looking for oil recommendation, 2000 honda civic

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Hello all, I am looking for recommendations on brand, grade and type of oil for my 2000 Honda Civic 5spd with 1.6L engine and 234k on the clock. I live in Ohio so it'll see temps ranging from slightly lower than 0F to slightly above 100F. The manual recommends 5W-30 for that temp range. I have been running conventional in the past. I would like to switch to full synthetic. I think it offers the greatest benefits as far as fuel econ and extending the life of the engine (correct me if I'm wrong). I would love any and all advice as to oil grade, brand, and type. Also I had heard it is necessary to run synthetic blend for a cycle when switching to full synthetic from conventional. Is that so? Thanks in advance!
 
Welcome to BITOG.

There are a lot of myths about synthetic oils and even what constitutes a syn' oil.
Firstly, you can run whatever you want, any time you want without issue.
You have a high mileage engine so I'm not sure what you expect to achieve buy switching to a syn oil so late in your engines life but if you want to try an oil that will show you the maximum benefit over a conventional 5W-30 oil I'd suggest Mobil 1 AFE 0W-30. This oil will maximize your fuel economy, provide the best flow when starting cold and provide very good high temperature protection.
Try it and see if you notice any difference over what you're running now. If you don't you can always go back to an inexpensive conventional 5W-30 when your next oil change is due.
 
Id try Mobil 1 high mileage 5w-30 . It is a very good oil with a very stout add pack , with some seal swelling properties that I think your civic would benefit alot from. It could be Mobil's best oil , it has a high flashpoint with a very low pour point as well .Its a stand out oil.
 
Originally Posted By: Thax
Id try Mobil 1 high mileage 5w-30 . It is a very good oil with a very stout add pack , with some seal swelling properties that I think your civic would benefit alot from. It could be Mobil's best oil , it has a high flashpoint with a very low pour point as well .Its a stand out oil.


Execut1ve, I don't agree with this suggestion at all but you'll get lots of "out in left field" personal opinions on this website you'll have to sift through. It's not their best oil and the PP spec' is useless to your application.
M1 HM 5W-30 is a heavy 30wt oil which you're engine I'm sure doesn't need. Keep in mind a 20wt oil is what is now spec'd for your engine today so sticking with a lighter 30wt oil is all you need.

The factory filter is want I'd go with although the Purolator Pure One is highly thought of here.
 
if your looking to switch or experiment, i find castrol edge to be a great oil, and as of feb 8th 5quarts edge and a K&N oil filter is 32.99 at autozone, good oil good filter good price
 
Really, though, you won't see any significant difference in fuel economy and that particular engine will outlive the chassis, so unless you want a longer drain (than the Honda recommended 11,000 miles... on conventional by the way) I doubt you'll see any benefit.

Then again, most synthetics are so cheap now you can certainly try something new, you don't need to try a blend or anything else.

I would stick with a 5-30 as well, though I always used 5-20 for 7500 miles on our 2001 and it ran well for us (until we needed 4 doors).

Hows the timing belt? You might save your money for that if you haven't changed it since you got it.
 
Originally Posted By: kcfx4
if your looking to switch or experiment, i find castrol edge to be a great oil, and as of feb 8th 5quarts edge and a K&N oil filter is 32.99 at autozone, good oil good filter good price

I agree with this. Truly a really fantastic oil and filter combination. This is a very light 30 weight oil so, as much as an oil can, this may help a little to achieve your mpg goals and will certainly do well in startup protection.

I like CH's recommendation of M1 0w30 as well. At the same place as the above special, before Feb 8th it is currently on sale with the M1 EP filter for $30 so that is a great price too.

I'd vote for the Edge and K&N combo 1, and the M1 w/ M1 EP filter 2. Both great combo's though that should do very very well for you!
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Thax said:
Id try Mobil 1 high mileage 5w-30 . It is a very good oil with a very stout add pack , with some seal swelling properties that I think your civic would benefit alot from. It could be Mobil's best oil , it has a high flashpoint with a very low pour point as well .Its a stand out oil.


Execut1ve, I don't agree with this suggestion at all but you'll get lots of "out in left field" personal opinions on this website you'll have to sift through. It's not their best oil and the PP spec' is useless to your application.

