hey whats up, I'm new to HT.

I'm buying a Dyno Blue '11 Si sedan with navi tonight because I'm tired of breaking Subarus. with this being my first Honda as well as my first brand new car, I'm just wondering what intervals would be recommended for oil changes for the first few thousand miles, as well as the oil brand and weight you guys think works best. I don't plan on modding it for a while, but I'm sure I'll probably beat the hell out of it. I'd like to switch it to synthetic ASAP too. I asked the dealership and they wouldn't give me an answer because they would prefer I give them my money and let them do the maintenance.

thanks in advance!

 

RTFM?

If you don't know what it means, Read the ****ing Manual.

They give you an owner's manual for a reason, fluid change intervals, recommended fluids, etc are all listed in there. Everyone is going to have their own opinion on what brand of fluid, I'm sure the Subaru world is no different.

 

Id run synthetic. Nows the time to do it. I wouldn't really worry about a break in. Just drive the car like its meant to.

 

Honda recommends that you keep the oil that is in the engine for at least 2K, something about the oil they use for the 2K break in period.

I did that on the 2 new civic I bought I broke them in gently in that 2K slowly increasing the speed as I went along after they hit 2K I drained the oil and went to mobil 1 or any quality brand name synthetic the Si takes 5-30 weight oil, the other hondas take 5-20.

I switch around with my oils I like penzoil mobil and valvoline but on all my daily drivers I change my oil as soon as it gets sorta dirty so I change my oil anywhere around 1700 to 2K depending on how dark the oil is getting.

Buy a good filter stay away from fram, use Purolator Gold or a higher end filter I use the purolator because the price is decent and the oil stays cleaner longer, I pay for the way the filter preforms not the label on the box.

Make sure you pre fill the oil filter when changing your oil, it might be a little more messy but it saves you from the few seconds of no oil pressure when you start up after an oil change, I do this on all my vehicles.

Enjoy that si, I enjoy the hell out of mine, I do wish I bought one sooner instead of the ex's and lx's I bought over the years, If I knew they ran that good I would have not bought the others.

You can run reg fuel if you choose to, the computer will compensate by backing off the timing, I run reg sunoco and shell, I like the shell for the additives in the fuel to keep the top end clean.

 

WRONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
^ post above is right. Run conventional oil for the first few thousand miles, then switch. As MuffinMan mentioned, just follow whatever Honda says in the manual.

 

Well your buying the best color thats for sure. Every new motor has break in oil to help the rings and valves seat properly. Don't change the oil until you get to 15% of oil life.

Also in the manual it suggests easy driving until 600 miles, people do less and people do more. One Si I test drove I did a 2nd-4th gear run with only 2.7 miles on it. It really doesn't matter imo.

 

Dump the oil at 2K,@ 15% oil life the oil will be way past it, those oil life meters are for the cheap people who don't believe in changing oil until they absolutely have to, so they can save all the oil money for retirement.

 

No when it goes into the negative, then its for people to cheap to change oil who save for retirement. I think my first oil change was around 4400 at 15%. Your just wasting a lot of money dude.

 

Yes do not change the original oil untill you need to, if you read the owners manual it'll tell you not to change it because it has a break in additive in it. As for oil, I'm sticking with eneos...real good stuff

 

Your just an OIL changing NUT!!! I bet if you took the oil out of your car that you change every 1700-2K miles and had it sent out and tested I bet they would tell you that the oil is still good and could have been used for another 2K miles or so. I change my oil every 4k-5k miles. Always have always will. Did you know that BMW requires an oil change every 10K miles with synthetic oil? Changing oil that early like you do is nuts unless you have a big turbo setup or something.

 

If you are seriously concerned with oil change intervals, send out your oil to Blackstone to have them analyze the components. They can give you a breakdown and let you know what intervals you should be using.

 

Yes I know the oil is still good but it is dirty, I don't want dirty oil in my engines, the oil that comes out of all my cars is good for burning in a waste oil furnace nothing else.

When I can't afford to change my oils like I do I may stop, but I don't see that ever happening in my lifetime.

I ripped down engines that people didn't believe in changing oil, I saw the damage caused by little or no oil change maintenance I change my oil so I don't have to rip my engines apart.

When you sell your cars do you tell the people that want to buy it, "I change my oil at 10K" I bet they run like hell, I wouldn't buy it.

 

Did I ever say that I change my oil every 10K miles? Nope sure didnt. Go back and read what I wrote. I change mine every 4-5K, thats with full synthetic.

If you know the oil is still good them why change it. If its still good it shouldnt be dirty, unless you open up the oil cap and put dirt in it. Just bc it starts to decolor dosnt mean change it.

 

thanks for the answers guys. I didn't get around to picking up the car until this morning but I already got over 200 on the odometer anyway they told me to bring it in at 15% for the first oil change but they didn't really have anything to say about switching it to synthetic and I didn't find anything on it in the manual either. so I think I'm going to get it to 5000 on the Honda recommended oil just to ensure everything seats properly and then switch it to synthetic.

 

There's a pretty big difference between changing your oil at 2K....(which by the way is a bonehead idea on a brand new non-turbo Si)...... and changing it at 10K.

Tell me the last time you tore and engine apart that was sludged up from the customer changing their oil every 4 or 5K miles on a car. Most newer non-turbo cars now can go 5K between oil change intervals on conventional oil. And that's from the manufacturer....which I'm sure have done more tests than you have before they even mass-produce the car.

