Personally, I wouldn’t necessarily assume everybody else on this forum was/is talking about 4-bangers
For instance, I wasn’t necessarily thinking of 4 cylinder engines
I was actually thinking primarily of V6 engines, in your typical mid-sized family car or minivan
But I concede your point, in a way . . .
Meaning, I know that 4 cylinder engines are becoming more powerful and fuel efficient, and are already replacing the V6 in those family cars I mentioned, to some degree, anyways
Meaning, I know that 4 cylinder engines are becoming more powerful and fuel efficient, and are already replacing the V6 in those family cars I mentioned, to some degree, anyways
Our Lexus is the first V6 we owned in the family car. Our previous Accords were both 4-cylinders. Had no problems with the performance of those engines what-so-ever.
Your Accords were probably old enough that they were the size of today’s Civic, though. At least the first one. The power to weight ratio was decent with 4-cyl engines in older Accords.
Your Accords were probably old enough that they were the size of today's Civic, though.
the 87 Accord we owned is about the size of today’s Civics. Our 96 Accord was much bigger. But when we bought the Lexus in 07 we test drove the new 4-cylinder Accord and V6 Accord. The 4-cylinder Accord had plenty of power. The Lexus has much more power…but we rarely the extra power. We like the quietness though.
There is no sense maintainig a motor on a car whose projected mileage will never be reached before the body decays. 2500 are great oil change intervals in Cuba, perhaps. But, in the salt belt, if you travel 10k miles per year and plan on keeping your car till it rusts out, even at 10k oil change intervals, cars like cobalts will cost much more in body work to keep on the road then engine work. Otherwise, shortened intervals aren’t that much more if you are planning to hand the car down to the kids and live in area where rust is not a factor. So, there is room for disagreement depending upon your POV and plan for the car.
No, if people use conventional 5W30 in a Geo Metro engine and change it every 3000 miles, everything should be just fine. Lots of people neglected these little engines because the cars were so cheap and I have seen many for sale in terrible shape. Some engines are a little more forgiving to neglect than others. These are not but will treat you well if maintained. Running too thick of an oil is another way to overpump the lifters, especially in cold climates, leading to burned valves. Any 10W(anything) or thicker is too thick for these engines.
The issue is that because they were about the least expensive car on the market new, many didn’t take very good care of them. Since they were treated as a throwaway, that is what ended up happening to many of them.
Just to be curious . . . what oil does the owner’s manual specify?
5w30 or 10w30 . . . ?
I mentioned 10w30 because many engines around that time period . . . and even some slightly newer ones . . . were still calling for 10w30 in the owner’s manual
The owners manual on the EARLY Metros specified 5W30 but said you could use 10W30 if it wasn’t available. This was quickly changed after there was a rash of warranty claims from burned valves because the 10W oil was too thick on startup, especially in colder climates. YOu can get away with it on long drives, especially in warmer climates but wouldn’t do it personally. I see people on the forums running 5W20, 0W20, 0W30, 5W30, 0W40, and 5W40 in these engines. These oils were not available at the time the cars were engineered but seem to do fine as long as the engines are in decent condition. Some more worn examples will consume more with the thinner grades. I run the 0W40 without any issues here.
How long was warranty on early metros? 2 yr/ 25k miles? Or closer to 36k? how are burned valve seats connected to 10w oil? Oil lubricates valve seats? Like muffler bearings?
db4690: I have had 3 vehicles with 6 quart capacity and the 427 Ford was 7 quarts. I never questioned it. Oil capacity is what it is. The Ford was actually a perfect harmony thing. 7 liters displacement/7 quarts oil capacity.
My GM truck takes 6 quarts, my 2013 Mustang 5.0 V8 takes 8 quarts, the turbo-4 takes 5.5 and all have oil life monitors that I pay attention to. Always synthetic, always change when the change-oil light says to change. 2 of 3 have over 100K and use virtually no oil between changes that range from 4000 to 8000 miles. The OLM was designed for dino-oil so full synth should be just fine.
Just think when we get electrics ,we wont have this problem ,I get sick of having to crawl under a dino guzzler and having to change the lubricating oil due to dilution and contamination every few thousand miles and having to deal with the mess and disposal of the toxic fluids and very messy oil filter,not to mention all the various other filters and geegaws necessary to keep an ICE running correctly,not to mention the coolant ,heat .racket and noise.
Eight quarts? Bah, that’s nothing. I had a man in the store today to buy oil. He was servicing a Cummins in a dump truck. Capacity: 11…gallons. His was one of our larger sales today.
Heck, some of our trucks need over 50 quarts engine oil
The other day, I serviced a transmission, which took over 30 quarts
Imagine if an individual, and not the company, had to pay for that routine service
Kind of puts things in perspective
Those guys complaining about the high cost of car maintenance, we should point at a class 8 truck, and say “Stop your complaining. At least you’re not paying for an oil change and trans service on THAT!”
Cummins also marketed an engine that didnt require an oil change ,except at 100k intervals(interesting how they pulled that off )We had an old Mack that had 3 primary filters and a 15 gal oil capacity,hated messing with that thing(I wanted to put the standard 7 gal oil pan back on it ,but Bubba sez,too much trouble .