My suggestion is not a "out in the left field" personal opinion. He said he was interested in a synthetic oil that would work well in his car. I never said it was Mobil's best oil rather one of their better ones. He needs a oil that would provide low and high temp protection and M1 HM will do that. M1 HM is thicker in viscosity than your average 30wt oil but it is not nearly close to being thick as a 40 wt. He lives in Ohio where summer time temps spike above a 100 degrees, why should he put in a 20 wt oil when 30 wt has done well for 234K . Just because Honda says you can use a 20wt does not mean thats the ideal oil for a well broken in engine in 100 degrees.When I said M1 HM was a better mobil oil,all you have to do is look at the add pack and it speaks for itself. I think M1 HM 5w-30 is an appropriate suggestion for a car that I think anyone would classify as a high mileage car for a owner who is thinking about using a synthetic oil in a 5w-30 grade oil.
 
Originally Posted By: bepperb
Really, though, you won't see any significant difference in fuel economy and that particular engine will outlive the chassis, so unless you want a longer drain (than the Honda recommended 11,000 miles... on conventional by the way) I doubt you'll see any benefit.

Then again, most synthetics are so cheap now you can certainly try something new, you don't need to try a blend or anything else.

I would stick with a 5-30 as well, though I always used 5-20 for 7500 miles on our 2001 and it ran well for us (until we needed 4 doors).

Hows the timing belt? You might save your money for that if you haven't changed it since you got it.


I have followed the maintenance schedule in the owner's manual religiously since I got the car. Looking back through my records, the timing belt was replaced last August at about 225k mi along with the water pump
 
Originally Posted By: Thax
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Thax said:
Id try Mobil 1 high mileage 5w-30 . It is a very good oil with a very stout add pack , with some seal swelling properties that I think your civic would benefit alot from. It could be Mobil's best oil , it has a high flashpoint with a very low pour point as well .Its a stand out oil.


Execut1ve, I don't agree with this suggestion at all but you'll get lots of "out in left field" personal opinions on this website you'll have to sift through. It's not their best oil and the PP spec' is useless to your application.

My suggestion is not a "out in the left field" personal opinion. He said he was interested in a synthetic oil that would work well in his car. I never said it was Mobil's best oil rather one of their better ones. He needs a oil that would provide low and high temp protection and M1 HM will do that. M1 HM is thicker in viscosity than your average 30wt oil but it is not nearly close to being thick as a 40 wt. He lives in Ohio where summer time temps spike above a 100 degrees, why should he put in a 20 wt oil when 30 wt has done well for 234K . Just because Honda says you can use a 20wt does not mean thats the ideal oil for a well broken in engine in 100 degrees.When I said M1 HM was a better mobil oil,all you have to do is look at the add pack and it speaks for itself. I think M1 HM 5w-30 is an appropriate suggestion for a car that I think anyone would classify as a high mileage car for a owner who is thinking about using a synthetic oil in a 5w-30 grade oil.

No offence, but I don't agree with anything you've said.
I'm not a fan of M1 HM 5W-30 for many reasons, but one is it's low VI of 162 which is even lower than the regular M1 5W-30, the latter of which meets Honda's HTO-06 spec' and the HM version does not.
M1 HM 5W-30's HTHS vis of 3.4cP is undoubtedly more than the OP needs, but even if he did want an oil that thick a 50/50 blend of M1 AFE 0W-30 and M1 0W-40 will achieve the same thing but with a far superior VI of 182.
Even though the OP's Honda has a lot of miles on it, that's no reason to automatically assume a heavier than specified oil is necessary. Only if the engine's oil pressure was on the low side would a heavier oil be warranted or if his oil consumption was excessive.
 
for the sake of discussion, my oil pressure always seems normal (at least according to the gauge in the instrument panel) and it consumes no oil
 
Just to add something from myself to the discussion, I do use a High Mileage oil of choice(I prefer Valvoline MaxLife) for at least 2 intervals(a standard 3k miles to clean and get it out of the engine), prior to switching to a fully synthetic on a car that I buy used.

This way, I perform some cleaning while transitioning over to my real oil of choice, which for a typical 5w-30 recommended engine I tend to turn to Mobil1 AFE or Amsoil SSO. If my engine really can't handle the longer OCI, I stick with Mobil1 AFE 0w-30 and change it more frequently. If my car can go further(10k+ miles) I pay a little more for what's one of the best oils out there, the Amsoil SSO 0w-30.

