| Paul Mon |
Each day that I go to work I drive my 04 Pilot 4 1/2 miles (one way). It then sits for 9 hours and most of the time is driven 4 1/2 miles home. During initial break-in I drove a various speeds under different conditions. But because of this short drive to work each day I chose to do the first oil change at 3500 miles and the second at 7000. I consider my driving habits as severe, because of this short drive each day. Therefore, I've reduced the interval between oil changes to 3500 miles.
What are some other opinions of my service interval?
Would you consider this short drive as severe?
BTW, I do my own oil changes and have used Pennzoil 5-20W for the first two changes.
TIA..............Paul Mon |
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| Aggie Pilot |
quote:
Originally posted by Paul Mon
[B]What are some other opinions of my service interval?
Would you consider this short drive as severe?/B]
Your service intervals are right on with the type of driving you are doing. The short drives definitely qualify as severe service since the 4.5 mile trip to work does not allow sufficient time to heat the oil enough to rid it of any moisture that can accumulate.
Are you driving any extended distances (i.e. 25 miles or more) on weekends? |
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| Paul Mon |
[QUOTE
Are you driving any extended distances (i.e. 25 miles or more) on weekends? [/B][/QUOTE]
Yes. But almost every workday morning is a 4 1/2 mile trip. The afternoon ride home may include some additional stops. But in the winter when its cold and snowy the afternoon ride is usually straight home. That's why I'm inclined to change oil a little more frequently. I suppose I could recycle the Honda's oil in the snowblower!!
Paul |
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| Aggie Pilot |
| The reason for the extended driving over the weekend is to help remove any moisture accumulation that may occur during the week of short trip driving. This will help extend the life of the motor oil and allow it to do what it needs to do to protect your engine. |
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| thomasj2 |
BAsed on your short commute and stop and go traffic, I'd say follow the severe service intervals.
If you really want to know how your oil is holding up, send out a sample for analysis. It's under $15 including shipping. Google Oilguard, or used oil analysis. Or check out bobistheoilguy.com. |
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| pilotnc |
| I've taken a oil sample every oil change and they have "suggested" extending the chage interval to 6k. With the new engines and oils you don't need the 2500/3000k oil change. If you want to expend the extra $$ feel free but the return isn't there anymore. The last 3 cars I'v had each one had over 125k and the oil was changed every 5-7.5K and the oil anaylsis was very good. One of the cars was driven in Europe for 45k mainly in Germany and even it did fine at 7.5k oil changes. It was a BMW and the local dealers all went with 10,000 + kilometers oil changes. |
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| Aggie Pilot |
Paul Mon,
The two suggestions for oil analysis would serve you well. You can establish a baseline for your oil change intervals with 2 or 3 analyses and take one every year thereafter to just check up on things.
I've performed oil analysis for 6 years and it has helped me get the most out of my motor oil in addition to being able to help diagnose some emission system problems that would have gone unnoticed otherwise. |
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| Fireforge |
I figured instead of starting a new thread, I'd just continue on this one.
I've been using Jiffy lube for oil changes, but am considering doing it myself at some point in the future. In any event, I'm using conventional oil there. I took the pilot in for its 15k service (I actually did it at 16k), and when I took it in to Jiffy lube at 21k, they said I was 0.5 quarts low. No problem, I'll keep an eye on it. I just took it in at 27.5k, and they said that I was 1 quart low. I do driving similar to PilotNC (10 miles each way in the mornings and evenings) and a good amount of driving on the weekends. Do you guys (guys being gender neutral =) think I should switch to a synthetic/blend, or take the Pilot in for oil changes more frequently? Before my 16k, I did a change at 9k and 13.5k. Would love some advice =) |
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| Aggie Pilot |
I'd suggest oil analysis the next time you get ready to change your oil and filter to get an idea of what happening to the oil. The increase in usage suggests you may have some build up in the engine.
A high quality pure synthetic (Class IV PAO)will help also by keeping more of the combustion by-products in suspension, remove build up and keep the internals clean. The PAO synthetics have a detergent action that is inherent with their chemical formulation.
There is another thread that suggested the use of Auto-Rx to clean up the internals of the engine. The user was having some trouble with pinging when accelerating and this has helped relieve the problem. |
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| thomasj2 |
quote:
Originally posted by Fireforge
I figured instead of starting a new thread, I'd just continue on this one.
