8 mile Commute (16 miles Round Trip) I have some ?

[2civics]

My wife has an 8 mile trip, 16 miles round trip, to work. (What constitutes short tripping? 15 miles and under?)

We use Mobil 1 EP in her car. (We get it for $29.00/jug at Wal-Mart) She does get longer trips in to burn off excess moisture every other week, often highway miles to boot.

What would the OCI recommendation be? Do I have to run several oil analysis to get a true idea? Is this the wrong oil completely? If I do, do I have to get the extra $10 TBN? I'd rather not have to pay a full $35 for an oil analysis.

We live in Indiana where we got some regular -20 and lower temps this past winter. I am concerned about the shorter trips, cold starting, and the like. The car has 62k miles on it. It's a Honda Civic (2009).

I apologize. I am pretty new to all of this. I just know enough to ask questions. Any help is appreciated.

 

[dlundblad]

I talked to some guys from Blackstone (based inf Fort Wayne) at a car auction last summer and they said getting the TBN wasnt worth it FWIW.

What is your factory recommended OCI? If you wanted you could just go to the regular M1, but honestly I think a quality conventional would be just fine with her driving.

Just shooting from the hip, but i'd say 5-7.5k intervals with conventional.

 

[supton]

What does the owners manual say? 5k, 7.5k, 10k?

I wonder if spring/fall changes is sufficient; if doing 10k/year do conventional, if doing 20 use synthetic. Between and flip a coin.

 

[razel]

Short trip to me is 3-5 miles. As long as she is getting the coolant up to temp during her trip, which is probably the case, then the occasional run on the freeway to get oil to do its job is fine. That run though, you need at least 20 mins of highway speeds after the coolant is at temp. No worries though... just go 10 mins one way. Stop a bit to enjoy the scenic route, then run back.

Recommended OCI would be 1 year or 5k. Yes, an oil analysis will provide you the true OCI. Get the $10 on the TBN later well after your 1st oil analysis. It's an easy useful gauge as to whether you can take the oil longer, but if after your 1st analysis you see exaggerated wear then obviously back off on the OCI miles... no need for the TBN number to tell you.

Also realistically after running oil analysis on many cars, feel free to use dino API SN oil instead of the very high end Mobil 1 EP. I have a friend doing 20k Mobil 1 oil changes. His car burns 1 quart every 2k so he's literally nearly always with new oil. No oil analysis, but his late 90's Honda Civic is @ 215k. SM/SN is oil fantastic these days. Two work cars that I maintain in my family with 25 mile commutes, oil analysis from SM oil is telling me that dino can confidently go 10k on both cars.

But I stop at 10k since it's an easy number for me to see on my odometer and is also the perfect number to do my maintenance all in one morning (oil filter, rotate tires) then every 20k (air filter, trans dump, turkey baster the power steering, brake fuild)

 

[2civics]

Factory OCI isn't given. We have the maintence minder which runs an average of about 6k or so.

So the 8k miles isn't that severe?

 

[Pesca]

Go check the UOA section, there is a 11 CRV UOA with about the same questioning.

That will give fuel for thoughts for yours.

 

[2civics]

Checked 9 pages of UOA's. Not seeing the UOA you are referring to sir.

 

[bigt61]

Change it every 10k on any filter you choose. It will be fine. Regular M1 or PP could also do that. Likely even SuperTech Synthetic IMO. As always, keep it topped off.

 

[deven]

Seems like you/wife puts about 10,000 miles a year. The M1 EP can easily do 15,000 miles a year so I'd just change it out once a year!!

 

[Quattro Pete]

How many miles per year do you put on? If not that many, I'd just change the oil/filter annually and call it a day.

 

[Pesca]

Originally Posted By: 2civics
Checked 9 pages of UOA's. Not seeing the UOA you are referring to sir.


Link to the 11 CRV UOA

I know this is not the same engine, etc..., but it is a short tripping car, and a Honda engine, so it could give you a good starting point of suggestions

 

[Oldmoparguy1]

My wife had a similar commute. She drove a 2000 Dodge GC 3.3 for 13 years. I mostly used M1 5W-30 and changed it At 1 year. At 153K miles we replaced it with a 2013 Dodge GC 3.6 and now change the oil by OLM, or 1 year/10k miles using M1 0W-20. . I have pics of the valves at 150k when I changed the valve cover gaskets. They were like new.

 

[camrydriver111]

Originally Posted By: deven
Seems like you/wife puts about 10,000 miles a year. The M1 EP can easily do 15,000 miles a year so I'd just change it out once a year!!

I do the same with my car. I'm now doing ~9000 mi, 8 mile commute one way, 1 year OCI.

Some BITOGers are really conservative and worry about short trips and city driving too much.

 

[Unicorn01]

I used to only drive about 10 miles to work, most of it freeway. If I didn't change my oil around 3k mi, I'd get a yellow sludge from the water buildup. In the winter my engine wouldn't even fully warm up.

Right now, I wish my drive was anywhere near that short of a distance.