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This can be a touchy issue. I have a Honda mechanic friend that swears that 5W20 cars that have 5W30 put in them run like garbage. Personally I think 5W30 will not harm an engine in any way. You may notice very small change in gas mileage. I also feel that the thicker film strength of a xW30 might help give better wear protection – especially if you do long drain intervals; however, there is no way to verify this unless you do oil analysis.
Some cars I’ve had in the past that specified 5W20 also said something like, “if 5W20 is unavailable, you may use 5W30”
It will not hurt anything, and if for some reason you feel the engine doesn’t like it – drain a few quarts and thin it out with 5W20. Either way you will be fine.
Do I think a repair shop keeps 0w-20, 0w-30, 5w-20, 5w-30, 5w-40, 10w-30, 10w-40, 15w-40 and have them all in conventional, semi, and full synthetic formulations to cover anything that may come into the bay for an oil change? Not a chance.
I always thought it was odd that the oil cap will say
This question has been brought up on this forum in the past and Honda mechanics have agreed that you should use the viscosity recommended by Honda. Eric is a certified Honda technician and I recall he agreed that you should the recommended viscosity. I think Eric, or someone else, provided an explanation for Honda’s choice of viscosity.
I agree that there are engines that can use oils of different viscosity ratings and if you read the owners manuals for many cars, you will find, if you read all the pages relating to the manufacturers recommendations, that some recommend different viscosities for different climates.
I have a 2004 Acura (Honda) RSX that requires the same viscosity as your Honda. My car and yours both have iVTEC systems, a Honda exclusive, and I wouldn’t use anything not recommended by Honda in their iVTEC engine. The correct viscosity is readily available because there are a lot of Hondas on the road that use it.
You will find that most of the big oil companies will write “Honda approved” on the container.5-30 Would be fine, Honestly. Like Third Gear said it will provide a little more wear protection. But if you live in a colder area. Lots of snow etc. I’d stick with a thinner weight honestly. Heavier weights are for people that run there cars much harder, along with modified motors as well.
But its really up to you. Alot of great advice in this thread to be honest. I personally use 5-30 in the Cobra and the main reason being is because of CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) Standards. Certain models had to get a MPG otherwise they would be penalized. One of the short cuts was a thinner oil for betetter MPG. Long story short 5-30 will wear better over all. 5-20 Will give you slightly better gas mileage. Either one will allow your Honda have a long healthy life. I’d honestly look more at the quality of oil in the proper weight then just weight alone.
Anyways I hope this helps! Got any questions feel free to shoot me a PM.
Quoted From yarddog1950:
This question has been brought up on this forum in the past and Honda mechanics have agreed that you should use the viscosity recommended by Honda. Eric is a certified Honda technician and I recall he agreed that you should the recommended viscosity. I think Eric, or someone else, provided an explanation for Honda’s choice of viscosity.
I agree that there are engines that can use oils of different viscosity ratings and if you read the owners manuals for many cars, you will find, if you read all the pages relating to the manufacturers recommendations, that some recommend different viscosities for different climates.
I have a 2004 Acura (Honda) RSX that requires the same viscosity as your Honda. My car and yours both have iVTEC systems, a Honda exclusive, and I wouldn’t use anything not recommended by Honda in their iVTEC engine. The correct viscosity is readily available because there are a lot of Hondas on the road that use it.
You will find that most of the big oil companies will write “Honda approved” on the container.I completely agree with yarddog, especially when it comes to Hondas. Eric has said repeatedly that the use of the wrong viscosity oil is the biggest cause of vtec problems.
Thank you for the replies, I appreciate them. I was just curious about being able to use 5w-30 without any problems. I know the service manual reads 5w-20 for my 2002 honda odyssey. In reading the repair manual, the 2001 and prior honda odyssey’s uses 5w-30 whereas the 2002 and later honda odyssey’s use 5w-20. I was wondering why the change.