There's no need to dump the original factory break-in oil on a brand new Si at 2K miles. In fact I would highly NOT recommend doing that because if the dealer advises against it and the customer does it anyway and something goes wrong with the break-in process and the piston rings don't seat properly etc.....they might very well use that against the customer in a warranty claim.

 

First my civic has 98K it isn't new, I change my oil when it looks dirty to me, I only keep my cars for a short time and sell them, my 09 tacoma gets the same treatment the 06 civic does, my 10 corvette oil is changed at 1K.

I don't care what the next owner does when I sell it what ever it is, from what I can tell you about the 400+ cars I have owned and sold the customers appreciated it.

Imagine this 2 cars the same make and model are sitting on a lot, one had 2k changes and the other had 10K which one are you going to buy, my cars will always sell first and will sell for more money, that is guaranteed.

 

I'm not talking about 10K oil change intervals.....i'm talking about 4 to 5K. I can understand changing it out more frequently on a 12 year old car....but you were advising the OP to "dump his oil" at 2K miles on a BRAND NEW CAR. Not a '98 model. Completely unnecessary.

You say you change your oil whenever it looks "dirty"....but define dirty. If you're referring to the oil turning black that is not an accurate judgment of oil life. Most oil is gonna turn dark brown or black after the first few hundred miles of use.

The 10K interval reference made earlier I believe was referring to some BMW cars that have that interval stated from the manufacturer. Most likely because their particular formulation of oil they use probably allows for that kind of interval without negative effects. I'm not certain on that, but I would assume that is the reason otherwise they would be in serious ****.

 

Change your at 2k and change it to synthetic.

after that change your every 5000 miles.

More technical:

You want to wait til 2k miles, because you want to break in your engine with normal oil. Its not as slippery. You want to make sure you care close to 8k before you do you oil change. This makes sure every thing seats properly. After You want to change your oil at 2k in case you have any metal shavings and its safe to change to synthetic now.

You want to change your oil at 5k because that is when your oil filter loses its efficiency. The syntheic is not broken down, its black but that means its working and is supposed to be. But because you are changing the filter and only have 5qts might as well.


TIPS:

buy mobil 1 oil 5w-30 full synthetic oil at walmart/sams club only. Its the cheapest you will find. walmart has the oil packaged especially for them. Only place that sells 5 quart jugs. Your si takes so close to 5 quarts, just pour the whole 5 quart jug in there.

Get an WiX oil filter @ O'Rielly's , I personally think its the best bang for the buck, as far quality for what you pay. Its what napa considers there top of the line napa gold.

And its easier just to take your passenger wheel off when changing your oil filter, depending on your lift/jack situation.

 

So you dont keep your cars long but your civic if bought brand new in 2006 is going on 5years old. My parents dont keep a car past 3years. Great youve owned 400+ cars. I bet Honda has tested on over 400000 cars. Im liking their odds.

Imagine this two cars same model and make same mileage. One oil changed every 2k miles other (mine) 4k miles. Which one do you think they are going to buy? At that point it dosnt matter becuase the next owner dosnt know at what interval the oil was changed. I could tell them whatever number they want to hear. Someone might look at you and go hmm 2K miles. Seems like a low number either the guy is a dumb A$$ or hes lieing!

IMO I can see why the Corvette's oil is changed at 1k miles. My dad had a 06 vette. Was a garage queen, had 3K miles on it when he sold it and bought it brand new in 2006 with 3 miles on it. So the 1k oil change on the vette is ok because it gets maybe 1k miles on it every 4 or so months.

Rico yes I posted that 10k mile oil change interval about BMW. I looked at a s/c cooper and thats what the dealer was talking about. I was like wow 10K miles but thats what he said. Read it in the manual as well.

 

That is really tough to believe unless you work as a used car salesman.

 

I have bought and sold the cars I owned and used for the past 48 years, I started at 13 when I had my first car for a week and made a profit on it, then putting the money into the next car and the next and so on.

At one point in my life I knew all the used and new car dealers, in about a 50 mile radius of my home by name, and they knew me, if I saw something of interest on there lot I would make them an offer, if they accepted like they usually did I would take the car do the repairs it needed and sell it and moved on to the next.

Doing this made my money to live on, so I only took real jobs now and then if I had to or needed money to buy more cars, when I had to I used some local banks for seed money for cars in the way of personal loans and sometimes car loans, some banks I had dealings with did send me the tittle stamped with encumbrance paid because they knew as soon as I moved the car I would be in to pay off the loan I don't think that would ever happen today.

I don't think this would be doable today because new car dealers do not want to sell cars that need work to general public like they did back then.

I still do it today but on a smaller scale only 1 or 2 cars a year, but I do change my personal cars often.

Last winter I traded my 08 corvette 1 lt coupe with 1500 miles on it, along with my 08 Mazda Miata Gt hardtop with 3K on it for a new corvette gs convertible this corvette I may keep as much as 2 years, but you never know I may see something I like better like I did last year when I saw the GS sitting in the showroom.




I had all the toys outside moving them around to put them in the spots I wanted them in the garage winter toys up front and summer toys in the rear.

 

Fair enough, I didn't realize you had been at it for so long. Your story checks out.

What is the best car you have owned?

 

And even with all those cars, I wager he has never had the oil's consistency and content tested after any mileage interval.....

There's nothing wrong with having oil in the motor for 10k miles - IF the oil is still consistent and can provide adequate protection.

Again: http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

 

This.

Blackstone analyses have shown in some cases that changing the oil too soon can actually promote engine wear, just as running oil with contaminants or a depleted TBN can cause additional engine wear. I've seen the reports. Science > anecdotes.

 

If you only knew my friend...