I live in Pittsburgh and my daughter goes to college in Atlanta with her 2010 Honda CR-V AWD. As she'll soon graduate and stay there, the car probably will not be back here again. Today was her first "non-daddy" visit to a car dealer (Honda) for a recall. So I told her to have them change the oil while she was in there, even though the oil was "just" changed in July. I never thought to give her more detailed instructions and she is still too young and naive to even know that oil comes in different specifications.
I see on the receipt that they gave her (she emailed) that they put in 5W-20 oil instead of the 0W-20 oil required by Honda. The Atlanta dealer charged $3.27 per quart for the 5W-20 versus the $1.98 that the Pittsburgh dealer charged for the 0W-20 last July. I have no problem with the $1.29 per quart extra. My point in mentioning the pricing is that I can't imagine the Honda 0W-20 oil is synthetic for that money. That being said, will 5W-20 non-synthetic be any worse than 0W-20 non-synthetic? There are two issues here...one is that a "trusted" manufacturers' dealer (Honda) should automatically use the right stuff. The other issue is that, OK, if the dealer DID put the wrong stuff in, will it cause any harm? Specifically the Honda mileage minder assumes 0W-20. Will relying on that mileage minder now be invalid?
One other thought. Atlanta gets VERY hot in the summer. I can't imagine that this would be a reason to use the wrong oil, but perhaps the dealer rationailizes 5W-20 is better for that climate??
I see on the receipt that they gave her (she emailed) that they put in 5W-20 oil instead of the 0W-20 oil required by Honda. The Atlanta dealer charged $3.27 per quart for the 5W-20 versus the $1.98 that the Pittsburgh dealer charged for the 0W-20 last July. I have no problem with the $1.29 per quart extra. My point in mentioning the pricing is that I can't imagine the Honda 0W-20 oil is synthetic for that money. That being said, will 5W-20 non-synthetic be any worse than 0W-20 non-synthetic? There are two issues here...one is that a "trusted" manufacturers' dealer (Honda) should automatically use the right stuff. The other issue is that, OK, if the dealer DID put the wrong stuff in, will it cause any harm? Specifically the Honda mileage minder assumes 0W-20. Will relying on that mileage minder now be invalid?
One other thought. Atlanta gets VERY hot in the summer. I can't imagine that this would be a reason to use the wrong oil, but perhaps the dealer rationailizes 5W-20 is better for that climate??
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