If able to use 5w-30 that would be great. I could buy bulk and use the same oil (5w-30) when changing the oil in my civic and honda. It would be convenient for me, but it’s not a big deal. I’ll just stick to the 5w-20 I’ve been using.
I was fortunate enough to have a Tree Hugging hippy instructor at my school that loved him some hybrids. He designed an “Intro to Hybrids” class, and I got to take it one of the two times it was offered before the guy got canned. The 4 cylinders Toyota puts in the Prius uses 0w20 oil. They aren’t messing around on that car as far as MPG’s go, so I guess they are on board with the lighter oil=better fuel economy theory. The engine doesn’t run all the time even when you’re driving (for those that haven’t experienced a hybrid), and when it does run, it’s not usually running that hard unless you’re on the freeway. By the way, it takes some getting used to when yer creeping down the street and the engine suddenly turns on….
I am concluding that manufacturers are using 5w-20 to show an improvement in fuel economy because it is more efficient. How will this affect the longevity of the engine in the long term? Will using the 5w-20 give better fuel economy but increase wear and tear in the long run? Or will the 5w-20 provide equal protection like the 5w-30 does?
Quoted From mckrishes:
I am concluding that manufacturers are using 5w-20 to show an improvement in fuel economy because it is more efficient. How will this affect the longevity of the engine in the long term? Will using the 5w-20 give better fuel economy but increase wear and tear in the long run? Or will the 5w-20 provide equal protection like the 5w-30 does?
With it being a Honda, I would more than trust that they have done their due diligence in making sure that 5w20 provides more than enough lubrication. Like someone mentioned earlier, Honda wouldn’t risk staining their fantastically reliable image for moving an inch lower on the CAFE standards list.
20/40 and 20/50 were popular in California for highly modified V8s like the one in your avatar. I live in the San Francisco bay area where temperature might drop below freezing once in 30 years. A 10/ 30 or 5/30 oil in an old V8 might provide protection for low temperatures in most of the country, but here?
With multi viscosity oil the low number is supposed to tell you the vis of the oil at a very low temp. The second number tells you about the vis of the oil at high temp, but 50 vis oil is not 50 vis at high temp.
Certainly old V8s were fed different vis oils depending on where they lived (the climate) and what kind of work they did (developing lots of horseponies at higher RPM or just loafing along in a sedan).Regarding worries with respect to viscosity (5W30 and 5W20), the 30 and 20 suffix is determined by the viscosity at 100 C. And each suffix is a range of permissible viscosity, not an exact number, though you would expect the oil manufacturer to hit the mid-point of the range. But business being business, they will often target the least expensive zone in the viscosity range to minimize their manufacturing costs.
Considering that our engines operate over a wide range of temperatures, and not just 100 C, then this particular viscosity measurement is not greatly meaningful. Impose on this the viscosity drop associated with fuel dilution, and the viscosity increase from oxidative thickening, then we arrive at the conclusion that engines are not very fussy about viscosity. The exceptions being if the oil is too viscous for a cold start, and too viscous to be distributed quickly by the oil pump, then real problems occur.
The reason some car manufactures have switched to 5w-20 is for gas mileage.they feel that thinner the oil creates less drag in the engine= better mileage.
with car companies competing for gas mileage ratings they are doing what they can to compete.The idea that car manufacturers recommend lighter viscosities to improve fuel economy and that they have taken a shortcut to better CAFE ratings appeals to me too.
Honda recommends 5/20 for some VTEC engines and 5-30 for others and this could be suspected of supporting the shortcut idea, but Honda does not have the problem that most other manufacturers have in meeting CAFE standards. Nearly everything they sell in the US gets good or excellent mpg. They sell no real PU trucks. The Ridgeline isn’t really a PU truck and few are sold here.
Certainly there are other manufacturers that are highly motivated to take shortcuts to improve CAFE ratings.
Honda’s small high reving engines are notorious for long life. I doubt they would risk the reputation they have earned to improve their CAFE rating when they have no motivation.
If you could make a good complaint about Honda engines, it would be that they often remain running with no internal problems when the the rest of the car looks like a corpse.
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