we live in north Florida
wife’s car = 2006 Honda CRX
Jiffy Lube uses 10-30 weight oil.
Wife’s mechanic tells her that this is too thick for her car and she needs HIS services to insure a 5-20-30 weight oil, as if the diff from 10 to 5 is significant.
Your thoughts?
Thoughts:
2006 Honda CRX? I don’t think so. Honda hasn’t made a CRX in quite a few years. How about CR-V?
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NEVER go to a quicky oil change place. NEVER. Not even to ask directions.
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What oil does the owner’s manual for your wife’s 2006 Honda CR-V recommend?
I’m inclined to agree with your wife’s mechanic, but the owner’s manual is the ultimate authority.
“5-20-30 weight oil”? That animal does not exist.
I assume that you are referring to 5W-20 motor oil, which is what most car manufacturers have specified for a number of years. So, in response to the question of whether your wife’s car can or should be run with 10W-30 motor oil, the answer is an emphatic NO.
The internal tolerances in modern engines are extremely tight, and the “heavier” oil that is used by Jiffy Lube is NOT appropriate for this car, and, in fact, could void your warranty. If you want verification of what grade of motor oil is specified for your car, just refer to the Owner’s Manual, which I have to assume that you have not done.
Is it necessary to go to your wife’s mechanic in order to get 5W-20 motor oil? No.
Is it a good idea to go to your wife’s mechanic for service? YES!
If you spend more than a few days on this board, you will see postings from people whose (choose one or more) engine/transmission/differential/ brake hydraulic system/cooling system was ruined by the ineptitude of someone at Jiffy Lube, or Wal-Mart, or any number of service facilities of that sort. When you employ people who are not mechanics, give them very little training, and then emphasize speed rather than excellence, the result is frequently very bad for the owner of the vehicle that was serviced.
Do yourself (and your wallet) a HUGE favor and start using a real mechanic’s shop or perhaps the Honda dealership for vehicle service. In most cases, it costs no more, and actually may cost less. The only drawback is that these other places don’t vacuum the car or clean the windows, but I would prefer to do those things myself, rather than allow the teenagers at Jiffy Lube to destroy one or more systems on my car.
In addition to using the correct motor oil and other fluids (Hondas require a special transmission fluid, which Jiffy Lube probably does not use!), a real mechanic or the dealership can spot a mechanical problem and alert you to it. The staff at a quick lube place is not usually competent to even identify a mechanical problem, and if they could identify a problem, they are certainly not competent to fix it!
My thoughts are to use what your manual requires and to stay away from quick-change places.
I assume that you are referring to 5W-20 motor oil, which is what most car manufacturers have specified for a number of years.
5w-30 is the MOST common oil weight recommended by manufacturers today. 5w-20 has been around, but not a lot of cars is it recommended for.
#1) Use ONLY what’s recommended in the owners manual. The owners manual is in your glove box, probably still wrapped in plastic. It’s probably 5w-30.
#2) Stay away from places like Jiffy Lube…especially if they’re putting the WRONG oil in the car.
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Don’t go to Jiffy Lube. They specialize in ignorance.
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Read your owner’s manual and use the oil it recommends. I am willing to bet it is 5W-20. If it does say that, you should not be using anything else. If your manual recommends 5W-30, it probably also says 10W-30 is an acceptable alternatve.
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I don’t think you are properly relaying what your wife’s mechanic said, but if he agrees with the owner’s manual, have him change the oil ASAP.
The Civic uses 5W-20 and the CR-V was built on the same platform.
Honda and Ford are both very big on requiring the use of 5w-20. 0w-20 is even better. I think the biggest thing that they found is that it reduces wear at startup. Startup is where most of the engine wear occurs.
If the owner’s manual says 5w-30, check with Honda. They changed their recommendation to 5w-20. Your mechanic is right about this.
They changed their standard for NEWER vehicles…I haven’t heard anything about them changing their standard for older vehicles. The newer engines are NOT the same as the older engines. I still say use the owners manual.
Look it up, they, like Ford, did go back and say to use it on some prior year cars as well. This is why I advise the OP to check with Honda. They should know better than you or me.
A quick check shows that they recommend it for most engines from 2001 on. It was probably already required on the OP’s 2006, even when the manual was printed, so not much call for debate here.
I just checked Honda’s web site. They haven’t changed the type of oil for older cars. They have only changed the type of oil for newer cars. For older cars, they say “refer to the owner’s manual.” MikeInNH is right.
Call the service manager at a Honda dealership. In this case, older would be 2001 to maybe 2003. Newer such as the OP’s car is definitely in the 5w-20 group. Anything older than 2001, I agree. The OP’s is 2006. Shall we continue to debate?
click the right arrow for oil for OP’s car.
Call the service manager at a Honda dealership
You’re kidding right??
You’re going to take the word of a guy with maybe 1 year of college in business over the engineers at Honda who designed the engine??
He’s easier to get to talk to than the engineers, and he has access to all the TSBs. In any event, this car calls for 5w-20. Why does everyone hate 5w-20 so?
He’s easier to get to talk to than the engineers, and he has access to all the TSBs. In any event, this car calls for 5w-20. Why does everyone hate 5w-20 so?
But is knowledge is far far suspect. MOST haven’t a clue on which end to put a socket on a socket wrench. So you can get a hold of him. A BAD answer is far far worse then no answer at all. And we’re suppose to believe the service manager that says your car needs to have the engine flushed every 30k miles…
If Honda felt that there really was a need for people to use a different oil then what’s in the owners manual, there’d be a Service Bulletin on it. And I guarantee you they’d send you a letter…NOT to mention they’d have updated their web-site.
Sorry…I still stand behind my statement that the Owners manual has the Answer.
If you can not find your owners manual the specific oil for your vehicle is probably stamped on the oil filler cap on top of your engine.
It might be safer to ask the parts guy at the dealership than the service manager. Just tell the parts guy the year, make, and model, and ask him which viscosity to use. If he looks it up in the computer, you can trust his answer. Honda merchandises its own brand of oil (although I don’t buy it), so it should be in the parts guy’s computer.