I just took over the maintenance responsibilities on boyfriend's 99 Accord EX 4 cyl. I have a '94 Toyota Camry V6. I have generally bought the house brand oil at O'Reilly's for oil changes and top offs, but I'm trying to maximize the engine life on these vehicles because we don't need any car payments.

I've heard negative things about Pennzoil in japanese cars, and generally good things about Castrol, but is there any truth to them?

What brands do you use in your Hondas?

Does anyone know the original manufacturer of the different chain's house brand oil? ( I think I remember O'Reilly's being Valvoline and Autozone being Pennzoil, but did I make that up? Anyone know about Advance Auto Parts' and Napa's?)

Any opinions or feedback appreciated. Thanks!

 

You are probably opening up a can of worms on this topic on motor oil brands.

I never read anything about problems with various brands of motor oil on Honda engines. I haven't read much about Toyota engines, because I have never owned a Toyota.

I would use the proper weight oil outlined in the owners manual. The manual should say to use motor oil with the API certification seal for gasoline engines, so check for that seal on the oil you buy.

Change the oil and filter at the recommended intervals in the owners manual. I read testing where the pureone, purelator was a good filter when dissected and compared to other store brand filters.

And probably the most important, check your oil level regularly. Add oil when needed. Running your engine on low oil pressure will cause damage. Checking the oil level can also give you a heads up on a possible oil leak if your find a significant loss in oil.

 

I've heard WalMart house brand (SuperTech?) is OK. But sometimes you can find name-brand oil on sale here & there if you keep your eyes open. Advance-Auto-Parts runs a 5-quarts-plus-filter deal rather often.

I like Castrol GTX, but that doesn't mean I've heard bad things about other oils.

 

Check out the forums at bobistheoilguy dot com....tons of info/opinions there.

In a nutshell...all brands (incl Pennzoil) work just fine in Hondas/Toyotas/Buicks/etc. when changed at the proper interval. Most folks (including me) stock up whenever they find a good sale or clearance oil. Personally, I would rather use a name brand (QS, Pennzoil, Mobil) over a house brand, but that's just me. In the end, it all boils down to personal preference.

 

The differences between brand-name oils are minimal and probably not worth arguing about. The people telling you one brand is better than another probably have something to sell you.

I maintain about 6 small engines, plus 4 cars, and I use any "regular" brand, including castrol, penzoil, mobile (both regular & synthetic). Read the owner's manual, and change according to the book. More frequent is not necessary.

 

From what I've heard, the oil Honda uses (puts their label on), is actually Mobil "clean 5000". I use Mobil 1 myself.