Oil change done with wrong grade oil - damage?

Recently got an oil change in my 02 civic lx 1.7. BigO put 10w30 in it
instead of 5w20. Manual says to use 5w20 or 5w30 in a bind, as long as
next change is 5w20. I drove about 200 miles before I noticed. I made
them switch it out for 5w20. Could this have caused any long term
damage?

-Nate

 

No.
Don't get too hung up on oil grades.

My Ford Focus calls for 5W20, but because the oil is still difficult to find
and retail outlets like to bend you over price wise for oil changes with
5W20, I use 5W30 in the winter and 10W30 with no problems for 5 years.


Recently got an oil change in my 02 civic lx 1.7. BigO put 10w30 in it
instead of 5w20. Manual says to use 5w20 or 5w30 in a bind, as long as
next change is 5w20. I drove about 200 miles before I noticed. I made
them switch it out for 5w20. Could this have caused any long term
damage?

-Nate

 

You really need the 5W20 when the temperature is very low. As long as the
engine wasn't started when *really* cold it shouldn't have had any effect at
all. Even at that, the oil starvation is only for a few seconds and probably
isn't any worse than putting an empty filter on the car. Sleep easy.

Mike

 

Not unless you are operating in a very cold artic climate, and in most
parts of the world this is the wrong time of year for that.

Don't worry about it. Honda specifies 10W-30 and even heavier grades
of oil for that same engine in other markets. The 5W-20 business is
mostly to squeeze out a few percentage points of theoretical fuel economy.

I would, however, be a little worried about what quality of 5W-20 oil
the Big-O people used. You want a major brand oil, not some second tier
stuff when running on the edge, which 5W-20 does do.

John

 

They use Shell

-Nate

 

Should be fine.

 

A lot of people are fooled into thinking this is important. Clean Air Act
of 1992 provided incentives for manufacturers to spec 5-20 as a requirement
since lower viscosity oil may improve fuel economy very slightly although
you will get better lubrication with the 10-30 that was put in it. If
anything, your engine will last longer if you consistently run 10-30.

 

Oh my God!
Your car is ruined!
You won't be able to sell it for $10 to the junk man now!
But since I feel sorry for you and I am such a good sam I will buy it from
you for $20.

 

**** off....

-Nate

 

The fact that the people who designed the engine call for it doesn't make it
an important point?

Difficult to find? Where are you living? 5W20 can be found pretty much any
retail environment you walk into.

 

Maybe a warm-winter area. 5Ws are relatively rare in Phoenix where the
all-time record low is 23F and many winters never get below freezing.

Mike

 

That could very well be, around here all a person has to do to find a
particular item is open their eyes <g>.

 

You also can't find a snow shovel in Phoenix However, chains are
common enough because the mountains are a popular destination.

Mike

 

No damage at all.

You could have run the oil to its change interval and then replaced with
5W20.

 

Cool, thanks.

-Nate

 

LOL! I suppose that's true. I'm hoping I don't have to bother with digging
(pardon the pun <g>) out the snow shovels this year.

 

shell oil is generic. i would insist on castrol or valvoline or at least
another well known brand. lots of oil change places use cheap quality gas
station brand oil which isn't as good as the major brands. that should be
your main concern. your engine is relatively new now but over time that
cheap oil may take a toll on it.


-jeff

 

You sir really do not know what you are talking about. The image that
gas station brand oils are somehow inferior is a result of years of
marketing dollars and has no correlation to product quality.

Did you know, for example, that Shell owns the Wolf's Head, Quaker State
and Pennzoil brands and has for many years now? Did you know that BP
owns Castrol? Did you know that Honda brand 5W-20 oil from your
dealership is the same stuff as is also sold as Exxon Superflo 5W-20?
Did you know that the Chevron Supreme/Texaco Havoline twins (really the
same company and the same oil) are two of the most highly regarded
conventional oils made? Do you know that Kendall GT1, Union 76,
Phillips TropArtic, Conoco and Motorcraft motor oils are all the same
product manufactured by ConocoPhillps and put into different bottles?

Do you know that the recent GF-4/SM oil standards have kicked up the
performance requirements for motor oils dramatically and that as a
result the performance differences between branded oils today are the
smallest they have been in history?

Have a look at the forums on www.bobistheoilguy.com sometime if you want
to learn some things about oil.

The only real difference between specialty brand oils and "gas station"
brand oils are the hundreds of millions of dollars spent marketing the
specialty brands to easily led minds. It cracks me up that there are
Kendall loyalists who wouldn't be caught dead putting lowly Phillips
TropArtic oil in their cars and instead pay a premium for Kendall ....
suckers!

John

 

hold on a second john. many different products come out of the same
factory, but it doesn't mean they have the same composition. oil is not
a good subject for the layman because he/she doesn't have analysis tools
laying about in the kitchen, but a similar product on which people often
/do/ have experience is paint. most paint sold here comes from the same
few factories. there are /many/ different brands, even though the
producers are the same. BUT, compositions between brands are frequently
very different. take opacity for instance where you're trying to paint
over crayon marks in the kids room. if you've ever been in the
situation where one brand covers the marks in one or two coats, but
another takes 3 coats and /still/ won't adequately cover, you'll know
what i mean.

now, regarding oils, motorcraft brand oil is /supposed/ to be a high
quality oil based on chevron. and the analysis shown in bitog confirms
inorganic content consistent with that. BUT, i'm here to assure you
that in my 16 year old civic, that oil pisses through seals like there's
no tomorrow. i mean, you literally watch that stuff drip out. but if i
use castrol gtx, all my seals [after a couple of weeks at any rate]
start to seal again. the additives in castrol that cause that are not
the inorganics that conveniently show up in spark analysis so commonly
used by bitog adherents - they're the /organic/ compounds, the
plasticizers, the swelling agents, that motorcraft evidently doesn't
have, or at least, not in sufficient quantity to be effective.

what other organics are so important? the viscosity index modifiers!
again, there is a crude test for this used in standard analysis, but it
doesn't identify quantity or types of compounds used and the results can
be distorted by other factors. getting the picture?

bottom line: yes, this stuff comes out of the same factory, and yes,
some brands may be the same. but not /all/ brands are the same, and not
all products from any particular factory are the same.

 

Hey!
Herring chokers might have it, but you very rarely see 5W20. Wal-Mart has
just started to carry it in bulk oil, Canadian Tire did not have it, and
most aftermarket auto supply i.e. Partssource, auto value etc do not have
it. They will order it for you but it is not carried as normal stock. Any
how its a premium price when you can find it 5W30 does a better job anyhow.

The fact that the people who designed the engine call for it doesn't make it
an important point?

Difficult to find? Where are you living? 5W20 can be found pretty much any
retail environment you walk into.