Opinion on Honda's 1.5 L turbo

P

penz08

Joined
Mar 3, 2012
Messages
121
Location
new brunswick canada
I am shopping for a civic, and found this 2022 Touring Civic sedan with only 15 000 km, price is decent.

Now, should I worry about the 1.5 turbo? Seems like this engine is being bashed for the oil dilution problem from years back.

Anyone have a 1.5 turbo with high mileage? I also heard it has difficulty to warm up in winter and I'm in Canada.

Thanks!
 
I was seriously considering a new Accord with the 1.5 turbo but ended up going with a new 2023 Camry instead because of the issues Honda has with the 1.5. Fuel dilution is a concern, though a minor one IMO as long as you are changing the oil early and often enough. My main concern was with the head gasket issues the 1.5T's are experiencing. It may be a small percentage of owners who experience the problem vs. total vehicles sold, but the number experiencing the problem is still high. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions but even I, a Honda fanboy decided to go with a new Camry instead of a new Accord due to the head gasket issue. I couldn't find anything solid enough to show that Honda even made any changes to the engine to correct the problem. It appears head bolts stretch over time allowing the head gasket to fail. However the failure mode, the cost to fix the problem is $$$ if it happens to you. That's just not something I wanted hanging over my head as the miles added up so I went another direction. I enjoyed driving the 1.5T during my extended test drive, it certainly excels at moving the car around in a pleasant and effortless manner but long term reliability still appears to be of concern.
 
We have several at work, been reliable for us they do use oil though. Nobody tends to check them so when I do not unusual for the stick to be dry or almost so. Not a concern for a BITOGer.
 
There's no real concrete evidence that the oil dilution problem has been solved

Anyone with a CR-V monitor it pre/post PCM reflash?

I'm seeing more and more reports of 2016-2019 or so 1.5 head gasket failure
Not so much the 2.0T engines, something about the 1.5 seems more HG failure prone
 
KCJeep said:
We have several at work, been reliable for us they do use oil though. Nobody tends to check them so when I do not unusual for the stick to be dry or almost so. Not a concern for a BITOGer.
Click to expand...
Does Honda make any engines that don't consume oil? I'm genuinely curious.
 
michaelluscher said:
There's no real concrete evidence that the oil dilution problem has been solved

Anyone with a CR-V monitor it pre/post PCM reflash?

I'm seeing more and more reports of 2016-2019 or so 1.5 head gasket failure
Not so much the 2.0T engines, something about the 1.5 seems more HG failure prone
Click to expand...
Exactly. As the miles add up there seem to be more and more head gasket failures. That made me wonder what was in store for the new Accord (2023+). Just because it's new doesn't mean Honda fixed the issue. No way of knowing until a large sample reaches 50K+ and I didn't want to be in that test group.
 
I have 2,200 miles on mine and it's still on the factory fill. I checked the oil this afternoon and it was black, I've never owned a new car that turned oil black in 2k miles. It also stunk like fuel and was higher than when I checked it at 1k. It'll be gone before the warranty is up so I don't care.
 
OP: check the 10th-gen Civic and Accord fora, where you'll find examples of 1.5Ts with hundreds of thousands of miles on them and no apparent consequences to the fuel-in-oil phenomenon that plagues them all. Based on that evidence, as well as the risk Honda would be taking outfitting their bread-and-butter models (Civic, CR-V, and Accord) with an engine prone to self-destruction, I'd say there's no reason whatsoever to worry about engine longevity.

As an aside, the K24 in my '08 CR-V has turned the oil black as night for the entirety of my ownership (15.5 years and counting). Am I concerned? No (for reasons not germane to this thread). It just keeps on running. I'd expect the 1.5T to do the same.
 
I've owned 4 Honda 1.5t engines, two in Civics two in CRV'S. Ran extensive UOA's on the 19 Civic and on the CRVs, non of them used a drop between oil changes. The 19 Civic using Mobil1 0w20 AFE and 5k changes was essentially perfect. The CRV'S, being essentially short-tripped a lot do much better using Mobil1 5W-30 EP changing at 3k intervals. One CRV is being traded on a 2023 Civic Touring Sedan this month. Will change the factory fill at 3k as per advice of my Honda Certified Master Technician, may try 5k intervals on Mobil1 0w20 EP and see if it does as well as the 19 Civic. CRVs are definitely harder on oil, Civics less so in my experience. I've been driving Hondas for 40 years, never had one use any oil between 5k changes, including a 91 CRXsi that I ran to 152k with 5k OCI's. I'm 75 and want one more Civic before I'm forced to get something I don't like. There are a crap-ton of 1.5t Honda engines ot there with 100-200k on them with far less care than mine get still spinning happily away.
 
I like the engine, a lot. And they do well with a tune. Like a great many modern engines, it has a known issue or two. Choose your oil carefully and change it more frequently than every 10,000 miles/16,000Km. Good maintenance practices and adequate knowledge will ensure a good result.


