chinee

Yes. The fuel dilution is more prevalent on the CRV and although there's been a recall in China, not so for the US. No fix issued by Honda yet but there's been talk of updates to the fuel injector software. Apparently short trips or cold weather driving that does not allow the engine to get up to full operating temp to vaporize fuel left over in a cylinder, allowing the gas to seep into the oil and thus fuel dilution that significantly raises the oil level. I see more frequent oil changes in this Civic's future, maybe a step up from 0W20 to 5W20 or 5W30 to allow for the dilution.

ibidu1

iTrader: (1)

Many lexus cars have issues with oil consumption in the higher mileage cars, pushing your oil past 3,000 miles to me youre risking your engine, and if you plan to keep it longer replace the oil sooner. The older oil sits and the more mileage, especially if the car is driven in crap weather the oil will get contaminated and dirty. Giving you more friction! If it was a highway car with non stop driving then yes it would be ok to push it.

But once your engine develops sludge, because all engines have sludge. Gradually it will buildup blocking oil routes especially the piston oil control rings, once those get gummed up your rings lock into place and allow blow by and oil to get burned. Now you will need to have an engine rebuild to free up your rings all because you wanted to skimp out on an oil change.

Personaly I run regular conventional catrol gtx motor oil and change it 2500-3k miles, with oem filter.

charley95

Sludge days were back in the 80's with Pennzoil & Quaker State. Lexus must be risking a lot of engines recommending you change at 10k intervals. Hell, I don't even use dino oil in my small engines. 3k oil changes are rubbish!

bclexus

That is inferior advice to suggest changing engine oil at 3,000 miles. And, to use conventional motor oil when the car maker recommends synthetic is ludicrous...

chinee

Bogus statements.. please do some more research and update your knowledge-base.

coolsaber

while correct, and oil type and intervals are much debated topics, if a qualified rep from lexus only cares about the viscosity...and you really want to use conventional....by all means.

JeffKeryk

You are supposed to change it?

Heck, I live in sunny Silicon Valley, CA. I use 0w20, even in our 2006 TSX (once, anyways).
The TSX recommended viscosity was 5w30; I switched to 5w20 a few years back on a recommendation from the local Acura dealer where we bought the car.
I accidently grabbed the Idemitsu 0w20 off the shelf instead of the Mobil1 HM 5w20 I usually use.
I don't think Ms TSX knows the difference.
By the way, that Idemitsu stuff is really good; maybe better than the M1 I have been using forever.

All good. I would use the 0w20.

bclexus

I'm not sure where this fake stuff comes from - like when you said 'if a qualified rep from Lexus'. To me it sounds like it's just made-up crap. I guess I could say something like; 'if a qualified rep from Lexus said you could drive at any speed and for any distance with your foot hard on the brake pedal...and you really want to do it...by all means. Is that logical or believable?

The Service Schedule says to: Replace engine oil with 0W-20 oil.

To my knowledge 0W-20 engine oil is not available in conventional, only synthetic... So, using conventional engine oil does not meet the standards, regardless of what a 'qualified rep from Lexus' might say.

Knucklebus

Sure, no doubt. Just commenting that I've seen those things. Not pretty.

coolsaber

fair enough, and I`m asking again for laughs here....what is a synthetic blend partly composed of, specifically 0w20 that was put into the OPs motor?

mikesrx350

absolutely amazing that someone would advise using non synthetic when you can pick up a 5 qt high quality jug of synthetic for 20 bucks
mind blowing

bclexus

A 'synthetic blend' (sometimes called 'part-synthetic' or 'semi-synthetic') is made up of a combination of (what most experts believe is) no more than 30% synthetic oil (it could be as little as 1% synthetic oil theoretically) and the balance being conventional base oils. There is no regulation I'm aware of that mandates a minimum percentage of synthetic oil when using the term 'blend' or 'part' or 'semi' when referring to motor oil. As long as there is some synthetic oil in the formulation it can be considered a [so-called] blend. And, as good as conventional motor oil has become in recent years, blending it with 20% or 30% synthetic oil has been shown to take it to a whole other level of lubrication protection. That said, I rather doubt any top brand motor oil would make a blended motor oil with anything less than [say] 20% synthetic oil.

The cost to make a synthetic blend motor oil, where no more than 30% is synthetic oil, is much less than the cost to make a full synthetic motor oil. Nevertheless, a blended motor oil can be made (and sold) for significantly less than full synthetic. A lower selling price is really the only reason there is a market for the blended product. But there's a dirty little secret that plays a major reason for its existence. You see, an oil change can be 40% less when using a synthetic blend versus full synthetic. And this is where the rub comes in. How many dealerships and quick oil change shops are going to tell the customer they are getting a synthetic blend instead of full synthetic? All most people really care about when they get their oil changed is if the oil viscosity meets the car maker's service requirements. Not all 0W-20 motor oils are the same - just like not all wine and women are the same.

Basically it boils down to this. Conventional engine oils are tremendously good, especially compared to decades ago. Synthetic engine oils are outstandingly good. Car makers today (through exhaustive testing) are willing to require the engine oil and oil filter be changed every 10,000 miles (some car makers allow much more mileage) or once-a-year, whichever comes first - based on the fact that all 0W-20 motor oils have at least some reasonable percentage of synthetic oil, or is fully synthetic. That is more than good enough for the typical 10,000 mile oil/filter change. Truth be known - if there was a totally conventional 0W-20 viscosity motor oil available - that [too] would meet the car maker's approval as well.

Except to save money (which is important to many people), or to make more money (which is important to businesses that make some of their profits by changing oil) there is really no good reason to use a synthetic blend anyway. Synthetic oil has a much higher sheer stability, and a much higher thermal break down point. But, like so many other things in life we are given choices. In the case of 0W-20 motor oil we have a synthetic blend, we have a full synthetic and we also have the exotic motor oils like Amsoil, Royal Purple and Redline. If there was a totally conventional 0W-20 motor oil it would probably be rated Excellent, a synthetic blend would be rated Great, and full synthetic would be rated Outstanding, with the exotic motor oils rated Unbelievable (literally!).

The bottom line is - If you drove four identical vehicles exactly the same for 200,000 miles each, with engine oil and oil filter changes every 10,000 miles as recommended...and tore down the engines and measured the wear on the main bearings, rod bearings, cylinder walls, piston rings and valve guides - you would be hard-pressed to determine which engine had the conventional, the synthetic blend, the fully synthetic, or one of the exotic motor oils lubricating and protecting them.

Knucklebus

Agreed. Synthetics are the insurance policy. You buy it and hope you never need the protection.

mikesrx350

bc, i respectfully disagree,

i think you if you went 5-7k with conventional oil you would find much more wear and degradation over time than synthetic at 10k

but that's what makes the forum special a divergence of opinion
to each his own

in the ls500 and gs200 and is200 conventional oil would be a disaster

mikesrx350

should have added in previous post

if you changed the oil in a naturally aspirated v6 at 3-5 k thousand miles maybe thats the case
not with extended changes