Hello all,
I bought my car in April '04 (97 civic ex), and I got my oil changed from the
same place and they always used Castrol GTX. I moved to another state
a couple of months ago, after getting my oil changed, I noticed that the
car performed worse than usual, and a bit sluggish, ie. my fourth gear
acceleration was never THAT slow. Is is possible that after using a higher quality
oil for several years, that a lower quality oil would affect my performance?
I'm pretty sure this place used a cheaper oil, since its not an oil change place
and they dont mention anywhere what oil they use. If they used a good oil,
I'm sure they would say what it was. My car has 121k miles, what do you
guys think?

 

Bad news: it could be about a billion things.

Good news: Your oil is probably not one of them.

Is your check engine light on? maybe the fuel is of a lower quality where you now live. maybe it's hotter or more humid? maybe your car just needs a tune up and the whole oil thing is a coincidence.

 

sometimes depending on altitude your car will just perform worse. for example, my car runs like crap in denver compared to here in kansas city, just because of the altitude. keep that in mind.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Re3irth &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is is possible that after using a higher quality
oil for several years, that a lower quality oil would affect my performance?</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, since the shop would not have used a sub-standard oil that would be so terrible as to cause a noticeable reduction in engine performance due to increased friction. I'm not sure you'd even be able to find such an oil if you tried.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Re3irth &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">My car has 121k miles, what do you
guys think?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think it could be any number of things, including your imagination. A place to start would be making sure it's up to date on maintenance.

 

Well, the only thing I did for a tune-up was timing belt/water pump.
Is there anything else I should be doing as well? I hear people
mentioning cap/rotor/fuel filter etc. .. should I coniser changing those
as well? I also have original spark plugs. Maybe these need to go soon?
Thanks for the help.

 

If you're still using the original plugs, you really should think about getting new ones. They're cheap.

 

Anything else you guys recommend besides the timing belt and plugs?
Does anyone know of a reliable OEM dealer that will ship parts to my
place in maryland??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Re3irth &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Anything else you guys recommend besides the timing belt and plugs?
Does anyone know of a reliable OEM dealer that will ship parts to my
place in maryland??</TD></TR></TABLE>


Hondaautomotiveparts.com I get all my schwag from there.

I would do a distributor cap/rotor as well. I'm glad you're going OEM. Fuel filters can be had from wherever. They're like $20 or so.

The model of plug should be in your owner's manual. If you have no manual, hopefully some D series guys will chime in.

 

You said you already did a timing belt swap? If so, it's possible your cam timing is off by a tooth.

 

Also change your air filter and spark plug wires.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys.
I think I will order the fuel filter, distributor cap/rotor, plugs
and wires from that site. Is anyone around in the D.C. metro
area (im in Bethesda) that had done this stuff before, maybe
can help me put this stuff on. I figure shops will charge me a lot,
and if someone's done this before I'm sure its the same as
getting it done by a shop.

 

Those things you listed are straight forward and are direct replacements. There's really nothing you can screw up or should need help with.

 

Yea, that may be so, but I don't have a gapping tool/torque wrench
or any real tools. I just moved here for school and don't have much
of my stuff at the place I am staying. I figured someone would be in
the area that has the tools that can spend a few minutes helping
me out.. Am I being unreasonable?

 

i wouldn't say your unreasonable. just offer to pay for gas and some fast food for there time. also if your still running the same cap, rotor, wire's and plugs from 2004. you must not get the best fuel mileage your car can i have always changed mine every year. new cap rotor and plugs. wires and fuel filter every 2 years and i do oil every 25000 miles and oil filter every 5000 miles but i use amsoil so i don't need to that offten.


just so you all don't freak go here https://www.amsoil.com/storefront/asl.aspx
and read about amsoil. i didn't think it was safe till my buddy got his truck from his dad and we desided to rebiuld the motor his dad oses amsoil and has sence the truck was new. we figured with 230,000+ miles it was time to rebiuld it when we took it a part it looked like new inside and for a chevy V8 with that many miles i was impressed and his dad was never on time with the oil changes.

 

Oh of course I would reimburse gas. I was gonna pay less than a shop
would charge, I wasn't asking to get it done for free. So if anyone will
be around and wants to get together on a saturday or sunday please
PM me.

I never wanted to swich to synthetic because I never thought it was worth
for a car that I payed 4k for and have already got my money's worth on
it several times over.