My 5.4L Ford 3V engine is very well known as "terrible" yet here I am at 200K trouble free miles, with no sign of impending trouble. The engine is as smooth and quiet as the day I drove it off the lot. I don't use 5W-20 here in South Florida, instead I use M1, 10W-30, and change every 5K. With the last oil change being 10W-40 as I can't find 10W-30 M1 anymore. My point: The higher viscosity protects the cam chains, and provides higher oil pressure, things this particular engine needs. The more frequent changes prevent thousands of miles of circulating dirty oil and the associated wear.
 
Speedy3861 said:
I've owned 4 Honda 1.5t engines, two in Civics two in CRV'S. Ran extensive UOA's on the 19 Civic and on the CRVs, non of them used a drop between oil changes. The 19 Civic using Mobil1 0w20 AFE and 5k changes was essentially perfect. The CRV'S, being essentially short-tripped a lot do much better using Mobil1 5W-30 EP changing at 3k intervals. One CRV is being traded on a 2023 Civic Touring Sedan this month. Will change the factory fill at 3k as per advice of my Honda Certified Master Technician, may try 5k intervals on Mobil1 0w20 EP and see if it does as well as the 19 Civic. CRVs are definitely harder on oil, Civics less so in my experience. I've been driving Hondas for 40 years, never had one use any oil between 5k changes, including a 91 CRXsi that I ran to 152k with 5k OCI's. I'm 75 and want one more Civic before I'm forced to get something I don't like. There are a crap-ton of 1.5t Honda engines ot there with 100-200k on them with far less care than mine get still spinning happily away.
Click to expand...
There is likely an ancillary reason for that.
 
Speedy3861 said:
I've owned 4 Honda 1.5t engines, two in Civics two in CRV'S. Ran extensive UOA's on the 19 Civic and on the CRVs, non of them used a drop between oil changes. The 19 Civic using Mobil1 0w20 AFE and 5k changes was essentially perfect. The CRV'S, being essentially short-tripped a lot do much better using Mobil1 5W-30 EP changing at 3k intervals. One CRV is being traded on a 2023 Civic Touring Sedan this month. Will change the factory fill at 3k as per advice of my Honda Certified Master Technician, may try 5k intervals on Mobil1 0w20 EP and see if it does as well as the 19 Civic. CRVs are definitely harder on oil, Civics less so in my experience. I've been driving Hondas for 40 years, never had one use any oil between 5k changes, including a 91 CRXsi that I ran to 152k with 5k OCI's. I'm 75 and want one more Civic before I'm forced to get something I don't like. There are a crap-ton of 1.5t Honda engines ot there with 100-200k on them with far less care than mine get still spinning happily away.
Click to expand...
Reason I asked is my Honda 2.4L consumed at least 1/2 qt per 3k miles up until 180k miles. So did my Toyota. Not sure what kind of crappy low tension rings Honda was using but oil consumption seemed to be rampant in that engine family. None of the Mazdas we had ever consumed any oil.
 
michaelluscher said:
There's no real concrete evidence that the oil dilution problem has been solved

Anyone with a CR-V monitor it pre/post PCM reflash?

I'm seeing more and more reports of 2016-2019 or so 1.5 head gasket failure
Not so much the 2.0T engines, something about the 1.5 seems more HG failure prone
Click to expand...
I have a 2018 CRV with a 1.5L that had fairly substantial oil dilution problems when it was new. About a year later I got the software update, and now all is good. The oil level stays right where I put it and it doesn't stink like gasoline nearly as bad as it used to.

Add that to the fact that the amount of complaints about this issue on this and other message boards has seemed to dwindle down to almost to nothing, and I'd say the problem has indeed been figured out.

I don't know anything about possible head gasket issues though. This is the first I'm hearing of that.
 
KrisZ said:
I would skip the 1.5t for sure. I’ve been reading about the head gasket failures more and more and I’m not even looking into Hondas.
There is a Honda tech on YouTube that claims to have done around 30 of them already, some as new as 2022 I think.
Click to expand...
^This. They have the same slotted deck like the ecoboosts that are having problems. Not sure if the spacing between cylinders is as tight as the ecoboost or not. They should be cross drilling those. The OEM's have gotten so cheap its pathetic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

chinee
17 Civic 1.5T, 81K on ODO, Pennz Euro L 5W30, 7,395 ODI
2
Replies
22
Views
2K
Danh
D
Oil and Liqui Moly MoS2 for brand new 2023 Honda CRV 1.5t?
Replies
7
Views
3K
Revving2Redline
P
2022 Honda civic; 2.2k miles on factory fill Honda 0w-20
2
Replies
20
Views
4K
Bullwinkle007
S
'21 Hyundai Tucson oil and filter.
2
Replies
31
Views
3K
KCJeep
J
Suggested Oil For 2022 Honda Civic Si - 1.5 l turbo
3 4 5
Replies
92
Views
25K
DAVIDO49
Back
Top