I have to add oil for the first time to my new car. I have a brand new Honda 2014 CR-V that takes 0W-20 motor oil. I have never heard of this oil weight, and I suspect it is ONLY a synthetic oil. My owner’s manual is not explicit about this…saying synthetic oil can be used. I reached back to the salesman (after service was closed), and he seems confident it is, indeed, a synthetic oil in the vehicle.
a) Does anyone know if 0W-20 is a rating for synthetic motor oil only?
b) I know you are not supposed to mix the two, but if I add 1 quart of synthetic oil…just how bad is it?
You might want to read the fine print in your owner’s manual. A lot of car makers are recommending lower viscosity oils simply for fuel economy’s sake but say you can still use regular old non-synthetic 5w-30 as a top off oil or if 0w-20 isn’t available.
Two caveats to that are that you do really want to confirm you can use it, via owner’s manual or some other definitive source from Honda. Some cars do really need synthetic oil at all times, although I’d be surprised if your CR-V were one. Also, if Honda is pairing the synthetic oil recommendation with a really long oil change interval (like 10,000+ miles,) you probably ought to trim that a little if you’re using non-synthetic.
There is no issue with mixing conventional and synthetic motor oils. You will even see national brands like Castrol and Penzoil offering synthetic/conventional blends in the bottle. If Honda does not specify synthetic in the owner’s manual, then the oil change sensor is already calibrated to conventional oil.
Don’t know if 0w20 is available as a conventional oil, I’ve only ever seen it offered as a synthetic.
I can’t imagine running an oil that light in 100 degree summers here in Texas. Everything I learned about engine oil was that 0w20 was essentially an Arctic weather oil. For most places in the world 5w30 was fine and in temps over 100 you would want a 10w30 or even a 10w40.
But that info is from long ago and far away. Highly paid Honda engineers have determined a 0w20 oil is perfect for their engine in all temperature ranges. But if all I could find was 5w30 conventional, I wouldn’t worry about using it. Running out of oil is far worse than mixing the two.
In the US at least, yeah. Most of the US and Japanese manufacturers used to recommend 5,000 mile/6 month changes when they used conventional. Since they’ve switched to the lower viscosity synthetics, some of them have bumped them up to the 7,500 mile range, but as far as I know only the European makes are calling for 10,000+ intervals.
When Mobil 1, the first automotive full synthetic oil, was introduced it’s ads stated that the oil would last 25,000 miles (one year maximum interval.)
Yes, it appears my car is set for 10,000 mile oil changes as the onboard computer displays the oil life (had I gone through a menu of settings). Thanks, all! …Personally, I’m surprised one Poster thinks 10,000 miles is NOT a long time between oil changes! Are you known as the “Engine Killer”?
There does seem to be a big difference between Europe and North America when it comes to oil changes. I remember being surprised when I first came here that there were shops advertising oil changes all over the place. I never saw that in Europe. And I certainly did not change my oil more than once per year, if that.
A lot of people have their car’s oil changed every 3000 miles in adherence with the hype being shoveled in their direction by dealerships and oil quick-change shops like Jiffy-Lube, both of whom make money every time you change your oil.
The manufacturer makes money when they give you a car that provides excellent durability and low maintenance costs cuz if they don’t, you won’t buy from them again. That maintenance cost includes the cost of oil changes. It’s amazing how few people follow the specification in the owner’s manual that came with the car, which generally specifies a change interval of 6000 miles or more.
It’s interesting to me that Europe and North America, according to your observation, are different in this regard. Why aren’t dealerships and oil-change shops in Europe promoting a silly-short oil change interval like they do here in the US?
Anything Xw-20 is pretty much at least semi-synthetic, and 0w-20 is probably fully synthetic.
Don’t listen to the people who say that xw-20 is too light in hot weather. There’s a viscosity that the engineers have designed your engine to run on when at operating temp (roughly 100 C/212 F) - in the case of a 20 weight oil, that’s somewhere between 5.6 and 9.3 centistokes (cSt). Your cooling system on your car will keep it pretty close to that 100 C point, summer OR winter, as your engine generates enough heat to make your radiator work in both seasons.
The lower number is a measure of the cold-weather performance of your oil. Your car probably wants an oil with a really wide swing- somethiing like a -10w-20 would probably work very well, if it could be made, as it would start out with characteristics closer to that 5.6-9.3 cSt range than other oils, and keep that as it warmed up. As it stands, even multigrade oils are considerably thicker in cold weather than at operating temps, although they’re much thinner than single weight oils.
Synthetic oils are kind of a funny category, in that there are multiple different sorts of “synthetic” oils. There are Group III basestock synthetics, which are typically, but not always conventional oils that have undergone a very severe refining and hydrocracking process. There are Group IV oils that are poly-alphaolefins (PAO) synthesized from ethylene gas. There are Group III oils that are synthesized from various oil and gas streams- slack wax, natural gas, etc… And finally there are Group V oils that are synthetic esters and other stuff that are more exotic. Some people get cranky and say that the typical hydrocracked Group III oils aren’t really “synthetic” as they are petroleum based. Others get really pedantic and say that anything that’s not poly-alphaolefins or esters isn’t synthetic.
By way of comparison, Group I, II and II+ are conventional refined petroleum that have either been solvent-refined (Gp I) or hydrocracked (Gp II/II+) to a lesser extent than the petroleum-based Gp III oils. However, the Gp III oils have much the same performance as PAO based synthetics, and so do the natural gas and slack-wax ones.
I wouldn’t worry about it- it’s likely that the recommended oil change interval on the 0w-20 will make it economical even if the oil is more expensive. Modern oils are staggeringly capable when compared with the ones a decade ago, not to mention vs. the ones of the 1990s. A 5000-6000 mile oil change interval is the equivalent of the 3000k one back in 1995, and a 7500-10000 mile oil change is more like a 6000 one was in 1995.
If you plan on keeping the car for 100,000 or more miles, go with a quality synthetic oil and stay with it.
If you are the type who likes to drive a new car every 4 or 5 years, just use the minimum recommended oil.
Aside from a 3% to 5% increase in gas mileage, the biggest reason for synthetic oils is increased engine life. If you trade in the car early, the next owner will gain from your paying for the better oil.
Are you sure about this? I have owned cars since the late 70s and have NEVER had a car go through that much oil unless it had severe problems with the piston rings.
Well, the 1 quart per 1000 miles thing is often the threshold at which they’ll do a warranty claim. It’s certainly not what I’d consider normal, nor would I be very happy if I had a new car that burned that much.
Although having to add oil between changes is becoming a lot more common because of the long change intervals. Burning a quart every 5,000-10,000 miles is pretty common, but if you’re one of those people who never checks their oil you never would have known back when they were calling for sub-5000 mile oil changes.
My 2005 CTS appears to suck oil into the EGR system and blow it out the exhaust at the rate of 1 quart about every 2 tanks of gas, about 800 miles. GM has no clue why or how to fix it. Naturally, it didn’t start happening until the car was well out of warranty. Never had a vehicle that used that much oil.
