2011 Honda Accord oil intervals too long????

[Fordiesel69]

At our state auction, I saw some budget rentals being auctioned off. There were 2011 Honda Accords with the 4 cyl engine, like new inside and out so the beater thoery I don;t totally beleive.

It had an oil life monitor and had 40 some percent left on all the cars. They all had in the 27k~29K miles on them. Inside the oil fill caps they were all varnished, and quite frankly too dirty to be this low of miles. The oil itself on the dipstick was dark, but not overly dark like it was over run.

At least our local car rental places do maintain theirs, I can;t say about budget. But what could be the reason why they are discolored so much?

 

[Zaedock]

[X]
....walk away..."yeah boss, it's done"

 

[tig1]

Too long oil changes will cause the oil to oxidize, causing varnish. This is a real problem for dino with these OLM when followed to close.

 

[Zaedock]

Originally Posted By: tig1
Too long oil changes will cause the oil to oxidize, causing varnish. This is a real problem for dino with these OLM when followed to close.


I've followed the OLM with my wife's Maxx and it's spotless inside. The valvesprings, rockers, and Al head all look new at 97K miles. All it's ever had is conventional.

I'm sure quite a few folks have been fooled by mechanics with a reset.

 

[chubbs1]

It seems the newer models' OLM systems are getting very liberal. I had a 2011 Honda Accord 4 cylinder for a few months and I was doing a lot of driving. I waited 8k miles and the OLM still read 40%. I could not wait anymore and dumped the conventional that was in there and it was absolutely black and smelled burnt. I did not trust the OLM after that nor did I like the car. I would have thought they were getting better but I am not so sure all conventional's can handle the types of mileage these OLM's are giving. Just my observation anyway.

 

[fdcg27]

2011 Accords as fleet cars?
That seems pretty rare.
What were the prices like in the auction?
If these engines were a little dirty internally, I'm pretty sure that a few 5K runs with decent oil and filter would clean them up.
They'd have to be far enough below new Accord pricing to be worth taking a minor chance on, though, unless you were buying them to put on your lot, as most bidders probably were.
To answer your thread topic question, who knows?
The only way to verify whether the oil has been run too long in any engine is to get a UOA complete with TBN.
Otherwise, you are only making a possibly educated guess.
As other posters have noted above, there is also no reason to believe that Honda's oil change intervals were actually observed.

 

[The Critic]

The 2011s require 0w-20, which is usually synthetic. I doubt fleets are using that oil.

 

[moto94536]

Yeap. I too have honda with MM. I don't feel comfortable changing oil guided by MM. Normally the oil good for 8,000 to 9,000 miles if I follow MM..

I just make my own guide. 4k-5k OCI with the dino oil..

 

[hattaresguy]

People tend to have problems following directions so I'm sure even though Honda probably spec'd a good 0w20, they got the best 10w30 junk that you can get in a 55 gallon drum. Cause what do those silly manufactures know?

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
People tend to have problems following directions so I'm sure even though Honda probably spec'd a good 0w20, they got the best 10w30 junk that you can get in a 55 gallon drum. Cause what do those silly manufactures know?

Also remember that fleets may have consulted the mfg for maint requirements. For instance, GM is not requiring their major fleet partners to use Dexos1 on the new GM cars.

See page 15:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/se...p;client=safari

 

[91344George]

Buying a fleet car, ESPECIALLY a "rental" fleet vehicle is a complete [censored] shoot. But you should bet on the fact that even IF the rental outfit did decent maintenance on the vehicles the idiots that drive them most likely did enough abusive things to create serious damage just after you buy them. Unless they have a decent warranty from the seller...don't walk, RUN away from these!

 

[Audioquest]

2010 Civic here with R18 engine. Followed MM for the factory fill, changed at 15% warning (about 8000kms). First oil change done at dealer, not sure of what brand oil was put in. Ran the dealer oil until the 50% mark on the MM and dumped it myself, but did not change the filter and did not reset the MM. Now at 10% warning on my mid-change oil and will let dealer do the change again when it hits zero.

Unless I'm running a synthetic, I'll continue to dump dino oil at 50% on the MM. Cheap insurance in my books.

 

[Quest]

Originally Posted By: Zaedock
[X]
....walk away..."yeah boss, it's done"


Yup! I've seen this happening all too frequently and frankly I'm not all that surprised.

Q.

 

[moto94536]

I really want a straight answer. Can someone contact honda whether to use dino or synthetic blend if the owner follow the MM to change oil..

 

[Zaedock]

Originally Posted By: moto94536
I really want a straight answer. Can someone contact honda whether to use dino or synthetic blend if the owner follow the MM to change oil..


Why not just give them a call? Some of us who posted do not own a Honda.

 

[dan_erickson]

Straight out of my 2010 Accord manual it basically says to use any premium 5w20 engine oil with a API seal on the bottle. You may use synthetic oil as long as it meets the same requirement and conventional and to still follow the maintenance minder.

 

[moto94536]

what is the definition of the premium 5w20 engine oil ??

 

[antonmnster]

We run 5-20 in our fleet. We made the switch from 1500 mile OCIs to 3000 miles a few years ago when they realized we were [censored] away money. But our driving is heavy-duty, 100% urban, sub 25 mph, high idle time stuff.

I'd want to know what the cars were used for, but I'd be comfortable buying one.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: moto94536
what is the definition of the premium 5w20 engine oil ??

Meeting API requirements.

For the Hondas that take 0w-20, I think the wording is still the same, but most 0w-20 oils are full synthetic. So I guess technically, all of the maintenance minder systems (except RDX) are programmed for "conventional API rated oils."

 

[Coprolite]

I use PU in my TSX, as it makes me feel more comfortable with the MM stretching the oil change to around a year and 10k miles...

If I didn't do it myself, it would be PYB...