Which oil filter?
 

Changing my oil tomorrow (first time, woohoo)

Anyway which filter should I use. The AutoZone here carries Bosch, Stp, Fram, Fram tough guard, mobil, K&N. The mobil and K&N are too expensive for me so what about the others? Or should I go to the honda service center and buy from them? Also will I need to replace the washer or not?

For oil I planned on getting the Mobil 5000

I usually run Honda or Mobil. I would think a Honda one would be just as much as a mobil or K&N. Out of the cheaper ones I would go with Bosch, stay away from fram at all costs.

OK, I was just under the impression the honda filter was like $7 or $8 and the Mobil is about $14. I hadn't called my honda dealer so I'm just going by what I have seen online.

Purolator PureOne is really good too. Often good prices at Amazon, of all places...

Welcome to the forum!

Ditto Bosch/Puralator/Mobil...and NO FRAM!!! Do a forum thread search for oil filters, you will get plenty of info. Here's a good article:

http://www.ntpog.org/reviews/filters/old_filters.shtml

P.S. If you plan on posting alot, add your vehicle info in your signature...it helps alot.

--Bigdawg

$14 for a Mobil1?!?!? I pay $10-11 for those...

WTF man...

I got all the stuff I needed for the oil change and I couldn't do it.

I put the jack in the middle under the engine on the frame part of the car and jack it to the highest the jack will go and it's not high enough to put the jack stands under on those spots by the wheels. I tried putting them on the frame on opposite sides of the jack but then it wasn't high enough for me to do anything. I could reach the drain plug but no way I was going to reach the filter.

I'm pissed man, wtf.

Should I just drive onto a high curb and try to change the oil like that? I don't want to waste the stuff...

On the K-engine, I find it easier to reach the filter from the top. Remove 1 bolt bracket for the P/S hose on the corner of the valve cover. Reach down behind there to remove the filter.

Hey I dont know if anyone has an Advance Auto Parts Store near them but they are having a pretty good sale:

5qts. of Castrol Full Synthetic + K&N Oil Filter for $25 bucks

or

5 Castrol GTX Conventional + FRAM Filter for $15

thought i'd pass this along....

I'll give this a try tomorrow, thanks.

Another way is remove the wheel & reach in alongside the axle. But I usually get it from above.

Thanks for the help guys. I was able to drain the oil by using the jack stands on the frame and changing the filter from above under the hood.

Definitely feels like its running smoother now too :D

I noticed a little bit of rust underneath, should i do anything here?

Next, I have 65,000 miles now. When do you recommend changing some transmission fluid, 75k?

why is fram oil filters a bad idea?

also, would genuine honda motor oil make a big difference from using conventional motor oil of any other brands?

thanks!

Search the net for how Fram makes their oil filters, you'll see they're not of very good construction.

Honda Genuine Motor Oil = Mobil1, it's on the back of the bottle.

Honda Genuine/Mobil1 are 100% synthetic, conventional oil is not.

thanks for the info.
i still have a couple of fram filters... probably just gonna dump 'em

wow! good to know that honda genuine motor oil is actually fully synthetic?
does that imply honda requires, or at least highly recommend fully synthetic motor oil?

if i've been doing this wrong (been using conventional for 65k miles for my 01 accord 4-cyl.), i think i should change it back to either fully synthetic mobil 1 or simply its rebranded honda genuine.
but i heard that there are some risks during the process of going from conventional to synthetic, and some extra procedures might help to minimize the risks... i researched this for a little while, but still can't come to a confident conclusion :confused:

Yes, Honda oil is 100% synth. Honda does NOT require you use synthetic, but is is recommended, and it is what they fill it with at the factory. If you want to make the switch, I think the Honda oil is more expensive than a quart of Mobil1, it makes no sense to use the Honda stuff and pay more money since it's exactly the same thing.

