2020 Civic Hatchback 1.5T/ 24000m/4000m OCI/Kirkland 0w20

later thinking after my post, my sons’s was a sport, and the sport did call for premium. When we bought it, we were told that the sport requires premium but the other models do not. So… please don’t take my post as universal - we ran premium in his as it called for it. It would run on 87 but recommends not doing so..
 
Just being devil's advocate's and throwing out random thoughts here, and CAFE standard aside, what's more logical?

1.A company like Honda not testing their GDI engines at all pushes 0w20 not knowing it would have dilution issues and oil thinning grade before the oil change interval

2. Honda knowing the engine can start with 0w20 and knows it dilutes and the car can run fine without issues with thinner grade oil so they don't recommend higher viscosity? (And perhaps even beta testing 0w16 in the process)

At this point almost all the debate on this dilution has been done in various places online, I don't think I have seen an engine blow up or die or excessive wear pictures yet on those that use 0w20, nor those with 5w30 causing any major damage either. Unless I'm wrong, but I think the key is always making the OCI shorter, no?
#2 is the logical answer, but of course much of this group thinks it’s all a conspiracy and they know better, because there are snake oil vendors out there who pander to their hysteria.

There has been zero indication that this thinning oil causes wear in these cars, literally NONE. Every time I ask someone to show me, they revert to the same canned response “you don’t think fuel in your oil is good, do you?” or “the engine hasn’t been around long enough” 😂
 
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All cars can benefit from premium gas some more than others. I use it in my Honda Sport getting over the manufacturer mpg. I enjoy the car and turbo and is a sleeper. Timing is always looking for MBT but can't reach it under most load conditions so more fuel is added. When I am at idle fully warmed up my timing is at 0 but it then adds fuel or subtracts fuel and timing correcting the fuel and timing maps. It also effects the load too.
 
#2 is the logical answer, but of course much of this group thinks it’s all a conspiracy and they know better, because there are snake oil vendors out there who pander to their hysteria.

There has been zero indication that this thinning oil causes wear in these cars, literally NONE. Every time I ask someone to show me, they revert to the same canned response “you don’t think fuel in your oil is good, do you?” or “the engine hasn’t been around long enough” 😂
Like what, a $30 spectrographic analysis?

And as far as pandering to hysteria, I generally see that on the other side of the fence. People that can't discuss the subject with technical facts and have to resort to name-calling and other methods.
 
Like what, a $30 spectrographic analysis?

And as far as pandering to hysteria, I generally see that on the other side of the fence. People that can't discuss the subject with technical facts and have to resort to name-calling and other methods.
Show me an analysis from a Honda 1.5t where the wear metals are elevated due to oil dilution…don’t worry, I’ll wait

Engine oil is there to lubricate the engine and prevent wear. If there is no unusual wear, I don’t really see the need to care about anything else.
 
I'm a longtime BS customer that recently tried out Oil Analyzers. I see no reason to send two samples to two labs if you're looking specifically for fuel dilution. Just use OA (IMO). I like BS universal averages, so I will always use them at least once on any new-to-me vehicle just to get those numbers, but otherwise I'm switching to OA. In addition to using gas chromatography for more accurate fuel dilution, they also provide oxidation and nitration results which BS does not.
The thing I can't stand the most about OAI is the horizontal layout. I prefer the vertical layout of BS labs. I just don't like BS labs overall.
 
Show me an analysis from a Honda 1.5t where the wear metals are elevated due to oil dilution…don’t worry, I’ll wait

Engine oil is there to lubricate the engine and prevent wear. If there is no unusual wear, I don’t really see the need to care about anything else.
This shows you have no idea what constitutes a test for wear. Which is generally the issue in this discussion, people put a lot into the UOA basket and nearly all of it is unwarranted.
 
Oil’s primary job to protect the engine, not the other way around. Despite what the contrarians here think, I don’t believe there is willful ignorance on the part of vehicle manufacturers to willingly build time bombs. Additionally, oil manufacturers are aware of the proliferation of DI engines, their inherent quirks, and the OCIs that they come with and again, I don’t believe there is willful ignorance on their part either.

There is lots of theoretical validity in not wanting fuel in your oil, and thicker oils protecting better. However it just doesn’t seem to matter in the real world. UOAs don’t show elevated wear, nor do repair numbers. I see lots of videos showing headgasket failures in the L15 turbo engines, so surely if engines were wearing out due to diluted fuel, we would know about it
 
Oil’s primary job to protect the engine, not the other way around. Despite what the contrarians here think, I don’t believe there is willful ignorance on the part of vehicle manufacturers to willingly build time bombs. Additionally, oil manufacturers are aware of the proliferation of DI engines, their inherent quirks, and the OCIs that they come with and again, I don’t believe there is willful ignorance on their part either.

There is lots of theoretical validity in not wanting fuel in your oil, and thicker oils protecting better. However it just doesn’t seem to matter in the real world. UOAs don’t show elevated wear, nor do repair numbers. I see lots of videos showing headgasket failures in the L15 turbo engines, so surely if engines were wearing out due to diluted fuel, we would know about it
It's not willful ignorance at all. Talented engineers at the automakers are spending great amounts of time and money to allow engines to operate with thinner and thinner oils without excessive wear. There is a large financial incentive to do so. Of course we are all paying for this engineering time and the resulting design changes.

