Do you guys change oil by the miles (every 3k or 5k) or do you guys change it when the car tells you to (0% oil life)?

I'm creeping up on my 3K and my car says it still has 70% oil life...

I know to change the oil when its dark and thick like chocolate!!!

 

i go by the oil indicator.

 

Change it when your oil life is at 15-20%. Check your oil periodically though to make sure it's not getting too dark.

And...........

........no you don't want to wait until your oil is dark and thick to change it......that's where the problems happen because it's losing or has pretty much lost most of its viscosity and waiting that long leads to sludge buildup which will not make ur engine happy.

Bottom line.... change it either when your oil life reads 15-20% or every 5K miles. If you know you're an aggressive driver then changing it more frequently won't hurt either.

 

If I use a regular oil and have gone 3k, and the oil indicator displays 50% oil life left, Is it ok to continue driving until the oil indicator percent goes down to 15-20%? Or is it best to just change the oil?

 

Oh god it's happening again. If the engige oil life display says 50 or 70 percent left, then why wouldn't it be ok to keep driving? Don't increase the operating cost of your car. If that's what Honda suggests you do then do it! They made it like that for a reason.

And as far as waiting until the oil is dark and thick, that is not a good indicator of when to change the oil. Synthetic oils which I'm sure we would all agree that they are superior, start out darker than lower quality conventional oils. Also I've owned 3 civics, a prelude and all cars turned the oil black hundreds of miles after an oil change. Small displacement, high revving engines without oil cooler tend to do this quickly. Some motors keep the oil nice and gold for a long time. Usually larger displacement low revving pushrod V6 and V8's

What would make you think you should second guess Honda engineers?

However these rules don't apply to me. I change my oil every 2000 miles but that's becuase my car makes rediculously absurd amounts of power. And the large precsision turbo needs fresh synthetic oil to keep smokin bitches!

 

So what have we learned? When the oil life says 70 percent change it right away because it can't be write. And when the check engine light comes on just reset it and don't get it checked. When the car's tachometer goes into the red zone don't shift.

 

*rolls eyes*

it's ridiculous to change your oil every 2K miles too. I changed oil every 3K or even 4K miles (if i was lazy) on my turbo'ed coupe and the turbo was in damn near perfect condition when i sold it after 3 years

 

Wait untill 15-20%.

 

Amazing, isn't? Honda "dumbified" the maintenance process and yet, these questions still comes up.

And the Owner's Manual answers all the questions.

 

because your suspose to change regular oil every 3k miles and if its been 3k since last oil change and oil starts too look like chocolate but oil life says 50%, your saying to listen to the oil life your car is telling you and keep on driving?

 

honda spend a shitload of money engineering this car, they know more about oil life in it than any of us. if using standard (non-synthetic) oil then just follow the oil life meter, if using synthetic then use your judgement. my oil finally hit 15% after 5.5k miles but since i'm using synthetic i'm probably going to go another couple thousand before changing it.

the only people that say you need to change oil every 3k miles are those places like jiffy lube, and the companies selling the oil. no dealer tech will tell you to change it every 3k if he's halfway competent. oil is supposed to get black, that's what oil does. just because it doesn't look brand new doesn't mean it's not working. my oil after 5k miles still has a little golden color to it, so i don't know how black your oil can be after only 3k miles.

 

services will be called at 15% then honda says come in for the recommended services... BS! here were i work iv seen (when it shows 15%) customers comming in between 4,000km-17,000km before it calls for a service.... BS!! i think there is no way in hell oil should be changed at 17k.km!! thats the blood of your car.... for me what i do is when i hit 60% i do my synthetic oil change BUT i dont reset the light.. then i drive untill it hits 15% and do anouther oil change THEN i reset the light... then again it just costs me around $25-$35 for oil n filter n labor is free coz i work for a dealer...

 

The manual says change it when your oil life indicator hits 15%, i'm sure the manual isn't wrong.

I even called honda and they said they dont recommend replacing the oil until the indicator hits 15%.

 

i go like every 5k give or take and i never check my oil and its never been low Mobil 1 syn oil and mobil 1 filter ftw

 

i just had my oil changed today. I use the oil indicator on the dash, it went to 15%.

amsoil synth 5w30

also have the amsoil synchromesh in the tranny too. been running both for almost a couple of years and love it.

 

Wow. You think 300-400whp is "rediculously absurd power"?? I consider the 800whp Supras, Skylines, and Kenne Bell Cobras to have absurd power. Not your car. Sometimes I wish I had one just so I could put cocky arrogant people who think turboing their Hondas makes them Gods of the Streets in their place.

I swear...people like you make me want to punch a bunny rabbit right in the f**kin gut.

 

so what makes you smarter than honda's engineers? i'd love to hear about your engine engineering background. you're throwing away money for nothing, especiall since you're using synthetic. one of the advatanges of synthetic is that it doesn't break down as fast as conventional oil, meaning you can do oil changes less frequently. if you're going to change oil that frequently you might as well buy the cheapest oil and filter that you can find.

 

stfu... u put me down on all my posts come to were i work see the s*** i see then u can talk... n y would u care what i spend? yes synthetic does last longer as they say but i wouldnt care what oil is used.. oil is used to clean n lube engine parts what happens when s*** get dirty? somethign as small as your hair can blow a motor. fresh new oil = happy engine

 

i don't care what you waste your money on, i'm just curious how you're justifying it. you seem to think you're smarter than the engineers that designed the engine; i'm wondering what you're basing that on.

also, if you don't care what oil is used, why do you use synthetic? you're saying that it doesn't matter, and yet you spend the extra money for the more expensive stuff.

 

How in the hell did this become an argument about who knows more about engines. Some of the people on here have some of the biggest e-tudes I have ever seen, its so damn dumb!

 

So many bad attitudes, so little facts.

How many of you have actually had your oil tested? I would LOVE for one of you to drive until your dummy light says 15% useful life and then send the oil for testing to see how much useful life the oil actually has left.

 

I have a question, sort of related. I don't drive my car much, only about 500 miles a year. Do oils really age? I mean, if it has been a year and my oil still looks like new, does it still need to be changed? I just don't know if oil seperates after long periods.

Anyway here know?

 

Here's one:
http://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...326437&fpart=1

 

 

Thanks, this is what I thought. Guess I could have checked the manual as well.