Recommendation Needed... Short Trips and GDI Engine.

[SavetheRimBrake]

Oil dilution doesn’t actually matter, almost as meaningless as judging oil by smell or color especially at 5k intervals. I would stick to manufacturer recommended spec and carry on what you’re doing with the 5k intervals. Lot of hubbub on here about dilution yet nobody has ever been able to produce any evidence of engine damage as a result of thin oils even though they’ve been around for over a decade

 

[kschachn]

Fuel dilution is far from benign. HPL has noted some of the issues including increased deposit formation due to VII degradation and oxidation. Wear of course isn’t measured by a UOA, so for the most part the people that are defending fuel-thinned oil as are the ones that are already triggered by the notion that there is an actual correlation between HT/HS and wear. HPL also noted that fuel in the oil can interfere with the mechanisms of some oil additives (ones added by the blender.

Beware an agenda-driven defense of fuel dilution based on the highly ineffective method of a $30 spectrographic analysis. Note in the post above that it is actually a side defense of lower HT/HS oils, not actually a discussion of the effects of fuel dilution. You have someone defending an abnormal condition of the oil by using a metric that cannot measure the harmful effects.

 

[vinu_neuro]

My opinion....
Use the next higher viscosity oil with SP-cert and change that oil every 3-4k. Filter can stay on for two OCIs.

This.

 

[Revving2Redline]

^^ This - a good 5W30 is easy to find - and might have less VM ^^
Note - everything in my signature came with 0W20 - they run great on 5W30 …

spot on. If they are caught up in using a 0w20 only go with the boutique oils that have a even higher hths. Redline,High Performance Lubricants,etc come to mind. But in all fairness, finding a good quality grp 3 like m1 or Qsud would be a good supplement

 

[facility1]

get a good 5w-30 high mileage synthetic oil,and change with decent filter every 5k or so,,check or change pcv valve may help,,injector/fuel cleaner in gas tank also

 

[TiGeo]

15K a year I'd say 3 5K OCIS is just fine or even do 4 and shorten it a bit. Bump up a grade to 30 if that gives you piece of mind but I don't think there is anything wrong with your current situation w/r to oil color or odor...this is what a short-tripped DI engine oil looks like. A UOA will likely show "normal" and some fuel dilution if you use a lab that directly tests it.

 

[oil pan 4]

I have to change the oil in my wife's car more often, it has that GDI BS. In the winter I change it at about 3,600 and up to 7,000 in the summer. Winter is all short trips and the oil gets fuel in it then for summer has a road trip or 2 so going over 5,000 isn't a problem.

 

[AdmiralYoda]

Thanks everyone! Going forward I'll switch to a 5W-30 in the summer and 0W-30 in the winter and keep the OCI's a bit shorter to 3k miles, just because.

 

[DwightFrye]

There are much

Do you put in regular or premium gas? I'm curious if you've played with that and whether it impacted your fuel dilution issue.

I have run nothing but 91 octane gas in my CX 5 since new. That is the highest octane available here in California. The CX 5 ECU will adjust for 87 octane but you only get about 225 HP instead of the full 250 HP that you will get if you run 93 octane. I live in the mountains and prefer the maximum performance even though where I live 91 octane is currently $5.79 per gallon.

Fuel dilution was not an issue according to my Blackstone report although I was somewhat surprised by the slight viscosity breakdown. Not enough for concern with a 5000 OCI but I wouldn't go any longer between changes. The Mobil 1 EP formula is supposedly good for "up to" 20,000 miles but not in my car !

 

[VTECOverRated]

I have run nothing but 91 octane gas in my CX 5 since new. That is the highest octane available here in California. The CX 5 ECU will adjust for 87 octane but you only get about 225 HP instead of the full 250 HP that you will get if you run 93 octane. I live in the mountains and prefer the maximum performance even though where I live 91 octane is currently $5.79 per gallon.

Fuel dilution was not an issue according to my Blackstone report although I was somewhat surprised by the slight viscosity breakdown. Not enough for concern with a 5000 OCI but I wouldn't go any longer between changes. The Mobil 1 EP formula is supposedly good for "up to" 20,000 miles but not in my car !

