and I have done a few changes on Amsoil 5W20 XL oil. But since the car is under warranty and XL oil is only a 7500 mile oil I am not sure its worth the expense and hassle of mail order. Amsoil does not make a extended OCI 5W20.

So do I continue with the Amsoil 5W20 or go to Wallymart and get a 5 qt bucket of Gastrol 5W20 for under $10 and a Mobil 1 filter at Autozone.

 

[benjamming]

How long are you wanting to run the oil? Also, AMSOIL says the 5W20 can go longer for applications that require it. ?

 

[Donald]

I am looking to follow the normal service interval for the Acura which is 7500 I believe. I just re-read the Amsoil website for the XL oil and it says it can go 7500 miles or longer where stated by vehicle manufacturers or indicated by electronic oil life monitoring systems. The Acura does not have a oil life monitoring system.

So with normal dino oil or Amsoil XL I can go 7500 miles.

 

[mshu7]

I'd stick with an OTC for 7500K OCI's. If you want synthetic, Pennzoil Platinum is about the best deal ($3.97/qt. @ Wal-Mart; $18.97/5qt. jug).

That's what I'm running in my '05 Mazda3 2.3L along with a 7500K mile OCI. Runs great in my engine.

 

[Titan]

mshu7, PP is even better deal for 1.99 per quart on sale right now at Pep Boys.

 

[mshu7]

Hey thanks Titan. I actually got in on the Pep Boy's rebate a long time ago. I was able to get Wal-Mart to do instant price matches on PP. I ended up getting 60+ qt. of it all at $1.99/qt. I'm pretty well stocked for quite a while

.

 

[sxg6]

Personally i'd spend more money on oil than the filter. Buy a purolator premium plus, and with the $7 you save see if you can buy a jug of synthetic.

 

[Donald]

I will see what Wallmart has on sale today.

 

[TooSlick]

I'd go with the Mobil 1, 0w-20 if you want something off the shelf. It will give you better cold weather performance and fuel efficiency and a very clean engine with 7.5k OCI's.

TS

 

[Donald]

Well, Wallymart had some open shelf space but only Castrol dino 5W20. Autozone had Mobil 1 5W20 for $5.79 which seemed pricey. Maybe I should order the Amsoil and do it right.

 

[Pablo]

Maybe I missed something, but if you are going 7500 miles in your MDX the XL 5W-20 is a great fit. I have a friend who is approaching 10000 miles of his gf's Honda (he does the maint.) with XL 5W-20 - not only is he digging it (oil color hardly changed and battling off the nay sayers) he will be doing a UOA.

Too bad you didn't do the free shipping with that Pablo guy.

 

[Donald]

The 2005 Acura MDX is not a turbo, unless they snuck one in.

Pablo - since I want to keep to the max suggested in the manual, I will change at 7500 until the car has lets say 40K. Since it can go 7500 on dino or 7500 on synthetic, I am not sure it really worth syhthetic for now.

Why doesn't Amsoil make a non XL 5W20 oil? A lot of cars (Honda and Ford) take it now and many want to do extended oil changes.

 

[icruse]

Donald:
Why doesn't Amsoil make a non XL 5W20 oil? A lot of cars (Honda and Ford) take it now and many want to do extended oil changes.

Amsoil is coming out with new non XL 0W20 (why not sooner, don't know). Every time I call to check when it is coming out I am told it is still being readied, and I reply, "Come on, hurry up, there is an ever growing market for the 0W20's.

Good Day,
Steven

 

[mshu7]

I think TooSlick is thinking of the new RDX (I think that's what it is called). It's a turbo-4 cylinder setup.

I think for the money you're best bet is Pennzoil Platinum 5w20. For the price you just can't beat it IMO ($3.97/qt or $18.97/5-qt. jug @ Wal-Mart). If you don't want to go synthetic, you're not going to go wrong with any brand in the 5w20 flavor. Motorcraft, Havoline, GTX, I think they are all really good in 5w20 form.

 

[Brett Miller]

Has anyone ever seen PP 5W-20 at Pep Boys?

 

[SWS]

First of all, congrats on your very nice MDX!

I see your logic on 7500 miles on dino or synth, but I suggest that you consider that synth provides more benefits than a extra-long OCI. You live in NY, so you have a variety of seasonal extremes. I am in TN and park my cars outside, so see that also. Given that, my experience with my sludge-prone '97 Camry, and other useful comments on this board, I suggest that dino oil in a modern engine should be changed every 5 months or 5000 miles max.

As a side note, you will see on this board that Hondas / Acuras are "easy on oil" compared to other car brands. I have 3 Hondas ('00 Odyssey, '03 Civic, '06 Accord V6) and agree with that to some extent, but don't use that as the reason to push to longer OCI or use "cheap" oil. These are pretty high-tech engines with tight tolerances, so good clean oil is really helpful, in my opinion. It is possible to sludge a Honda, and I don't think you want to risk that.

Of course if you trade cars often then it really doesn't matter about dino vs synth or 5000 miles vs 7500 miles. Perhaps you can tell us more about your driving habits (city vs highway), annual mileage, etc.

Best Wishes as you motor along!

 

[TooSlick]

The Amsoil XL is certainly capable of going significantly longer than 7500 miles. I can remember when they were doing some of the early field testing up in Minn and going 12,000 miles under mostly highway driving conditions. I probably wouldn't run 12k in the new Acura turbo w/ the XL formulation, without doing some testing, but the N/A engines don't seem that hard on oil.

TS