when to change oil in NEW car?

[Robertslowpoke]

Hi! Thank you everyone for all your great help! My daughter's boyfriend just got a new Civic. i believe he does mostly highway driving. I advised him to change the oil, using MObil 1 after 500 miles. my friends tell me the engine parts fitting to each other in a new motor make metal pieces.

is this good advice? I did that in my 2008 DTS after 500 miles.

thanks! appreciate ALL your ideas!

best
bob

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Do a search - this is asked daily. Leave the Honda oil in for at least 2500 miles or the Honda recommended interval. Then I would do 2 more dino OCI. The new GF-5/SN oils are most likely as "synthetic" as you need. The oil filter is there to catch the "metal pieces".

 

[callbay]

What exactly is in this Honda oil that makes people believe it should be left in a long time for the first oil changhe. If it's so important, why don't all car companies put it in?

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Lots of moly to prevent galling and spalling during break in. Many cars have lots of moly from the factory=, some from assembly lube and other % possibly from a "suspect oil adddive". You could put the Honda dealer sold 0w-20 super-synthetic in which has near 10,000 ppm moly. No other oil I am aware of has near this much moly save redline and Motul 300v and possibly the Toyota 0w-20. IIRC, Honda specifically instructs owners to NOT change out the initial FF early - I am unaware if they still mention this. Read the OM if all else fails

 

[Jehartley]

I always change mine at 500 - 1,000 miles. I just bought a 2011 truck which I will be driving all HWY 120 miles a day round trip. At the end of the week I will be changing over to Mobil 1.

 

[sparky123]

Leave the factory fill in till 3750 mi, then do an oil/filter change. (Mobil Clean 5000 is great inexpensive oil. Do 2 oil/filter changes w/this oil @ 3750 intervals, then full synthetic if you're planning on going for even longer mileage (7.5k) oil changes.) I personally would not go farther on the FF. If it wasn't a Honda, I'd say change out the factory fill @ 1k mi. You'll notice the engine will run much smoother after your first oil change.

 

[SrDriver]

Go by your owners manual.

I don't think you will find that it recommends an early change of oil the first time.

Just follow the normal oil change schedules.

This has been asked over and over and over.

I have never done an early first oil change and nothing has blown up.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: Robertslowpoke
Hi! Thank you everyone for all your great help! My daughter's boyfriend just got a new Civic. i believe he does mostly highway driving. I advised him to change the oil, using MObil 1 after 500 miles. my friends tell me the engine parts fitting to each other in a new motor make metal pieces.

is this good advice? I did that in my 2008 DTS after 500 miles.

thanks! appreciate ALL your ideas!

best
bob



This is somewhat of an old wives tale. Years ago the manufacturing tolerances on engines were not as good and motors needed somewhat of a break-in. Nowadays, car engines are pretty much broken-in when you get them.

If it will give you peace of mind, change at 1000 and then go to a normal OCI. I have never changed the oil early on any of our cars and not once has it caused a problem.

If Honda wanted a special early change, they'd state that in the maintenance information.

 

[oilstudent24]

I say compromise-change just the filter and top off. The oil is probably fine, but I bet there are still wear in metals floating around. Save oil, save time, save money and still protect the new ride.

 

[Steve S]

You are doing good.

 

[SteveSRT8]

If it makes you sleep better go ahead and change it.

But the motor will not care at all. The whole Break-In thing is pretty much an old wives tale and has very little relevancy to any modern automobile.

My vote is drive the severe service interval and then change.

 

[demarpaint]

If I ever bought a new Honda I'd drive it home and put a filter magnet on the filter. Then I'd probably drop the FF at 1000 miles along with the filter. Fill it with something like PYB and a bottle of Lubro Moly or Lubegard Biotech Engine Protectant [which is loaded with soluble moly}. Run that until I had about 3,000 miles on the clock, and repeat dropping the oil & filter again at 6,000 miles.

After that switch to a quality synthetic oil and call it a day. Flame suit and hood on! LOL

 

[goodtimes]

No car says to change the oil early in the manual, as far as I have seen, for 50 years probably. I think when Honda says leave it in, they want the costly high moly OE oil to be used, not drained for some cheap subsitute many people will buy, and for no other reason. Or if it is required to "prevent galling and spalling", then their quality of machining is not up to par with other makes, is it.