Thinner oils are a legitimate way to increase engine efficiency. But other than the fuel economy increase there is no advantage to a consumer. I'd love to see a analysis of all the vehicle and engine changes due to CAFE demands and see if it has been financially advantageous. But the physics of wear hasn't changed and for me, I don't want to live on the CAFE bubble. Perhaps that's just because I keep my vehicles for a long time compared to others.
 
It's not willful ignorance at all. Talented engineers at the automakers are spending great amounts of time and money to allow engines to operate with thinner and thinner oils without excessive wear. There is a large financial incentive to do so. Of course we are all paying for this engineering time and the resulting design changes.

Thinner oils are a legitimate way to increase engine efficiency. But other than the fuel economy increase there is no advantage to a consumer. I'd love to see a analysis of all the vehicle and engine changes due to CAFE demands and see if it has been financially advantageous. But the physics of wear hasn't changed and for me, I don't want to live on the CAFE bubble. Perhaps that's just because I keep my vehicles for a long time compared to others.
So we seem to agree on this, and that's where I don't see the benefits of a thicker oil. Sure if there was a pattern of these engines running on thin oils not making it past 100k or 200k miles or something, I could see the argument, but right now people seem to be assuming there will be issues down the road when the data doesn't actually show that. The people who engineer the engines, and the oils, have more data from their real testing, than any anecdotal evidence we can find. Personally I have always run the viscosity that the manufacturers call for (except the car with a custom engine) and had no problem getting cars to 200k, but people like you who keep stuff longer than that, seem to be a dying breed. Cars are changing in design and technology faster than ever, and most cars will be too out of date for the majority of buyers, long before they reach their useful lifespan.
 
So we seem to agree on this, and that's where I don't see the benefits of a thicker oil. Sure if there was a pattern of these engines running on thin oils not making it past 100k or 200k miles or something, I could see the argument, but right now people seem to be assuming there will be issues down the road when the data doesn't actually show that. The people who engineer the engines, and the oils, have more data from their real testing, than any anecdotal evidence we can find. Personally I have always run the viscosity that the manufacturers call for (except the car with a custom engine) and had no problem getting cars to 200k, but people like you who keep stuff longer than that, seem to be a dying breed. Cars are changing in design and technology faster than ever, and most cars will be too out of date for the majority of buyers, long before they reach their useful lifespan.
I tend to agree that perhaps Honda would test equal to or more rigorously than mobile one, you can check out this video on how meticulously they test products.

 
I tend to agree that perhaps Honda would test equal to or more rigorously than mobile one, you can check out this video on how meticulously they test products.


There are an obscene number of complaints about this engine, which I've linked to before. This problem DOES manifest as creating real, owner angering issues due to the massive amount of fuel dilution it is prone to including engine failure, sudden engine shut-off...etc.
 
There are an obscene number of complaints about this engine, which I've linked to before. This problem DOES manifest as creating real, owner angering issues due to the massive amount of fuel dilution it is prone to including engine failure, sudden engine shut-off...etc.
Links to evidence of engine failure and shutoff?
 
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We went over all of this before in the thread that got locked. You are no more likely to accept that evidence now than you were then, I'm not wasting my time on you.
So you’ve got no evidence? These are all just conceptual ideas living in your head, rent-free? Thought so…😏
 
There are an obscene number of complaints about this engine, which I've linked to before. This problem DOES manifest as creating real, owner angering issues due to the massive amount of fuel dilution it is prone to including engine failure, sudden engine shut-off...etc.
Link? You can still share locked thread right?

Please share it because this is the first time I’ve heard of this, massive dilution should only lead to oil film not having enough viscosity to protect engine wear. I want to know at what mileage and oci it happened because of dilution, or is it because it caused excessive overfill of the oil sump so the engine shut off?
 
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Link? You can still share locked thread right?

Please share it because this is the first time I’ve heard of this, massive dilution should only lead to oil film not having enough viscosity to protect engine wear. I want to know at what mileage and oci it happened because of dilution, or is it because it caused excessive overfill of the oil sump so the engine shut off?
This thread:

Not sure if you saw @The Critic's recent 1.5T UOA, but it had 9.2% fuel:

The shutting off and disabling of the vehicle appears to be a result of the oil level getting extremely high. As noted in that thread, there's also an issue with valvetrain wear/failure that's associated with the high levels of fuel dilution.

Not all of them are going to dilute like crazy, it's very dependent on how and where the vehicle is operated. Short trips are not good, short trips and a northernly climate are worse.
 
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This thread:

Not sure if you saw @The Critic's recent 1.5T UOA, but it had 9.2% fuel:

The shutting off and disabling of the vehicle appears to be a result of the oil level getting extremely high. As noted in that thread, there's also an issue with valvetrain wear/failure that's associated with the high levels of fuel dilution.

Not all of them are going to dilute like crazy, it's very dependent on how and where the vehicle is operated. Short trips are not good, short trips and a northernly climate are worse.
Where does it say anything about the owner’s car shutting off, or having wear? Multiple people actually said “dilution is high but wear is ok”. Valvetrain is not even mentioned a single time

Stop spinning baseless theories as if they are facts.
 
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