2013 Accord V6 3.5L OEM 0w20 oil 5K oci

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2013 Accord V6, Honda oem 0w20, 5K on oil, OLM 40%, 75k miles on car. First uoa on this car.
Car makes a couple of cold short trips (1-2 miles) 3-4 mornings per week and rest of it is a mix of city and highway driving. Doesn't burn a drop of oil.

There is a bit of a story behind this uoa and I was surprised this report came out a lot better than I had expected. Here goes -

Every time the OLM dropped below 50%, there would a noticeable increase in engine noise, a noticeable drop in performance and there would be a fairly strong (at least to me) smell of fuel in the oil. At that point I'd scratch my head - should I dump the oil or trust the olm ? And eventually I'd take an intermediate approach of replacing the oil filter and then topping off with fresh oil - about a quart or a bit less. Total capacity is 5qt. The noise goes away, car runs smooth and performance is restored. I thought this means the oil has deteriorated significantly and I should expect a crappy uoa but apparently not so from this report. The only thing I can see is that the viscosity is at the lower end. I did not do a TBN thinking maybe from other other mineral, wear and viscosity numbers we could make a good guess. I was surprised to find high flashpoint and low fuel dilution.

So what do you guys make of this ? Curious to know what your thoughts are on this.


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Good report. Is this the full syn. or syn. blend 0w20 oil from Honda?



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So you dumped and changed this oil once before sending this to Blackstone?

Boring report for 5,000 miles. 7,500 miles easy with this combo. OEM Filter?
 
Take Blackstone at their word.

"This report looks great"
"Your Accord is running very well for the type"
"This engine is doing better than most"
"Run this oil another 2000 miles, then check back"
 
Originally Posted by SatinSilver
Good report. Is this the full syn. or syn. blend 0w20 oil from Honda?

Honda blend. Or at least as per the dealer, assuming they put in what they said.


Originally Posted by ad244
So you dumped and changed this oil once before sending this to Blackstone.

not sure what you mean but I "sampled" the oil, did not change it. The oil is still in there but with a new filter and a fresh quart.
Yes OEM filter.

So then what explains the decline and improvement I described before/after adding a quart of fresh oil ?
 
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Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
You'd better pull that outta there and never use it again no one's going to believe that report from a V6.
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Thanks
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and I dont baby it either. It has seen a few hot runs
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Originally Posted by youdontwannaknow
So then what explains the decline and improvement I described before/after adding a quart of fresh oil ?


Probably noticing the new additives in the oil for the improvement(smoother). The decline would be the additives losing some of their effectiveness would be my guess.

Do you notice the same behavior in the summer time or only in the colder months?
 
According to the OLM, if it's truly linear, you could go in excess of 8000 miles before it reaches 0%. I have no doubt that Honda sees vehicles go this far (or farther) so they are confident that their filters can handle that too. In fact, Honda still says to leave the filter on for (2) oil changes - when your maintenance minder says an "A" service is due, that only means change the oil, not the oil and filter. A "B" service means change both.

That said, it sounds like the oil filter may be the culprit for the sounds you hear. Pulling the filter isn't going to lose a quart of oil. Maybe a 1/4 of a quart ?? I really doubt the oil you add to top it off "helps" 1) reduce noise, b) improve performance, and c) dilute any fuel smell (based on the UOA, I think the fuel smell is in your head).

Try a different filter with a fresh oil change. I heard start-up noise with a WIX XP on my wife's Fusion so I quit using them. I use Fram FU or Motorcraft filters on it now and a Fram FU on my Infiniti. Our son does use a Honda filter on his '12 Accord V6 but changes the oil ~5000 miles.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
According to the OLM, if it's truly linear, you could go in excess of 8000 miles before it reaches 0%.


It's an algorithm that takes many different inputs into effect. Seems to be pretty accurate except for the V6 engines with VCM.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson

That said, it sounds like the oil filter may be the culprit for the sounds you hear.

Now that you mention it I do remember in one of these exercises just swapping out the filter, and the noise went down and the smoothness returned.
That means the oil flow or pressure could be the factor here.
 
As I said, my opinion is that 1/4 to 1/2 quart (that's being generous) of new oil won't change anything.
 
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
You'd better pull that outta there and never use it again no one's going to believe that report from a V6.
thumbsup2.gif




More like, 'they'd never believe it from a VCM V6'.

The non-VCM J-Series motors are fairly easy on oil.
 
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