The old theories hold true, the initial fill gets a lot of machining and other particles, just like 50 years ago, not all of which are caught by the full flow oil filter. Changing with the same oe Honda oil/filter early, like 1k, would be the best thing to cover all bases.

 

[qdeezie]

I know I'm going to take some heat for this comment, but I think you should stick with the normal OEM recommended oil change interval length. People that are not motor oil conscious that buy new cars do it all the time and they don't have oil consumption or other engine problems as a result. I worked at an auto dealership for a long time and saw this first hand. I've also done the same thing on new cars I've owned and engines I've rebuilt. I think that first OCI and the "metal particles" concern is WAY overblown. The purpose of the oil filter is to filter the oil before it reaches the internal engine parts. If metal particles are reaching your internals, your filter is not performing and you have a larger problem.

On top of this, from my own personal experience, I've owned new vehicles and changed to synthetic after the very first OCI and never had oil consumption or engine failures. We all want the best for our vehicles, but sometimes we get more analytical than what we need to be regarding the first OCI. For me personally, I will always go the manufacturer recommended OCI on the factory fill and change over to synthetic from the first oil change forward.

Once again, I know I might take some heat for my comment, but even though it's a new engine with a factory fill, the oil still has to serve its purpose, which is to lubricate and protect your engine and the filter still has to serve it's purpose, which is to filter the oil before reaching the internals.

 

[Robertslowpoke]

thanks to all. esp. demarpaint! where do I buy a filter magnet? do they really work? if you think they do, could install on all my cars.

i learned a lot as usual. i could not understand why to not change the oil early. i guess, if the original oil is BETTER, because it is loaded with moly, THAT is why!!!

thanks to all!!!!

bob

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Robertslowpoke
thanks to all. esp. demarpaint! where do I buy a filter magnet? do they really work? if you think they do, could install on all my cars.

i learned a lot as usual. i could not understand why to not change the oil early. i guess, if the original oil is BETTER, because it is loaded with moly, THAT is why!!!


thanks to all!!!!

bob


You can use magnets from an old hard drive, or buy filter magnets from a company like Summit Racing. Summit offers a few different brands IIRC. You can also Google oil filter magnets and you'll find many sources. I don't want to violate any board rules by posting links.

IMO a filter magnet is a good idea. You'll know why if you've ever cut a filter open that had a magnet on it, or saw pictures of one, especially from a new engine.

 

[goodtimes]

Lets say the full flow oil filter is catching ALL particles above 15 microns in size. Carbon particles, iron particles, sand, Al, etc. Take a look at 600 grit sandpaper, those are very close to 15 microns size particles. Those are running between the engine parts at very high speeds. Makes perfect grinding paste. When a car is new there are a lot more, moly in oil or not. In any case it is fine with me what other people do or don't do.

 

[hate2work]

It will not matter when you dump the FF.

Millions of cars have had it dumped early, zero problems. Millions of cars have gone the full OCI, zero problems.

Personally, I dump it early at around 1k. Then I dump that at 5k and continue on with 5k changes. I'm old school, and if there's still some manufacturing crud in there, I want it out.

The bottom line is do what you feel is right and sleep well at night

 

[moto94536]

yeap. I changed my brand new 2006 toyota camry oil change at 5,000 miles back in 2006. It is now 209,000 miles.

so for the brand new car, change oil at 4000 - 5000 miles, or follow the computer on your car.

Don't waste your money and time change oil at 1k mile. It is not gonna make any better for your new car.

 

[Audi Junkie]

I used to run a decent distance on the FF with my new Hondas, but after seeing some of the FF UOAs from the new VWs, I decided to do an early D&F at 1000mi in 2010 Tiguan.

All I can say is there were tons of metallic particles in the oil and it ran WAY better on the RP 15w-40 I used. It ran better again at 5k with the QSS 10w-30, so I feel like it was the right thing to do. I'm anxious to see how clean my UOA will turn out.

Moly is important, as it was explained to me it allows the cross-hatching to wear flat rather than getting rolled-over. So Mobil 1 has good moly and he'll be ok. Afaik, Formula Shell and QSS are high moly. Can't go wrong w/ Motorcraft, Havoline or PZYB either.