wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/25/84)
I own a 1984 Honda Accord LX Hatchback. After about 600 miles, I re-
placed the oil and filter, and refilled the beast with Mobil 1.
Neither my warranty book, owner's manual, nor the shop manual (the big,
thick book the mechanics use) has anything to say about natural or syn-
thetic oil as such. Hence, I hold no fears that Honda could ever suc-
cessfully void my warranty simply because I used a synthetic.
However, I am a bit concerned about the little chart which shows recom-
mended oil weights for different temperature ranges. In particular, the
chart suggests either 10W-30 or 10W-40 weight oil for the temperature
ranges I would experience here in Los Angeles. Mobil 1 is 5W-30 (it
comes in only that one weight); Honda's chart suggests 5W-30 only for
sub-freezing climates.
I would make the following assumptions (discussion invited):
(1) Using Mobil 1 (5W-30) should be perfectly OK in my climate (L.A.).
(2) If I ever have an engine problem, Honda will not try to disclaim my
warranty because I was using 5W-30 instead of the "recommended" 10W-
30; or, at least, they could not get away with doing this.
--
Rich Wales
UCLA Computer Science Department
3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024 // (213) 825-5683
ARPA: wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA
UUCP: ...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!walesdw@rocksvax.UUCP (Don Wegeng) (11/01/84)
In article <1826@ucla-cs.ARPA> wales@ucla-cs.UUCP writes: >I own a 1984 Honda Accord LX Hatchback. After about 600 miles, I re- >placed the oil and filter, and refilled the beast with Mobil 1. > >(2) If I ever have an engine problem, Honda will not try to disclaim my > warranty because I was using 5W-30 instead of the "recommended" 10W- > 30; or, at least, they could not get away with doing this. I'm not sure about whether Honda can invalidate your warranty based on the weight of the oil that you use. However, they might be able to disclaim it based on the number of miles on the engine when you changed to Mobil 1. Most experts agree that you should not switch to a synthetic oil until the engine has been broken in, which usually takes 5000 to 10,000 miles. I suspect that you would have safer to have driven more than 600 miles before switching. -- /Don "Fighting for peace is like making love for virginity". arpa: Wegeng.Henr@Xerox.ARPA uucp: {allegra,princeton,decvax!rochester,amd,sunybcs}!rocksvax!dw || ihnp4!tropix!ritcv!rocksvax!dw