I'm thinking of switching to synthetic oil now that my car has reached close to 19K.
Can anyone suggest the best oil & filter to use in the summer? I still intend on changing these every 4K.

PS: Loving my new ram-air setup... see my post from a few days ago.

 

i suggest honda filters and mobil 1 oil.

doesn't your car use the 5w-20 honda oil? you may want to stick with that till you hit 36K for warranty sake. or you could mix 2 qts of mobil 1 5w-30 with the honda oil to make a blend and do that till 36K.

 

I'd change your oil more often than every 4K. Lets just call it a cheap, but worthwhile investment....

 

4k is fine since it he has a 2002 with 19k he obviuosly puts the mileage on quickly which generally means lots of highway driving which is easier on the motor than 4k of stop and go city traffic.

 

i use castrol syntec and a k&n oil filter every single time. no problems yet, and she purrs like a kitten.

 

Actually I have had this car since Sept 20, 2001... so I've had it 21 months. That's low mileage, although it is mostly city stop-and-go. How often do you think I should change the oil, Honda says 4K for this part of the country.

 

I use Mobil 1 5W-30 and the Mobil 1 filter in my 2000 Prelude.

I change oil and filter as soon as the "yellow" shows up on the maintenance minder (6000 miles). I've been doing this since the car had 3,000 miles on it. I've got 73 K now and the car is running fine. Rev's freely to redline, has plenty of get up and go, burns no oil and gets 30 to 35 mpg depending on how I drive it.

There is no reason to use 5W-20 oil if it is not available, 5W-30 is fine (5W-20 is a fuel economy move to improve corporate avg fuel economy for the car manufacturers).

There is no reason to change your oil more often than every 6K if you are using synthetic oil, unless you drive in a dusty area or drive often on dirt roads. Stop and Go and hot and cold extreams are no reason to change more often IF YOU ARE USING SYNTHETIC oil. Remember, the advantages of synthetic are:
1) Flows more easily at cold temps, causing less wear at startup
2) Has much more resistance to thermal breakdown at high temperature, making it ideal protection in summer heat or stop and go traffic.
3) Has less of a tendency to breakdown over time or temp, meaning less internal engine deposits.
4) Synthetic oil actually has a simpler molecular structure than conventional oil, meaning that its viscosity will remain stable and not breakdown over time as conventional oil does.

A conventional 5W-20 oil will breakdown to a base 20 weight oil in a fairly short period of time. The synthetic 5W-30 oil will remain 5W-30 oil for the time the oil is in yoiur car. Which one do you think is better to use if no 5W-20 synthetic oil is available, 5W-20 dino oil or the 5W-30 synthetic??

Answer should be obvious.

The only thing to keep in mind is that wiht Hondas, keep the original oil from the factory in there until at least 3,750 mile because it supposedly has some breakin additives that Honda uses because of the construction of the cylinder liner (or cylinder wall finish in cases of FRM).

Oh, couple of more things about synthetic, because it flows more easily. you will get better fuel economy AND more power out of your engine.

 

http://www.knowyouroil.com/dyno.htm

Just some interesting info. on which synthetic is best.

 

that's not exactly independent testing when it shows up on amsoil's site. their whole marketing ploy is like that which is why i don't care for them. i'd rather buy redline oil if i'm going to pay $8 a qt. also that is 20w-50 race oil, which is doesn't mean much cause formulations for 5w-30 and 10w-30 will be much different.

 

Yeah I know, but it gives a starting point. Also search under about.com for some valuable information. Regardless, I've read good things about synthetic Mobil 1 Oil.