That is my experience, I like oil filters in short intervals like a Pure1 or a Wix/Napa Gold(just because I like a good filter regardless of the interval and DONT CARE about spending $2 that will take me 3 or more months)...

On a long OCI the filter choice? Well, for my Civic the Wix/Napa Gold filter is the biggest to my knowledge of the aftermarket filters for this Civic(92 VX), but if I know I'm going to leave it in well beyond 10k, I either chose a Mobil1 or Amsoil filter.

Lastly, I'd like to mention that while using the HM oils I do use an engine flush like Amsoil or even GUNK flush to idle the engine to operating temp(or some prefer MMO for 500 miles or so before the OC), just before dropping the HM oil. If you do one of these methods, you probably would want to allow the oil to drain for several hours before refilling just to allow most to come out.



Okay, there you have it. That is me and what I choose to do with a used car, especially one I don't know the previous care of other than 'it still runs fine'. Sure, a little bit of the choices I mentioned, especially regarding product choice, is over-payment from one aspect but I can afford this form of cheap insurance as they say. It's the way I know that I left no question in what I used. I want to use the best of quality, if possible, for a relatively good price at least, and I typically get my money back compared to those wasted 3k mile intervals anyway all thanks in large part to good information you can find on BITOG.
 
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Originally Posted By: Thax
Originally Posted By: CATERHAM
Thax said:
Id try Mobil 1 high mileage 5w-30 . It is a very good oil with a very stout add pack , with some seal swelling properties that I think your civic would benefit alot from. It could be Mobil's best oil , it has a high flashpoint with a very low pour point as well .Its a stand out oil.


Execut1ve, I don't agree with this suggestion at all but you'll get lots of "out in left field" personal opinions on this website you'll have to sift through. It's not their best oil and the PP spec' is useless to your application.

My suggestion is not a "out in the left field" personal opinion. He said he was interested in a synthetic oil that would work well in his car. I never said it was Mobil's best oil rather one of their better ones. He needs a oil that would provide low and high temp protection and M1 HM will do that. M1 HM is thicker in viscosity than your average 30wt oil but it is not nearly close to being thick as a 40 wt. He lives in Ohio where summer time temps spike above a 100 degrees, why should he put in a 20 wt oil when 30 wt has done well for 234K . Just because Honda says you can use a 20wt does not mean thats the ideal oil for a well broken in engine in 100 degrees.When I said M1 HM was a better mobil oil,all you have to do is look at the add pack and it speaks for itself. I think M1 HM 5w-30 is an appropriate suggestion for a car that I think anyone would classify as a high mileage car for a owner who is thinking about using a synthetic oil in a 5w-30 grade oil.

No offence, but I don't agree with anything you've said.
I'm not a fan of M1 HM 5W-30 for many reasons, but one is it's low VI of 162 which is even lower than the regular M1 5W-30, the latter of which meets Honda's HTO-06 spec' and the HM version does not.
M1 HM 5W-30's HTHS vis of 3.4cP is undoubtedly more than the OP needs, but even if he did want an oil that thick a 50/50 blend of M1 AFE 0W-30 and M1 0W-40 will achieve the same thing but with a far superior VI of 182.
Even though the OP's Honda has a lot of miles on it, that's no reason to automatically assume a heavier than specified oil is necessary. Only if the engine's oil pressure was on the low side would a heavier oil be warranted or if his oil consumption was excessive.


You dont have to be a fan of M1 HM , doesn't change the fact it is a very good oil .As far as the difference between a VI of 162 or 182 , his honda will never know the difference. Im not assuming that because he has high mileage that he needs a thicker oil at all, however his honda will benefit from the slightly thicker oil at summer time humid 100 degree temps seen here in the U.S . M1 HM is also beneficial in this application due to the seal conditioning agents in the oil.Even if he has no consumption and normal pressure it will only help the car from preventing these problems in the future. Im not saying he HAS to use M1 HM , just that it would be a good oil for his car. I have used this oil in my fiancee's old 91 Honda accord which had 285K with saw -20 in the winter in WV and which saw summer temps of 105 in SC. The oil performed excellent until the we donated the car due to a rusted out body. Execut1ve use whatever oil suits you car , my suggestion as stated before is M1 HM , it served my fiancee's high mileage Honda well and would serve yours well.
 
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