I've been using Jiffy lube for oil changes, but am considering doing it myself at some point in the future. In any event, I'm using conventional oil there. I took the pilot in for its 15k service (I actually did it at 16k), and when I took it in to Jiffy lube at 21k, they said I was 0.5 quarts low. No problem, I'll keep an eye on it. I just took it in at 27.5k, and they said that I was 1 quart low. I do driving similar to PilotNC (10 miles each way in the mornings and evenings) and a good amount of driving on the weekends. Do you guys (guys being gender neutral =) think I should switch to a synthetic/blend, or take the Pilot in for oil changes more frequently? Before my 16k, I did a change at 9k and 13.5k. Would love some advice =)
Fireforge, here's my advice - check your oil when you fill up the gas tank. You shouldn't find out at your oil change that you are running 1Q low. I have 2 Honda's a CRV and the Pilot, I check the oil every week, do my own oil changes and have never had to add oil between changes. Based on oil analysis I'm sticking with a 6000 mile oil change interval with both cars. I do use synthetic, with the longer drain interval and slight improvement in gas mileage the synthetic is cheaper for me than dino oil. |
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| Fireforge |
| Thanks for the good advice, all. The unusual thing is that I did check my oil before the change, and the level was still 1/3 above the bottom hole (looking a bit dirty, but not too bad). I was under the impression that as long as it reached between the two holes, everything was fine. Is this not the case? |
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| pjb3 |
quote:
Originally posted by Fireforge
Thanks for the good advice, all. The unusual thing is that I did check my oil before the change, and the level was still 1/3 above the bottom hole (looking a bit dirty, but not too bad). I was under the impression that as long as it reached between the two holes, everything was fine. Is this not the case?
As long as it is between the two holes you are fine. The advantage to keeping it full is that you have the maximum amount of oil in the engine. If the engine holds 5 quarts and you are 1 quart low, you have reduced the capacity by 20% and the oil will have less volume to hold dirt and contaminates. Lower volume will also cause additives in the oil to break down sooner. |
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| Larryl |
For short driving, especially winter try synthetic at 5k. I've got some maintenance software that tracks 600 vehicles. They have almost 100 Odyssey's (same engine, sort of) and that's what they do in New York. Lots of stop and go, not much of a warm up and some never get a long trip, ever. They were using Mobil 1, but have stepped up to more expensive stuff, Red Line and Amsoil. We've also been tracking an EGR problem. About a dozen are no synthetic and four have had EGR problems. About a houndred of the rest on synthetic and two have had EGR problems. They use Chevron Pro-Guard every oil change, maybe it helps, who knows. The non-synthetic are now being swithched to synthetic and Pro-Guard.
So, systhetic and 5k work, and oil analysis agrees, too. Just becareful about using cheap filters. They use Mobil 1 and Amsoil filters, now. Anyway, I just thought you might like some practical information. It's a topic with a lot of opinions.
Oh, and they do have about a dozen Pilots and follow the same stuff. The only problem with the Pilots is that everyone wants to drive them, and not so much the Odyssey's. And the Pilots run out of brakes pretty quickly, just like the Odyssey, and warp rotors, too. So this stuff is working on vehicles that are not treated too well, by anyone that gets in. You should do better. |
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| Fireforge |
Thanks for the good advice, all. Next oil change, I'll ask that they use synthetic and pay the extra.
Larryl, are you referring to NYC taxicabs? Wow, I had no idea they had Oddysseys and Pilots for taxis now! |
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| Larryl |
| No taxi cabs, just vehicles used in applications where things have to be delivered, documents, organs (live), backup media and other stuff. |
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| pilotnc |
This my latest oil analysisi
JOHN: Nice improvement in iron and copper. This oil was run 250 miles longer than last sample, yet
both of these metals dropped significantly and they are at the lowest levels we have seen. All other
wear either increased slightly or read the same and this is a very good indication of normal wearing
parts. The oil was still in good shape as well. The viscosity was normal for a 5W/30 oil and we found
no fuel dilution, moisture, or anti-freeze. The low insolubles show good oil filtration and no excess
blow-by. At 42,000 total miles, we think this engine is doing very well.
PILOT
C42952
EQUIPMENT MAKE: Honda
EQUIPMENT MODEL: 3.5L V-6
FUEL TYPE: Gasoline (Unleaded)
OIL USE INTERVAL: 6,500 Miles
OIL TYPE & GRADE: Castrol Syntec 5W/30
MAKE-UP OIL ADDED:
6,500 6,250 6,600 5,000 |
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