Blackstone can't measure fuel dilution even if they tried 100x harder.
Use something else for that metric.

 

[PimTac]

Thanks everyone! Going forward I'll switch to a 5W-30 in the summer and 0W-30 in the winter and keep the OCI's a bit shorter to 3k miles, just because.

Unless your winter temperatures are way below zero I would just run 5W-30.

Keep it simple.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

I have to change the oil in my wife's car more often, it has that GDI BS. In the winter I change it at about 3,600 and up to 7,000 in the summer. Winter is all short trips and the oil gets fuel in it then for summer has a road trip or 2 so going over 5,000 isn't a problem.

You are keeping your wife's vehicle engine information a secret.
I am terrible at keeping secrets. I tattle-tale all the time. I tasted all my Mom's soaps while growing up.

 

[OVERKILL]

Fuel dilution is far from benign. HPL has noted some of the issues including increased deposit formation due to VII degradation and oxidation. Wear of course isn’t measured by a UOA, so for the most part the people that are defending fuel-thinned oil as are the ones that are already triggered by the notion that there is an actual correlation between HT/HS and wear. HPL also noted that fuel in the oil can interfere with the mechanisms of some oil additives (ones added by the blender.

Beware an agenda-driven defense of fuel dilution based on the highly ineffective method of a $30 spectrographic analysis. Note in the post above that it is actually a side defense of lower HT/HS oils, not actually a discussion of the effects of fuel dilution. You have someone defending an abnormal condition of the oil by using a metric that cannot measure the harmful effects.

This.

There has been a significant amount of information posted on the adverse effects of fuel dilution with links and screenshots from various bodies. One simply needs to utilize the search function to find this.

 

[dubber09]

I went Euro path with both GDI and MPI engines and do 4k miles OCIs in general - one as one is GDI and the other runs short trips often.
IMHO, VW504/507, C3/C2 and MB 229.52 certs in one oil make it much better oil than API SP and/or Dexos.
I buy oil on sale and use online promotions that Pennzoil runs making it cheaper than say Pennzoil Ultra Plat. while getting better oil than that.

 

[TiGeo]

Oil dilution doesn’t actually matter, almost as meaningless as judging oil by smell or color especially at 5k intervals. I would stick to manufacturer recommended spec and carry on what you’re doing with the 5k intervals. Lot of hubbub on here about dilution yet nobody has ever been able to produce any evidence of engine damage as a result of thin oils even though they’ve been around for over a decade

Quite different having an oil that is thinner and one that is thinner b/c it's got fuel mixed with it in terms of potential negative impacts.

 

[ChrisD46]

In my Hyundai 2.4L GDI (non turbo) engine I run 5W30 synthetic oil 4K miles / 6 months (whichever comes first) with my mostly large city , suburban driving habits ... I ran a couple of 5K mile OCI's in my Hyundai GDI engine previously and I felt I was pushing it : Oil was black and had a noticeable fuel smell when draining .

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

Answer: Higher viscosity oil.

If the automaker recommends a 20 weight move to a 30 weight preferably API SP. No oil can "handle" fuel dilution because we're talking about a low viscosity liquid, in this case gasoline, which is thinning the higher viscosity motor oil. In any case some fuel isn't going to be the end of the world and from UOA's I've seen as it appears that they all remain under the 5 percent range.

GDI will turn oil dark. They're like a diesel in that regard.

Lots of people over on the Mazda forum have moved to 5W-30 with no reported issues.

 

[oil pan 4]

I run ours in sport mode and make sure to take it on a little highway trip at least once a month.

 

[KCHOPS]

My wife has the same car, albeit a 2022 model and has similar driving habits. I run Valvoline Extended Protection 0W-20 and a Mazda filter. I change the oil and filter ever 5K and am just about due now. Pics of dipstick and oil for reference.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

There's probably a half million Hyunkias Theta 2 four cylinder TGDIs that have been ruined by fuel dilution, in combination with the manufacturer's bad advice to use thin watery semi-syn 5w20 oil for the manufacturer's recommended 7k OCIs.

How's that for proof?