Asked a Honda engineer about the factory fill and whether there was any benefit to keeping it in longer

[evlsmurf]

It’s 1000 kms (~620 mi). It is recommended in some owner’s manuals (EU and Japan at least), but does not appear in the in the US owner’s manual. No one knows why, but there’s definitely some weird info omissions / inconsistencies in the US manuals. As such, the general recommendation is to follow the break-in period (listed in those other manuals). It can’t hurt, so may as well be patient and do it.

I'm not saying I'm not doing a proper break-in. I have always broken in my cars properly. I even did it with my '24 Subaru Forester I picked up recently. I was just curious what his take might be on it since he had so much info regarding the oil.

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[Tickle]

I'm glad he explained that they have their own internal discussions on such things.

I had my first oil change at 5000 or so. I'm not going to follow the maintenance minder. I've seen enough tests to say the oil is fine. It is my preference.

 

[arsing116]

Great post for the forum. I’m leaving the oil in until the Maintenance Reminder chirps at me.

 

[cryptolime]

damn, i was hoping for a magic elixir

 

[optronix]

Basically, what I'm reading is even the experts have their own preferences, but overall doesn't seem to matter much.

Some people insist on putting the left sock on before the right every day. The world keeps spinning.

 

[mbaapk]

The question keeps popping up about whether there is something special about the factory fill where it's better to keep it in until MM reads 15% or if it's totally okay to change it out early. There's a lot of opinions but not much definitive information. Honda corporate just gives you the 15% MM answer which doesn't answer what we want to know. I searched linkedin for Honda engine engineers and found a guy who was actually willing to engage in this geeky nonsense.

TLDR: Yes, they do use a special moly assembly lube, but it appears Honda engineers use this lube for initial startup and not for any sort of long term engine seating as some of us have been led to believe, so according to this guy Honda engineers are not aware of any difference between keeping the assembly mix in vs changing it out early.

I think it states right in the manual the car arrives with break in oil lol.

 

[qingcong]

Basically, what I'm reading is even the experts have their own preferences, but overall doesn't seem to matter much.

Some people insist on putting the left sock on before the right every day. The world keeps spinning.

Right, my takeaway is that the gurus at Japan & US Honda have not identified any good reason to do things one way or another. There may still be a better way to do things, but until anyone knows what that is, we're left with what we know for now, which is that either way should be fine.

 

[jtlctr]

Basically, what I'm reading is even the experts have their own preferences, but overall doesn't seem to matter much.

Some people insist on putting the left sock on before the right every day. The world keeps spinning.

Right sock before the left is the way. Unless you’re in Australia.

 

[Gansan]

On civicx.com, they referred to this Honda bulletin:

https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/when-to-oil-change.7243/page-2#post-130344

 

[J_D]

Nothing like some good ol' service bulletin from 1998, from the days before synthetic oil was regularly used.

 

[TypeRD]

Nothing like some good ol' service bulletin from 1998, from the days before synthetic oil was regularly used.

Manufacturing tolerances were not as tight back then and oil technology has improved. I don’t know of any cars that ran W20 back then, let alone synthetic. W30 was even considered remarkably “thin” dino oil.

 

[TiNuts]

It’s 1000 kms (~620 mi). It is recommended in some owner’s manuals (EU and Japan at least), but does not appear in the in the US owner’s manual. No one knows why, but there’s definitely some weird info omissions / inconsistencies in the US manuals. As such, the general recommendation is to follow the break-in period (listed in those other manuals). It can’t hurt, so may as well be patient and do it.

The 600 mile “break in” is in the 2024 US manual. It’s barely a paragraph, at the bottom of the gray box on page 488.

 

[TypeRD]

The 600 mile “break in” is in the 2024 US manual. It’s barely a paragraph, at the bottom of the gray box on page 488.

They apparently fixed it at some point. This info wasn’t in the 2023 US manual.

 

[TiNuts]

They apparently fixed it at some point. This info wasn’t in the 2023 US manual.

It definitely seems like it was an afterthought. Most of the gray box talks about overheating the steering & unrelated things. Then a tiny blurb at the end about don’t thrash the motor for 600 miles.

 

[Tickle]

Oil topics are always amazing.

I think someone else mentioned this before...

Imagine a forum dedicated to engine oil.. probably awesome.

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