Good Brand for DIY Oil changing

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Looking to buy a Decent brand that will work for Basic Oil changing for my family's 4 different cars all Honda and One Ford Truck. What can some of you more experienced guys recommend?

I plan on changing my Oil every 3k-3500 Miles, Honda Pilot with 165k on it now.
What Brand of Oil can you guys recommend as well? O=Riley guys say Castrol OIl is Decent.

Also looking to DIY Transmission fluid ever 15-30k as well.
 
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For a change interval that short, anything that's the right weight will work, I would buy the cheapest 5W-20 (assuming the Pilot uses 5W-20) you can find.

For the Honda auto transmissions, I'd run Honda's DW-1.
 
All your concerns and needs can be met by going to Walmart for SuperTech oil products. Conventional oil, synthetic oil, gear oil, ATF, coolants can all be found under the Walmart SuperTech brand name.

Since you have so many vehicles to maintain for your family.....and cost is an issue....you really can't go wrong with Walmart for your basic automotive needs. Their products, considering the price, are made by the majors for Walmart.
 
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At that short interval, just peruse the rebate/sale forum here and build your stash with whatever that meets your required specs.
 
Originally Posted By: mongo161
All your concerns and needs can be met by going to Walmart for SuperTech oil products. Conventional oil, synthetic oil, gear oil, ATF, coolants can all be found under the Walmart SuperTech brand name.

Since you have so many vehicles to maintain for your family.....and cost is an issue....you really can't go wrong with Walmart for your basic automotive needs. Their products, considering the price, are made by the majors for Walmart.


I would advise AGAINST using ATF from WM with SuperTech brand. Caused my 2010 Civic AT to slip whilst giving 18K mile drain and fills all the while up to 70K miles. Their Castrol Transmax multi vehicle import or Valvoline Max Life Dex/Merc each work but official DW-1 is only $7/quart shipped. The Castrol and Valvoline products are about $5.50/quart.

Do NOT put SuperTech ATF in your Honda. [size:17pt][/size]

Had great luck so far with SuperTech conventional oil, gear oil, oil filters (when they made them) and coolant.
 
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This year is 2015 not 1965, the current API is SN which is much better than SA, SB oil of the 60's. Oil change at 3000-3500 miles is a waste of resource, time and money with any name brand conventional oil, unless your trips are mostly 3-5 miles or shorter.

You should use oil life monitor and change oil when it goes down to 15%, if your vehicles don't have oil life monitor then change oil at 6-7k miles or 6 months whichever is first.

For oil brand, any name brand is good with reasonable oil change interval. Mobil, Pennzoil, Castrol, Valvoline ... are all good. Just buy whatever on sale with/without rebate, if the sale is very good then buy as much as you can afford and have space to store it.
 
Wow thanks guys, I plan on only doing the 3k Mile change on My pilot since it has 165k on it, Maybe overkill but I don't mind.

What oil filter is the Best Bang for the Buck if I do plan on doing the 3k mile change. I read that Napa Gold is Decent.

Only gonna stick with Honda OEM Fluid for the Transmission fluids.
 
Originally Posted By: CabKing65
Wow thanks guys, I plan on only doing the 3k Mile change on My pilot since it has 165k on it, Maybe overkill but I don't mind.

What oil filter is the Best Bang for the Buck if I do plan on doing the 3k mile change. I read that Napa Gold is Decent.

Only gonna stick with Honda OEM Fluid for the Transmission fluids.
if you're picking up NAPA oil filters, use their house brand oil too.

You could also switch to Maxlife if you'd like to help prevent leaks.

Go at least 5,000 miles.
 
I hear to stay away from House Brands for Oil.They might cut out some additives.

Are college Professor-told us only to Choose the Big Name brand only For Quality control.
 
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Originally Posted By: CabKing65


Are college Professor-told us only to Choose the Big Name brand only For Quality control.



Was that in English class?
 
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Yes, some of the small name companies might scrimp on additives, but that doesn't mean you have to stick with big name oil companies. You just have to be smart about which ones you pick.

Depending on where you are in the US, SuperTech oil (Walmart's house brand) is made by either Warren or Shell. Both have consistently shown to be a high quality oil. You can use them with confidence.

If you look at websites like PQI America, you'll see that other house brand oils are basically the exact same (Warren supplies house brand oil to a lot of companies), and that they're equally good.

