wanabe

office is walking distance from the house... i put less than 5k miles on the car a year-
so changing my synthetic oil based on number of miles does not make much sense.

i have been changing it every 9 mos or so, but notice that it always seems clean and still pretty new looking. i assume that my mileage is hard on the car, since its short distance- i have to go the long way to work just to get it warmed up enough to get some vtec time in!!

if you change your synthetic oil by time rather than miles, how long do you go between changes?

WarrenW

Every 3 months or 3,000 miles. There are acids that become by-products which will eat away at bearings in the engine if left in too long. So change the oil every 3 months even if you only drove 500 miles in that time.

BTW, it's said that short trips are actually harder on an engine than long trips. Xviper and/or Billman would be able to explain this better.

Warren

wanabe

warren- even with synthetics??
my recollection is that dinos schedule is 3 mos/ 3k miles, but synthetics are longer-

if it should be every 3 mos, i better get under that car!!!

WarrenW

From what I've heard, yes, even synthetics. Synthetic oil doesn't prevent acid build up from harming the bearings anymore than conventional oil.

Warren

xviper

First, figure out from the information in the maintenance section of your manual, which catagory of service schedule your car falls under (either "normal" or "severe"). Then follow that schedule based upon MILEAGE or TIME, whichever comes first. In your case, you would service your car based on TIME.

wanabe

yes, xviper- thx, i know that...

my manual does not show the diff between dino and synthetics- it only has dino info.
guess i shoulda clarified that in my original post- i have been running synthetics since 10k miles. and my use is severe- short distances and lotsa vtec! (i know that the manual does not include vtec in the definition, but i do- especially combined with the short distances!)

cdelena

With very low mileage I change my Mobil 1 about once a year.

Amer

3,000 miles or 3 months but I'm sure you can stretch it quite a bit if you rarely drive it.

xviper

As you say, the "book" doesn't differentiate between synthetic and non, therefore, it can only be taken that Honda still considers that you should adhere to the manual.
In the real world, cdelena has made a very good point. It has already been determined that even after 7500 miles, dino oil comes back with a steller oil analysis, so synthetic should be good for well beyond that. One year oil changes for a low use S should not be of any concern. However, if you are worried about warranty coverage, this would not be something that I would allow the dealer to use against me. If warranty is not an issue or a worry, once a year with synthetic is quite reasonable. I would suggest that you do the change at the beginning of your highest driving season.

Ek9

If you don't want to void your warranty (if you have one) do what the book says. If you don't have a warranty then Vipers response is what I'd use. Short tripping's the worst thing you can do to a car so, I'd use the accelerated schedule.

It takes what, 20 minutes to change the oil?