So I have a delima. When I bought my 2008 HCHII, I was given a coupon for a free oil change. But, I still have a case of Mobil1 0w20 in my garage from my previous car, a 2007 HCHII (totalled, long story...).

Should I use Honda's oil or the Mobil1 for my upcoming oil change? I've heard Honda's 0w20 is not synthetic, and the Mobil1 0w20 is a fully synthetic. Even though Honda's oil would be free, I'm still leaning towards giving them Mobil1 to use because then I am assured fully synthetic oil is flowing through my engine. I want the best for my engine, but what do you all think, does it matter which oil I use in this case?

Thanks!

Brian:

Strictly from a performance and FE standpoint, you'll have a quite a bit of difficulty telling the difference between both oils.

In the end, it is up to you to choose which you want to use, but in your place I would keep the Mobil1 and use the coupon provided that it is for Honda's 0W20 and not some other heavier weight Honda oil. If you can't guarantee that they will use their genuine 0W20 then I would play it safe, ignore the coupon and use the Mobil 1.

Cheers;

MSantos

I too had a first oil change free, I asked if I could upgrade to the Mobil 1 & paid the difference.

Change it yourself w/ the M1 and have the piece of mind that it was done RIGHT. BTW, which Honda dealer is the free oil change from?

I went with honda oil for the first 30K miles... replaced the oil every 5k miles along with a honda oil filter.

After 30K I went with Mobil 1 0W20 and a Mobil 1 oil filter....replace the oil every 10K miles. No issues and I'm way over 110K miles.

I'm not sure about the opinion in "Honda circles" but it used to be considered bad to put in full synthetic until 10,000 miles because the engine needs to fully break in first. That is probably BS these days, but I still followed the old school of thought (partially because my first oil change was also free from the dealership). I agree with msantos--keep the 0-20 for next time unless your dealership is unable to provide 0-20.

Commuter car, grocery getter, and summer road tripper--average 10k miles per year.


Winter road trips and ski trips, bad weather commuter and my wife's "daily" driver--expected average 4k miles per year.

I would get at least 10-15k before going synthetic. Synthetic a bit slick and reduce compression down the road. Without "gears" in the tranny, these motors have to spin a bit faster than a normal engine. This would tend to follow marine engines. And, I am curious to see whether the filter actually is supposed to be changed with each service. Lots of the new engines call for filter change every other change rather than each time.

I see no problems with letting your engine break in with the factory fill, until the OLM tells you to change it. After that, you can switch to full synthetic.

Where are you getting this from?

As some/most of us know, most full synthetic oils aren't really synthetic b/c they use Group III base oils. Anyways, you should have NO problems using M1 after the FF.

Without "gears" in the tranny, these motors have to spin a bit faster than a normal engine.


HUH? I rarely rev my HCHII engine above 2,000 rpm, my truck which has an automatic "with gears" rarely runs below 2,000 rpm, please explain your logic.