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ORIGINAL: 19Accord97

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ORIGINAL: Accord Owner


Synthetic is junk according to my friend who has 30 years of experience in the car business. Stick to basics.

Castrol GTX is what he recommends.

5K or 4 months? What if you drive 10K in 3 months?

Well your friend is not the brightest crayon in the box....by far.  If he has 30 years in car buisness and claims Synthetic is junk, I would NEVER let him touch my car or even remotely accept his advice. 

There is no way synthetic is junk.  If so, why would Nascar, drag racing, and monster truck racing all use synthetic motor oil?  Because they are driving hard, and need an oil that wont break down under high heat or wear away their $50k motors or so.

Royal Purple is the best synthetic.  But any other oil that is fully synthetic and a common brand will do just fine for normal driving.  Synthetic lasts longer, and reduces friction inside your engine.  Less friction = less wear, longer life for the oil itself, and better gas mileage and hp.

As for "5K or 4 months? What if you drive 10K in 3 months?"  It means 5k or 4 months.  Whichever comes first.

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ORIGINAL: hondaed

I have always changed the oil every 3500 to 4000 maximum.

I do dis-agree with the granny-driving being a longer term on an oil change...Because Granny always drives slow, never gets on the highway, and only drives short trip intervals; she will put less than 6000 or 7000 miles on her car annually. This is a severe driving condition and she needs to have the oil  changed in her car at least every 6 months (regardless of the low mileage accumulated on the oil). The reason is because that oil never reaches operating temperature. There is a certain amount of moisture that accumulates in the oil during the internal combustion process and that moisture will not evaporate off if the oil never gets hot. This moisture causes the oil to coagulate (spelling?).  That makes sludge.

You can get the filters from a Honda dealer....One secret, if you can find them on the internet, Nippon is one of the OEM for that Honda Filter. At our shop we use a 14mm copper crush washer (non-Honda) that is only used one time (photo). When you tighten the oil plug, it crushes the copper making a perfect seal. It is much better than the aluminum washer that is on the Hondas originally.

In a mixture of city / hwy driving, change your oil every 3500 to 4000 miles....Want to do it right? Change the oil every 3750 miles. Do this because every 7500 you have a service interval on you Honda...Check the service interval section of your owners manual and you will see what I am talking about.

And always use the specified weight...Most late model Hondas Accords take the 5w20.

Ed Brian
Accurate Automotive, Inc.
www.accuratecars.com



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ORIGINAL: Accord Owner

Am I hurting the car by changing every 3K miles?

quote:

ORIGINAL: 19Accord97

quote:

ORIGINAL: Accord Owner


Synthetic is junk according to my friend who has 30 years of experience in the car business. Stick to basics.

Castrol GTX is what he recommends.

5K or 4 months? What if you drive 10K in 3 months?

Well your friend is not the brightest crayon in the box....by far.  If he has 30 years in car buisness and claims Synthetic is junk, I would NEVER let him touch my car or even remotely accept his advice. 

There is no way synthetic is junk.  If so, why would Nascar, drag racing, and monster truck racing all use synthetic motor oil?  Because they are driving hard, and need an oil that wont break down under high heat or wear away their $50k motors or so.

Royal Purple is the best synthetic.  But any other oil that is fully synthetic and a common brand will do just fine for normal driving.  Synthetic lasts longer, and reduces friction inside your engine.  Less friction = less wear, longer life for the oil itself, and better gas mileage and hp.

As for "5K or 4 months? What if you drive 10K in 3 months?"  It means 5k or 4 months.  Whichever comes first.

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ORIGINAL: finch13

quote:

ORIGINAL: Accord Owner

Am I hurting the car by changing every 3K miles?

In what way could you possibly fathom harming a car by changing the most vital fluid more often?

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ORIGINAL: jackkpts

You did not say in the original post what year your Accord is.  Do you have an oil life monitor?  If so, watch the oil life levels and change at the 20% or 30% rating.  If you''''re going to change your oil every 3K to 5K miles, one of the best oils and best price performance oils is the Motorcraft 5w20.  It''''s a semi-synthetic and has received rave reviews on Bob''''s the Oil Guy forums from users.  One of the member''''s companies ran a test on a number of oils and they found that this oil was the best of the semi-synthetics.  You can find it at Walmart everyday for under $11K for 5 quarts.  Top filters include Pure1 and Wix/Napa Gold, about $5 to $6.