07 Acura RDX (Turbo), M1 5w-30, 2756mi, 5% OLM

[chicagophil]

This is my wife's 2007 Acura RDX, which is primarly used for her short daily commute, as well as general weekend errand driving. The car sees much more city driving than highway, which I believe is the cause of the OLM running down so quickly - 5% life showing at 2756 miles, which was around 9 months. Total mileage on the car is 14,318.

As we get closer to the end of the warranty period, I wanted to get a sense of how conservative the OLM is for our type of driving. This is the first UOA, but looking back at past records, the change interval has been fairly consistent.

Code:


Acura RDX

Mobil 1 5W-30

2,756 Miles

5% OLM



Comments:

You mentioned this engine sees a lot of short trips and that the OLM was down to 5%, and we

think that is a little conservative based on these readings. Universal averages show typical

wear levels for this type of engine after about 5,000 miles use on the oil. Wear metals were

actually a little above average, but at these levels, we don't think going longer would be a

problem. Insolubles were low, so the oil filter was doing well and the TBN was still strong

at 3.2, so lots of active additive was left (1.0 is too low). Try going 4,000 miles or 12

months next oil.





MI/HR on Oil 14,318

MI/HR on Unit 2,756

Sample Date 01/15/11

Make Up Oil --



ALUMINUM 4

CHROMIUM 0

IRON 11

COPPER 2

LEAD 0

TIN 4

MOLYBDENUM 105

NICKEL 1

MANGANESE 0

SILVER 0

TITANIUM 0

POTASSIUM 0

BORON 57

SILICON 8

SODIUM 36

CALCIUM 2343

MAGNESIUM 12

PHOSPHORUS 695

ZINC 719

BARIUM 0

Values

Should Be

SUS @ 210°F 56.4 55-62

cSt @ 100°C 9.18 8.8-11.1

Flashpoint °F 375 >365

Fuel %
Antifreeze % 0.0 0.0

Water % 0.0 0.0

Insolubles % 0.2


TBN 3.2

 

[webfors]

Looks good! I like the dose of moly in there. Modern OLM's are very accurate.

 

[greenjp]

The only thing remarkable about this is that the OLM pulled the OCI all the way down to 2.7k! People seem to typically see Hondas/Acuras OLMs ask for 6k+.

Wear metals and oil condition don't seem to show anything unusual. TBN is ok but we don't have TAN or oxidation or nitration so hard to draw firm conclusion.

It would be interesting to see a new run with more miles relative to the OLM. ie, take it say 25% (or 50%, 75%, etc depending on how adventurous you are) longer than however many miles your at the next time it runs down to 5%.

jeff

 

[chicagophil]

For comparison, here's slalom44's UOA from a couple years ago, which made it to 6k miles:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1409140

 

[Audi Junkie]

High iron.

 

[dparm]

Is that oil spec'd for the HTO-06 or whatever Honda wants?

 

[webfors]

Originally Posted By: dparm
Is that oil spec'd for the HTO-06 or whatever Honda wants?


Yes:

http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Oils/Mobil_1_5W-30.aspx

It also went 9 months in a turbo application. I suspect time played a big factor with the OLM.

 

[buster]

Honda tested a lot of off the shelf synthetics back in 2008?? and they said Mobil 1 performed extremely well and outperformed all the other oils. I trust Honda.

 

[slalom44]

Nice UOA, Phil. It's interesting how close the wear metal levels are in both our UOAs for the same engine. Yours with short trips and less miles and mine with longer trips and more miles. It looks like Honda has the OLM equally conservative for the different driving styles.

I'm not too concerned about the iron levels since it tends to track with time. Besides - you're using Mobil 1.

I'm glad to see another decent UOA on this engine. It looks like this is proving to be a solid engine. I'm surprised this peppy little 2.3 liter turbo isn't more popular.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[gathermewool]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
High iron.


IMO, the wear numbers here show nothing.

I'll second that TBN alone doesn't show the whole picture. I'd stick with what you're doing. Sticking with the MM will keep things simple. The UOA should give you peace of mind that missing that 5% indication by a month or two won't be a big deal.

 

[chicagophil]

Slalom44, after I had posted the link to compare with your UOA, which I believe was the first for an RDX posted here, I tried to edit my post to add some comments, but too much time had elapsed and I lost my text.

The basic points were the same as you have noted - we both ran our OLM down to around the same level, but with quite different driving styles / distances, and the UOAs were quite similar. Seems pretty clear that not all miles are created equal.

My wife's commute is rather short, and includes an intermediate stop to drop off our daughter. Thus, with 4 cold starts a day, and much, if not all, of the weekday miles driven below ideal operating temp, the engine sees fairly "severe" conditions (this doesn't help our gas mileage either - the real time mpg routinely reads in the 13s or 14s).

I had noted that all of the oil changes on the RDX were done between 2500 and 3500 miles, and after spending a fair amount of time here reading many opinions, some of which questioned those who changed synthetic with relatively few miles, I thought it would be interesting to see what a UOA of our car would reveal.

The conclusions to draw are that the OLM is taking many variables into account, but is somewhat conservative across the board - which isn't all that surprising. Much like the gas light that goes off when you still have a couple gallons "just in case someone ignores it," I doubt Honda/Acura (or any manufacturer) wants to deal with potential warranty disputes with someone who's OLM just hit 0%. Better to build in a (very) safe buffer.

Looks like I can feel reasonably safe changing annually, unless mileage goes up significantly.

 

[Eddie]

All wear metals show very good including Fe. I didn't know Mobil1 had a fairly high moly component.

 

[FZ1]

The uoa is fine and the wear metals may be a little higher because the engine is still breaking in. You have a Turbo which dictates shorter ocis. Check your owners manual for severe service operation and use those guidelines. My 02 Accord severe service manual guideline is 3750 miles or 6 months. I prefer 6 month ocis,Fall and Spring changes,usually about4200-5000 miles for me. I prefer M1 EP oil. Perfectly fine to run a better quality oil and dump it when you car needs it,not on some other persons general,hip shot,uncredentialled,recommendation. Hope this helps.

 

[unixguru]

Nice car you have. I actually like that Honda/Acura implemented a conservative OLM system, GM says that when their OLM goes off you have to change oil within 600 miles or 2 tanks of fuel. I guess that might be the same approximation here. Most people still don't change their oil immediately when OLM goes off and still drive a few hundred of miles before they can get it serviced.

Nice report. Very good OLM system on that car.

 

[Jim 5]

Actually Honda says you should change your oil when the OLM hits 15% and a yellow wrench lights up in the dash on every start at that point.

I ran my wife's 09 Honda to 5% on Dino and need to get that sample over to the lab. It called for a 9,850km OCI (around 6k miles). A bunch of that was in the winter with short trips, so I'll be sure to post here comments on the Honda OLM as well.

I am confident in any case in GM and Honda OLMs based on this and many past UOA (both my own and those posted on BITOG).

 

[moto94536]

do you have any proof that mobil 1 outperform all the other oils?

 

[slalom44]

Originally Posted By: moto94536
do you have any proof that mobil 1 outperform all the other oils?

Who suggested that? Mobil 1 is certified as HTO-06, which is required by this engine. It's doing a great job as shown by Phil's UOA.

 

[steve20]

""I'm not too concerned about the iron levels since it tends to track with time. Besides - you're using Mobil 1.""


Should be a sticky