I have always stuck with regular oil and for a long time have been using the valvoline maxlife for my 97 accord SE 4 cylinder. I have recently been convinced synthetic is a better oil, but with so many miles, should I just stay with what I am doing or make the switch?

If I do stay with regular oil, I was thinking about using castrol max life. What all do you reccomend?

EDIT - I don't have any leaks and this car doesn't seem to burn oil and shows no smoke on start up or during operation if that matters.

 

stick with the regular oil, you have too many miles to switch over to synthetic....go with the old saying on this one...If it Aint broke...DONT FIX IT.

 

as you can see there is and will be numerous mixed reviews about this topic.... I say it's fine, if you get a leak then chances are it was going to start leaking anyway, If you poured dish soap on a surface vs. cooking oil vs. water what do you think the difference in the size of the hole would have to be to make one leak and not the other? I switched my civic over at 135k and it was just fine and felt better, quieter.... I suggest Mobil 1 if you're going to do it... but it's your car do as you please but be sure you're pleased with what you do!~

 

What are the pros/cons of going to synthetic? My car has 191k, and I had heard that it isnt a good idea to go synthetic when you are high mileage. My wife's car has 80k, is that too high also?

 

personally i have always used regular oil,, BUT i change it every 2500-3000 miles ,, i am a firm believer to change oil and filter as often as possible especially when engine gets up there in mileage ..

even if you decide to go syntetic ,, contrary to what most people might say,, i still say change it no later than 3500 miles ..

 

Yeah having oil in for 10,000 miles just doesnt seem right.

 

Why does Honda say you only have to change oil every 7500 miles? I usually change mine every 3-4k, but thats just because I dont like dirty oil lol.

 

This is the way i look at it..
When casr is new all the passages are going to be clean, no dirt or build up of ant sort ,, so it is ok to wait a bit longer to change the oil, once you get up there in mileage , passages will be partially plugged and dirty so i like to change oil as often as possible ..

and as for Honda to suggest to change oil at 7500 or later,,,, keep in mind that once car is over 36k miles . it is out of their hands,, so apply that to what i wrote about when the car is new and all the passages are clean ,, car will be out of warranty by the time something might happen

I am sure some people will disagree ,, but i have worked on cars for many many years . i have used and reccomend regular oil and some of my customer have over 400,000 miles on their engines

 

Stick with what you've used so far & change the oil regularly. UK spec cars maintenance schedule is for 9000 ml oil changes, but 6 000 is bertter, use top grade semi synthetic 10-40 w.

A couple of points.

I've been told bny an engine tuner that a simple change to synthetic oil is not possible. You need to change oil and filter (of course) then do the same again after 1000miles, this is because the synthetic oil loosens the crud in your engine better than semi synth oil hence the early oil change THEN do it again at 3000 miles, because once again the filter may be blocked with newly dislodged crud. After that, change as normal, some say every 20000 miles for fully synthetic but I have my doubts.
Also, I've heard from a Honda tech. that going to 0-50w synth such as Mobil1 can screw up the VTEC operation, anyone can confirm that?

 

I changed over to syn on my civic at 155k and had no problems...i changed over to syn on my accord at 110k and have had no problems. The one thing that i do notice is better starts during cold weather...i'm talking like 20 degrees F or colder. There is way less noise coming from the valves, etc. until the engine reaches operating temperature. Had no oil leaks either. I'm with desert on changing oil every 3000k miles at least- whether its syn or dino.