Honda V6 engines and synthetic oil

I plan on buying a new 2008 Accord coupe V6 to replace my aging 97 VTEC-4 Accord coupe. I am considering for this new car to maintain it using synthetic oil and strictly use Honda stock oil filters. My 97 Accord with the 2.2l VTEC four is doing fine at 210K with Jiffy lube quality oil and filters every 3-5K with no engine related repairs. The engine is only lightly sweating oil at the gasket, and burning about

1/4qt every 3K or so. My engine is not as smooth as was new, but is still impressive in performance. I am wondering if any of you who use synthetic oil (such as Mobil-1) see any real world benefits (in addition to extended oil life) to Honda's modern engines especially V6 engines. I still plan on using quick-lube change places, although with synthetic I will bring them my own oil and honda stock filters. I considered doing my own oil changes, however I don't want to deal with ramps in my apartment.
Reply to
techman41973
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What do you expect to gain by using Synthetic? This is a serious question as I hear this all the time but I just don't understand... You have a ten year old car with 200k on it that still runs fine and uses less oil than would be considered "normal" on a new engine. If you buy another quality product and maintain it the same way it would be realistic to expect that in 2018 you will have another 10 year old car with 200k miles. Unless you are planning to keep the car and drive it until it won't move another inch I just don't see the logic in using more expensive oil and filters. For my use I know I will never see the benefit, if any, of using Synthetic. After five years or so I am going to be bored with the car and want another one.. I don't really care if the next owner gets another 100k out of it or if he gets another 200k.

Steve B.

Reply to
Steve B.

There's an oxymoron.

Reply to
High Tech Misfit

Very true.

But what I don't understand is why anyone would get rid of a perfectly running vehicle?

Consider that it's a known quantity and quality, it's paid for, etc.

I just don't understand the logic...

JT

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

I'm not completely sure I know which question you are asking, but I'll guess.

Since switching to synthetic in all my new cars I've seen no trace of carbon in engines with over 200k miles. I would not switch to synthetic on your older car with 210k miles as there is a good chance it will start to leak oil after using synthetic for a while. With the new car, no problem. Just use the type of oil and weight recommended by the manufacturer.

Reply to
John S.

not true.

  1. my car's 18 years old and switched to synthetic for the first time last year. doesn't leak a drop more than it did before [which wasn't much]. if anything, it now leaks less.
  2. "synthetics" are no longer really synthetics - these days, they're just a more refined version of the same base oil used in standard lubes.
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    mobil1 is only 5% "synthetic".
Reply to
jim beam

I was going to ask the same question. In fact, compared to most of my vehicles, his 97 is nearly new.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

It varies from vehicle to vehicle. I switched some vehicles and not had any leaks, others have leaked a lot.

Not sure what you are looking at or talking about. It's full synthetic. That MSDS only seems to be referring to some of the additives from what I see.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

you sure it's the oil and not some other problem that caused your leakage? how did you determine cause? my clunker is still on its original seals - and they don't leak running M1.

the oil industry invests a lot of money in ensuring that not many people are sure what they're talking about. oilco's have labs. they all know their competition's formulations. the only people that don't know are consumers since there's no constituent labeling requirements like other consumer products.

wtf is "full synthetic"? have you a legal definition? search an oilco website for their weasel wording on the subject, then report back with your conclusions.

correct - the 5% additive is the poly alpha olefin, the stuff that "full synthetics" are "supposed" to based on according to popular myth. good at percentages are you?

Reply to
jim beam

Well, it didn't leak and then the syn went in and within a couple days it was leaking badly from the valve covers. It cleaned out the crap around the cork. Ford 5.0 with 125K

In the power steering system there was a very small leak but enough to make it low on fluid. Topped it up with synthetic and the leak got much worse. Suctioned the syn back out and put non-syn back in and the leak slowed down again.

On another vehicle with zero leaks and 140K it didn't change things at all when I switched. Ditto on one with 120K.

I looked in the past but I'm not your research gopher. There was a big dustup when some of the other companies started using pretend syn instead of the real stuff like Mobile.

Yeah, like I said, it seems to be listing an additive. You'll note that the MSDS info does NOT total to 100% so clearly it's not the complete picture. Quite possibly "oil" is something that's not necessary to list on an MSDS whether is dino or syn.

