Hello Guys,

What kind of engine oil would you recommend for a 1999 honda civic with a 1340 cc engine.

I just bought it and the previous owner was using a 40 grade oil. My mechanic is recommending that I upgrade to a 20w 50 oil.

What would be the advantage of doing that and what type of oil would you recommend.

Thanks

 

Personally I use 5-W20 Valvoline SynPower in my 96 and love it, but that would be a pretty drastic change for your engine...What is the climate like where you are? Seems like a super heavy oil for the application

 

Up here in the Great Wet Northwest I use 5W30 in the summer, 10W30 in the winter. Works just fine. Will occasionally throw in some 10W40 if it gets really super cold (happens about every three years). Like Tim said, depends on where you live.

 

Why would you want to use 5W in the summer then use 10W in the winter? You have the concept backwards, you should use the 5W-30 in the winter and 10W-40 in the summer. Reason is, the "W" number tells us how easily the oil flows when it's cold. So, 5W-30 will flow much better during cold starts then a 10W-30 will. You will probably find that if you swap your choices of oil around, your car will start easier in the wintertime. And most importantly, you will be protecting your engine (cold starts are a cold engine's worst nightmare).

 

Look on the oil cap, it says what you should use right there

And I don't know of any 1999 civics that came with such small displacement engines....I believe they're all 1600cc or higher. I don't have every variant of civic memorized so I could be wrong

 

I wouldn't limit yourself to what is on the oil cap/in the manual, but it's a good place to start... I too was thinking that the displacement you listed seemed too small, I have always thought that standard for that year was a 1600cc (or 1.6L), the same as my '96

 

You're right, I did get it backwards....write on the blackboard 50 times, "I will not post to the forum after 5 beers and I'm really tired", then go stand in the corner. Mea culpa.

 

We do have an "official drunk thread'