Oil Change Question

[2527]

I get the oil and filter changed on my cars every 5,000 miles, using cheap standard oil, and have never had engine trouble with my cars, most of which I drove to the 100,000 to 135,000 mile range.

I recently bought a 2012 Honda Accord (standard 4 cylinder), and was having the first oil change done.  The mechanic said synthetic oil is recommended for this car.  It costs 2-3 times as much.

I would like to drive this car to 200,000 or more miles. (It currently has 25,000 miles.)  Do I really need synthetic oil, or can I use basic oil, like I have been doing with all my other cars since the mid-80s?

Thanks.

[Greg]

What does the owner's manual recommend?  Follow the manufacturer's recommendations and you should be fine.

[BlueMR2]

In the quest for higher efficiency, things have changed.  The tolerances have gotten tighter, heat ranges have changed (often towards the higher end), etc.  Modern cars are very well built, yet are much less forgiving long term about just doing whatever.  Following the manual is becoming more important.

A Toyota specific example from a bit ago is how they slimmed down some oil passages to bump up temperatures in some areas for emissions purposes.  Oil passage plugging problems shot up dramatically among people that didn't bother to read the manual, use the right oil, change it at the right intervals, etc.  While more robust in many ways, higher tech can often be fragile in unexpected ways...  :-)

[BlueBeard]

Check your manual.  You may have to use synthetic but that also may mean that 5K oil changes are not needed.  In the case of my prius its 10K.

[2527]

Thanks everybody.

[CDP45]

Go synthetic, and just do it yourself, it takes like 20 minutes. Mobile1 oil and filter

[Milspecstache]

Go synthetic, and just do it yourself, it takes like 20 minutes. Mobile1 oil and filter

Agreed! 

If it were me I would also do 5k mile oil changes as well.  If you are looking for max mileage out of this car this is a very small investment.  To anyone that will argue overkill I will point to my 220k mile van (3k dino oil changes) and my 270k mile truck (5k dino oil changes).  I just went from dino to synthetic on my newest car as I think it will go even longer with the better properties of synthetic.

If you want to go 10k you really need to do oil analysis by sending in a sample to a lab to ensure you are not harming the engine.  I will also tell you that if you ever have engine problems during the warranty period the first thing the dealership will do is pull an oil sample which will tell them if you have gone too long between oil changes.  Not a good place to be when faced with extensive repairs...

[snickers]

Check your manual.  You may have to use synthetic but that also may mean that 5K oil changes are not needed.  In the case of my prius its 10K.

My newish scion also recommends synthetic oil, at 10k intervals.  The odd thing is that the dealership is considerably cheaper than any of those quick lube joints. Time to bust out the owners manual