The biggest concern from switching is the possibility of leaks. All of the molecules in synthetic oil are small and uniform in size. Conventional oil molecules vary in size. So, where a big conventional molecule would get trapped by a seal or gasket, a smaller synthetic molecule may slip by and this is where the majority of leaks stem from. You should be fine if you have fairly low miles on the car (under 150k).

thanks finch13!

i see the light now.
i've been wondering why is synthetic a devil since it "causes" leaks in some people's experiences... now, i see that your analysis makes perfect sense and it's really not synthetic oil's fault.
but i really wish i knew that the oil they put in my car when i first bought it was the mobile1 fully synthetic! then i wouldn't need to worry about this transition at all now.

yea, i'd assume that honda genuine motor oil, which is rebranded from mobil1 anyway, would be much expensive... everything from any dealer is more expensive than its equivalent, right? ;)

so, i guess i'll start using mobil1 fully synthetic... i think i might use both an oil extractor pump and the drain plug to try to get as much old conventional oil out as possible for this transition

a couple more questions about the transition:

1) would it be a good idea to drain and refill again after i already refilled with new synthetic oil for this transition and had the engine run at idle for a couple of minutes?
this way will probably leave very minimal conventional oil in and the cost is just about 4 qts of mobile1 fully synthetic... probably $25 bux

2) i've read somewhere that for the transition, the new synthetic oil must be of the same viscosity as the old conventional oil in the car, is that so?
oh, is that because we want to have the molecules in about the same size?

thx again for any inputs :)

1) You can mix the oils with no problems, they won't interfere with each other. That single oil change is going to get real expensive, real fast where it wouldn't be worth it. Just refill the oil with synthetic and use a good filter (pretty much anything except Fram).

2) The oils will probably be the same viscosity, I've used only 5W-30 on my car for I dunno how long... ages. This would be different if you do the winter/summer oil thing.

I'm going to try it
 

Looks good to me!!

Automatic? I'd change it a lot more often than 65k.

Manual? Yeah, change it. I changed the oil in my 2003 5-speed at about 60k miles. It was a little dirty, so maybe I'll go 50k instead.

Don't bother. No harm with the residual petroleum oil. What do you suppose "Semi-Synthetic" is? Almost all synthetic oil has some mineral oil in it to cause the rubber seals to swell similar to petroleum oil.

The seals shrinking was common for early synthetic oils. Like in the mid-1970s when Mobil-1 first came out. They've probably reformulated it a dozen times since then.

Yes, it's AUTO.

I'll change it soon then. How much do you reckon I will need and how often afterwards should I do it?

Not sure about the 7th-gen auto, but maybe 3 quarts? Check the owner's manual. If I remember I'll look in my Helm book.

On an automatic the torque converter doesn't drain, so you can only drain about 1/3 of the total fluid. If it comes out clean, then maybe change it every 30k or 40k miles.

If it's dirty, then drive around a day or 2 & change it again. And again until it's clean. Then every 30k instead of 40 or 50.

Amazon has a great price on Purolator PureONE. $10 for 2.

You think it is worth it to stock up on these? I was thinking to order 20 of them for $102 including taxes and free shipping.

So easy to change my own oil I don't see myself going to a garage ever again.



And I'm also thinking of ordering some fluids from HandaAccessories. Brake and power steering. Also was going to order like 10 Honda ATF to change the fluid and have extra in case it is dirty and I need to change again. Should I just drain out and replace the 3 qts every 1 year or something to keep it clean after that?

The ideal thing is change "often enough" so it doesn't get very dirty in the first place. Hard to tell how often that is, because you don't really see much dirt on the dipstick.

1) If it drains out really clean then you don't need to repeat. So then you've wasted money buying all that ATF right now.
2) If it drains out dirty, then you WILL want to do it again after driving around. So you order more ATF & maybe duplicate shipping charges.

Your choice. Either way the consequences aren't very serious.

If the ATF drains out clean at 65k miles, GREAT, then you've found an acceptable interval. IF it drains out dirty, then you have to use some judgement for the interval (after you get it clean).

I just was in Autozone, and they had the Purolator Pure One for my 97 Accord and I think the price was 5$ and some change. Have you checked the price at your local auto parts store to give you an idea how much your really saving on price/tax.

I used the PPO filter in the past, never had any issues.

I used PPO or WIX(=NAPA Gold) . I usually use the WIX oversized filter 51344 on my car.
You can buy all types of WIX filters and very good prices at www.filter1.com . Free shipping on $50+ .

I never have problems with FRAM.....

FRAM is horrid. FYI the STP filters are made by the same peeps that make the Bosch/Mobil 1 filters

there isn't much price difference between FRAM or STP
then I might as well stick to STP just be on the safe side