NAPA's house oil is made by Ashland, the company that owns Valvoline. They acknowledge that their NAPA oil is slightly weaker than their full Valvoline line, but tests have shown that it's very close and the NAPA oil is very respectable. Again, you can use it with confidence.

When going with smaller oil companies or house brand oils, it's not about avoiding them all together, it's about being smarter with your selections. O'reily's, Advance Auto, AutoZone, etc, they're all big enough companies that they don't want to ruin their reputation with really bad oil. Again, check PQI America (http://www.pqiamerica.com/Feb2014/consolidated5w20ALL.html), and you'll see that a lot are very similar, and aren't bad oils at all. The small oil companies you should avoid are mostly the really small ones that you've never heard about. Explorer the PQI America website and you'll see that most of the oils that fail testing or are really bad, are from small companies you probably never heard of.

Also, unless you have a specific reason for doing them, 3k miles oil changes are wasteful. Modern oils can go significantly longer than that. So start with a quality oil, and try going 4k miles, if you're comfortable with that then bump it up to 5k miles. Again, unless there's a specific reason not to, I'd have no qualms with running SuperTech, NAPA's house brand oil, or lower price conventional oils like Mobil Super 5k for 5000 miles. They have consistently shown that they are quality oils that are up to the task at affordable prices.

As for filters, yes NAPA Gold filters are very good. They're made by Wix, which makes excellent oil filters.

Lastly, I agree with sticking with OEM fluids for the transmissions. I also agree with doing a drain and fill every 15k-30k miles. Should keep your transmission protected and running smooth for a very long time.
 
Hey sicko thanks Man that was a sweet write up, Just about done with Class-"Intro Automotive 065" .This is my Last week for Lab in Class and So now I'm looking for outside Opinions and options from People like you and others. Thank you for all your help guys.

My 1st DIY Oil change With the Pilot- Royal Purple and a K+N Filter on sale both for 44$ at O'Rileys.

Wish I found this Website before I bought all that.....and did the installment....

Now for Some of My own Tools, For Oil-Fluid's Changing What Brand's stick out for starting out with?
 
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Originally Posted By: user52165
Originally Posted By: CabKing65


Are college Professor-told us only to Choose the Big Name brand only For Quality control.



Was that in English class?


Easy, lets not beat up on a new member, he might have been using a phone or voice software. I easily knew what he meant.

Cabkin65, any major brand will serve you well for a 3k change. Royal purple really is a waste if you change it at 3k. Pennzoil yellow bottle is excellent as well as mobil. For a 3k interval i'd use the penn yellow bottle.
 
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Originally Posted By: CabKing65
Looking to buy a Decent brand that will work for Basic Oil changing

Brand of what?

You posted it in the Tools section, so what kind of tool are we talking about here?
 
Simple. Just look in the owner's manual and find which specifications and weight the oil needs to meet. Then go look on the oil shelf and find a name brand that meets those specifications and weight. There's nothing difficult, confusing or magic about it.
 
OP, please don't dump that Royal Purple at 3,000 miles. Let it go at LEAST 5,000 - preferably 6,000+.

Wix filters are great. OE filters are too. IMO, just avoid Purolator until they get their tearing issues fixed.

There are lots of great oils out there - anything that Walmart or the major parts houses sell should be fine. Just stay away from the cheap gas station oils that PQIA has identified as potentially harmful.
 
CabKing65 - run a little spreadsheet and total up the cost that will be saved by running 5k mile OCIs on 4 vehicles. Not just the $ on oil and filters (a good filter can easily go 2-3 5k OCIs), but also on your time.

5k mile on the cheapest dino oil, is no sweat. Review some of our UOAs here and save yourself some cash, time, and oil and go with 5k to start!

welcome2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: mongo161
All your concerns and needs can be met by going to Walmart for SuperTech oil products. Conventional oil, synthetic oil, gear oil, ATF, coolants can all be found under the Walmart SuperTech brand name.

Since you have so many vehicles to maintain for your family.....and cost is an issue....you really can't go wrong with Walmart for your basic automotive needs. Their products, considering the price, are made by the majors for Walmart.
Wallyworld oil is usually a Warren Oil product which is very good quality as reported here on BITOG.
 
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