what is the best type of oil to use with hondas? is there any particular brand that any ones uses that out performs the rest? and im hearing different things from different people about 10w-40 and 5w-40, what really is the correct type to use for a 2000 civic lx?

 

modern engines and oils make the choice less important. but if in doubt, just go with good old 10w-30. if you want, get a synthetic oil, then you can go about 7k before you change it. but you should change the filter about halfway through. and you can get a horsepower or 2 from synthetic.

 

Oil is another personal preference. But if you want optimal performance go with a full synthetic oil. As for weight and viscosity go with a thinner oil in winter and a thicker oil in summer. I use Mobil One 5w-30 in the summer and 10w-30 in the winter. If you have been using natural oil for a long time you might want to stick with it as synthetic oil is thinner and may begin to leak in some areas.

 

I belive synthetic oil is one of the only automotive attempts where something works almost better than it was intended to. Ive heard that if you run synthetic form day 1 your engine will never fully "break in" ALot of guys buy these cars and change the synthetic to reg dinosour oil for about a 1000 miles to break them in and then back to the synthetic to keep the lube at top notch. I have not done this and have to use only synthetic, which is nice not to have a choice but a DIY oil change can aproach 40 bucks very quickly.

 

why cant you switch back and forth? there both still oil... just the molicules in syn. are smaller and its from a better part of oil. i was explaned it like [ ( ) ] is what they use for motor oil out of crude oil and
[ ( ) ] is what they use for synthetic, so its just the best part of the oil.

 

that didnt work... it deleted my spaces, the first one is a big part, the second one is a small part, so they use a lot of junk for oil and use only the best for synthetic.

 

or you can use syntec blend which is a mix of syntec oil and traditional oil mixed together.

 

Synthetic is great!! I change my oil every 3-4,000 miles with 5w-30w castrol Full synthetic and I redline quite frequently with 160,000 miles with no leaks, burning of oil or any problems whatsoever! (knock on wood) For a car that only take 4 qts (civic) you might as well spend the extra $10-$15. Your car is worth it!

 

Its fine to switch back and forth but my car is onlu suppose to have synthetic. In my old si though I usally ran the blend to get the best of both worlds in on convenient easy to use package.

 

From my experience you can get that kind of performance from regulay dyno oil if you change it that often. Personally I feel Castrol is not a good synthetic oil. It leaves a black sticky film in your engine. I used it for a long time on my civic(now has 198,000 miles), but when I switched over to Amsoil it cleared up a lot of that black film and ran smoother. I have heard a lot of good things about Mobil 1 synthetic as well, but never tried it. If anyone decides to go synthetic I would recommed either one of those 2 brands(Amsoil or Mobil 1) and take advantage of the longer life of the oil. 7K minimum. I go 10K with a filter change at 5K on my supercharged truck. Every engine is different and will introduce different amounts of contaminants so I would suggest to send an oil sample to an independant lab after 5K, 7.5K, and 10K to see what interval works best for you.