I have a newish 2019 Honda CRV with the 1.5 L turbo engine. After I bought it I learned about the “gas in oil” problem the engine has had the last few years. Honda said it would be fixed for 2019. Here is how they “fixed” it:
My car has 1900 miles on it, mostly short trips in warm weather. The oil life monitor is at 40%. Can you see where this is going??
Just be sure to have the oil changed at–or preferably before– the point when the OLM reaches zero, and to retain all documentation of the car’s maintenance and any attempted repairs.
Even though Honda’s reliability has slipped massively over the past few years, I have faith that they will see the wisdom of supporting the owners of their vehicles when–inevitably–they suffer catastrophic failure as a result of their documented oil dilution problem. Hopefully they will step up to the plate before there are too many catastrophic engine failures.
Of course others disagree but I’ve got 18 hours on my lawn mower this season. The book says I can go to 50 hours with synthetic. But, hey, it’s October, getting close to the 25 hours that I usually change at, so think I’ll just change it soon. A lawn mower is no where near as expensive as a car though. I’m just a cost/risk disaster preparedness kinda guy.
From what I’ve read, in 2018 they introduced the system to heat the coolant directly from exhaust gasses, using special coolant loop and valve closing the exhaust passage once coolant is warm enough.
IMHO, this is 100% correct fix to the problem of too little heat this engine dumps into coolant, resulting in “gas in oil” condition with short trips.
Maybe they also went too much overboard with reducing they OCI of their MaintenanceMinder, but you did not tell us how short are your “short trips” to reason about it.
I have a fiend of mine cross the street who bought 2018 CRV with 1.5T engine.
I specifically asked him if he observes any ill effects, and he said that in his 15 miles commute it heats up fast and oil is spot on after 10K miles or so he drove so far.
variable but mostly 1-2 miles. since buying it up till now it has nearly always reached full temperature by the end of the trip.
well, in this case I’m not sure what you implied by
1900 miles would do for 800+ drive cycles, I would assume forcing you to change oil “early” is not far fetched
my previous CRV did not behave this way.
your previous CRV did not have turbo either
how long, astronomical time-wise, it takes for you to get that 40% on Maintenance Minder?
my Accord (hybrid, 2.0 normally aspirated engine although) is 5000 miles and 60% left on MaintenanceMinder after 6 months, but my commute is 14 miles plus 2-5 miles errands, then 2-3 runs for 50+ miles a month
Does the oil act as a coolant for the turbo? That would break the oil down faster.
about 5 months
60% / 5 months => 12%/month, so MaintenanceMinder makes you change oil once in 8.3 months effectively…
I do not see anything out of line here really.
Well, this would be about 3500 miles for an oil change. Sounds like 1970. Most other modern cars
have a 5000 mile interval for severe service.
I would suggest that your usage might qualify for “extremely severe schedule” if they had such 
Personally, I would prefer having to change oil more often, than risk any sludge formation, which is very likely in extremely short drive cycles.
It is quite usual to have both miles and time components in oil change interval schedules, severe ones often prescribe 3-4 months of the time component.
I would not delay past 6 months.
Personally, I would not delay even to 8 months in your case, but rather go with 6-months interval.
Oil change is way cheaper than engine to be repaired, if you are concerned about environment, oil is completely recycled.
Actually, you made me think much better about Honda’s MaintenanceMinder, as it is clearly counting not only time/miles, but at the very least drive cycles.
Some suggest how much load you put on the engine is also counted.
My coworker has the same model Accord Hybrid and he drives it in “binary mode”, so either gas all the way to the floor, or brake pedal… same concept
So far, his oil change interval comes around 9K miles on MaintenanceMinder.
I drive much less aggressive, my estimate is around 11K miles.
Yeah, I probably qualify as an “intermediate” driver. Moderate acceleration, after warmed up.
By the way, I didn’t say that twice a month I take it for a 30 min highway drive–75 mph.
yeh… the math was suspicious, showing some like 800+ drive cycles… it’s like few times a day, every day, for 1-2 mile cycles
and that’s not accurate either. the car just sits a lot. i must be racking up the miles some
other way.