Fully Synthetic Oil

[Pine]

My car is due for a service soon and I see that my local Honda dealer is offering an upgrade to low friction fully synthetic oil for £19. If I am covering about 9000 miles a year do you think the increased MPG would cover the additional cost? My own thinking is that the standard oil as specified by Honda should be more than adequate for normal use, but are there any other benefits from using fully synthetic oil besides improved fuel consumption.

[lexi]

  Well for £19, if it don't do any good, it certainly won't do any harm.
    The absolute benefit of fully synth is cold start protection. Added to the possible MPG improvement I would say...........Why not?

  The only question mark as to using Fully synth, is when you pay 40quid for oil on a car and you don't need it.
   Remember: Some semi synth have same actual spec nos. as their fully synth versions.  Millers oils are but one I can think of.

 

[olduser1]

Just ask the dealer to confirm the make & spec of their standard oil, the key with your mileage is renew oil & Honda Oil filter every 12months. Save your money.

[culzean]

covering 9000 miles a year at say 40mpg average you would need to get extra 6% better consumption (42mpg) from the low friction oil to get your money back.   Does seem reasonable,  but I would get my own filter from Honda, 4 litres of Castrol magnatec 5W/30 fully synthetic Ford A1 (fuel saving oil) from Halfords at about £25 (normally on special offer around that price) , some Molyslip engine additive (£14) and a bottle of Redex or STP injector cleaner.  The Molyslip will give you far better cold start engine protection than any oil as well as better MPG and the injector cleaner will further improve MPG by making the injectors more efficient at atomising the fuel  -  Most Honda engines for past 10 years have piston skirts impregnated with Molybdenum disulphide (main ingredient of molyslip) to lower the friction and give better MPG and cooler running (friction = wasted energy = heat)

[guest4078]

Amazon just reduced Magnatec to £21.99 and Molysip £11.78 delivered.

[chrisc]

In SA, using synthetic for newish cars is almost mandatory.  95% of the oil sold here is re-refined and it does not state anywhere on the tin or bottle that this is so

It came to light on a TV investigative program where there was a rep from Castrol and the Retail Motor Manufacturers Association being interviewed.  He declared that if you want new oil in your engine, you have to specify synthetic.  He went on to say that the service interval could be extended to 25000km if you continually used synthetic oil

[lexi]

   Somebody is always grinding an axe somewhere though.  They like to sell oil at £40 a gallon. You can sell the Public a lot of things on the fear factor if it suits your agenda.

  Bear in mind that commercial vehicles that cost hundreds of thousands use good mineral oil and do millions of miles. They get their oil checked and examined for breakdown and acid etc.  They are then told how many more or less oil changes they need to do between these service and mileage intervals.  How many private owners do this? It might be a surprise how much good oil is actually changed out.
 These are not Honda cars of course. I only used 10w 40  mineral fleet oil on my Accord and accident killed it at 200k miles.

  Oil does not kill cars. Apart from the latest small diesel sludgers, with turbo problems, engines go on with any sensible servicing and proper oil viscosity.  There is a lot of anxt and overkill on oil.  It is repairs and accident that are killing cars.

   I knew one guy who did 220k on a Mondeo with about 3 oil changes!  I kid you not. I also have a lazy mate who changes oil about every 3 yrs and has 170k on a V40 with a Renault engine!. Every car he has owned has had this treatment and no engine problems.
   I don't advocate any of this lazyness of course. With a Honda in UK, I would be more inclined to rustproof the car and keep fastenings preserved with your prefered mixture.  Our engines have no turbos and are well built so it is the last thing I would be worrying about really. I will use a 5w30 semi synth in this Jazz. At 7k a year I will change oil and filter once a year. I will put the 98ron in it, sometimes regular if it is all I can get.

   

[madasafish]

I regret most of the comments about oil are living in the past A modern synthetic oil is specified for most  new cars - if only to reduce fuel consumption.. Think 0W20...
..

[guest4631]

My Honda dealer uses Castrol Magnatec 5W-40 ACEA C3 for servicing. This is fully synthetic and is a high specification oil ,it meets BMW long life interval specifications for instance. It might be 'slight overkill' but at least it will stay in the car for a year, I never quite figured why some Americans seem to drop the oil out of their cars every 3-4k.

[JazzyB]

According to Castrol they recommend Edge 0W-30 or Magnatec 5W-30 A1.

Also Edge 0W-30 A5/B5 can be used.

[lexi]

  I ended up putting in 5w30  full synth..........Asda's own oil brand

[emmerdale]

Hi,what is the difference in price ,I can't see what would be wrong with ASDA oil,just curios about price

[guest4078]

I think ASDA oil is made by Comma. The asda direct site offers 2l for £10. You can also get magnatec for the same price (4l for £20). All oils sold here are supposed to conform to minimum standards so the own brand ismost likely fine, comma is a good brand. But, if you need goodwill in 6 years time for warranty, will they know what you have used? I always used magnatec 10-30 which was £21 ish delivered from amazon. At least you have a receipt for the right stuff if you ever need it. Like oil filters, would you trust and Indian (no offence) made filter or a 'proper' brand filter/ brake pads/discs/etc. etc.

[madasafish]

A long read on synthetic oil: all you ever wanted to know....http://tinyurl.com/k9d7nnj