Reply to
Ashton Crusher

MSDs dont have to show the total composition of any formulation. You have to list the hazardous components.

Reply to
<HLS

LOL. At least the leather main seal was impervious.

Reply to
Gordon McGrew

that's the point dude, the "syn" is the poly alpha olefin - and it's a minority component, not the majority base. mobil is still good stuff - i use it, but as this legal msds filing shows, it's no longer "the real stuff" it was once supposed to be. [maybe that's why there's no oil leak issues any more?]

seriously, check the web sites for the oilcos and read their descriptions of their "synthetic" oil products. they use brilliantly worded language that describes what synthetics /could/ be, but stop just short of saying that they actually use it. the reason i picked up on this is that you were propagating common myth about "synthetics", not reality. from what i can tell from msds info for various manufacturers, the only "true" [majority base] synthetics left on the market are the ester-based ones from motul and red line.

Reply to
jim beam

one more thing - which "syn" did you use? i used motorcraft semi-syn on my civic when i first got it [it was on sale], and oil literally dripped out of it so bad, the smoke from the main seal [the hard to get at expensive one] running onto the hot exhaust had you shrouded in smoke at traffic lights. i bought a full set of seals to fix the problem, but before i used them, for some other reason i forget, i changed the oil to castrol for a couple of weeks before i had the time to do the strip-down. and amazingly, all the leakage stopped. since then, i've been using either castrol or mobil, and she hasn't leaked a drop.

Reply to
jim beam

Synthetics are synthetics and semi- synthetics these days.... A semi- synthetic oil contains less than 30% synthetic oil.

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Mobil1 motor oils are still 100% synthetic motor oils and do not use conventional basestocks in the formulation.

******************************************* Thank you for choosing ExxonMobil products. If you need further assistance, please contact ExxonMobil at 1-800-ASK-MOBIL
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Reply to
tnom

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are you the industry shill that keeps deleting msds info off wikipedia?

Reply to
jim beam

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No. Just wanted to point out that even if you went out of your way to interpret the data in a negative way against Mobil 1, then you would still get between 80%-90% synthetic oil. The reason you don't get 100% in all interpretations is because Mobil 1 as most other manufacturers reformulate over time to make their oil better. Sometimes the better reformulation includes introducing non- synthetics.

Reply to
tnom

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> are you the industry shill that keeps deleting msds info off wikipedia?>

but it's not 80-90% pao!!! that's what everyone /thinks/ it is and it's not!!! pao is [was] "true synthetic". now, "synthetic" is just more highly refined dino.

Reply to
jim beam

Who's everyone? Mobil 1 is Synthetic oil. Synthetic oil can have any combination of Group 5,4 or 3 synthetic oil base stock. Mobil 1's base stock is POA (group 4). Mobil 1's base stock (POA) is a least 80%.

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Reply to
tnom

indeed, "any combination". hence modern formulations which are primarily group III with a little IV or V to make it look good. and where do you get 80% from? that contradicts the manufacturer's own msds filing.

let's read very carefully:

"Synthetic motor oils contain a high proportion of base stocks created from pure chemicals. Since synthetic base stocks such as PAO are essentially pure chemicals themselves they avoid the performance limitations imposed by the impurities present in conventional and hydroprocessed base oils. PAO synthetic base oils are therefore pure compounds containing none of the impurities found in conventional base oils derived from crude oil, as mentioned earlier."

ok, let's analyze: > "Synthetic motor oils contain a high proportion of base stocks created > from pure chemicals."

what exactly is a "high proportion"? high relative to what? like 6% is high relative to 5%? and what is "from pure chemicals"? if it's pao, why don't they say so? "pure" usually means one chemical. my left foot is "pure chemicals" if you want to be literal about this.

note the language "such as". note "base stocks" - plural. it doesn't say they /actually/ use pao as their base stock - they say "base stocks" plural and their msds filings prove pao is not their base. impurities are a totally different subject - muddying the water in fact.

that's a logical disconnect. you have a pure compound or a mixture of compounds. conventional base oils may not be as highly refined as group III's, but group III's are refined from conventional oils, not synthesized like pao's or synthetic esters.

Reply to
jim beam

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