Synthetic Oil in 2002 CR-V mistake

[Christopher Racine]

Learned my lesson about when to use synthetic oil and when not to.

It's definitely not for the higher mileage CR-V engines. Mine has 156,000+ miles and I figured if synthetic is so good I'll go ahead and use it. Pennzoil Ultra 5w20. Pffth, made my engine sound worse than grandmas
old beat up sewing machine. Noisy!! loud taps and just over all more noisy. Only used it for a few hundred miles and just changed the oil back to regular 5w-20 and sooooooo much quieter now. yay happy again.

I'd only suggest synthetic for newer or rebuilt engines when the tolerences are tighter and so forth. Otherwise it is just 'too slippery and thin' for well worn engines.

I wasted 27 bucks plus filter. Oh well. Lesson learned.

-Chris

[Accord]

Yeah, don't add any engine cleaning stuff to it either. Fuel additives should be ok.

[TampaJim]

Synthetic is fine for high mileage engines that have been on it. My 2000 CR-V has 175,000 miles and it is just fine. However, it has been using it since the break-in period (10,000 miles). It isn't that synthetic is thinner, it is that it flows better. High mileage oil would be a good choice for your engine, since it does have advanced wear.

[Bill R]

Chris - Does the noise go away when the engine is warm? We have a 2005 CRV and I switched to synthetic at 148,000 kil ( about 92,000 miles) When the engine is cold, it makes a tapping sound when accelerating but is quiet when warm. There are the odd time, when cold, that the engine doesn't do it. It almost seems that the oil drains out of some on the v-tec parts. I bought it used and at the time it had regular oil but can't remember if it tapped then because I switched to synthetic fairly soon because of our cold climate and wimpy starter or battery. Anyway, this is very interesting.

[Bill R]

Hi Chris - could you answer my question from the previous post - did the engine quiet down when warm when using the sythetic oil?

[Christopher Racine]

Hi Bill sorry been busy busy..... with my 2002 it's always been a bit 'tappy' when cold and Im told thats pretty normal especially with the higher mileage it has on it, but does tend to be a bit quieter once its warmed up and soon after the oil is fully circulating throughout the engine. It's still slightly tappy even after full warm up and like you mentioned, sometimes pretty darn quiet so it tends to come and go or maybe its just my imagination lol. A local import repair shop here (very reputable also) told me they can't remember the last time they ever did any valve lash adjusting on the 2002 and newer CR-V's and they are commonly a little tappy sounding as they age but I could bring it by for them to hear it and check if I wanted to just to get their opinion. It was definitly louder with the synthetic oil that I had in it for a brief time and now I may have a very slight oil leak but not sure if its just left over spillage from the oil filter removal when I changed the oil recently back to standard high mileage pennzoil 5w-20...so Im keeping an eye on it.

It's true that once a car sits overnight or longer of course gravity pulls most of the oil to the bottom of the engine so at start up it may take a brief moment for it to fully reach all the upper end parts to circulate. My engine has just over 157,000 miles on it and being in South Carolina it doesn't get that frigid in the wintertime so oil weight is really not an issue here in colder weather. 5w-20 is plenty lightweight enough to flow well even at cold start up. In my opinion as having owned several higher mileage cars, once they pass the 150,000 mile mark or thereabouts, they will never run as quiet as when they were new anyway and if the noise is just slightly tappy it's ok it's just showing its age lol. For peace of mind I may have the pros check it out after the holidays when I have some extra money to put towards it. It runs great, doesn't burn oil and the gas mileage is right on the money.

These engines are very sensitive to oil requirements for many things and as long as a good name brand is used and changed regularly (forget that 7,500 to 10,000 mile oil change garbage) I'm confident that standard dino oil is just fine...I change my oil around the 3,500 to 4,000 mile range mostly to keep it clean.

[Buffalo4]

Learned my lesson about when to use synthetic oil and when not to.

It's definitely not for the higher mileage CR-V engines. Mine has 156,000+ miles and I figured if synthetic is so good I'll go ahead and use it. Pennzoil Ultra 5w20. Pffth, made my engine sound worse than grandmas
old beat up sewing machine. Noisy!! loud taps and just over all more noisy. Only used it for a few hundred miles and just changed the oil back to regular 5w-20 and sooooooo much quieter now. yay happy again.

I'd only suggest synthetic for newer or rebuilt engines when the tolerences are tighter and so forth. Otherwise it is just 'too slippery and thin' for well worn engines.

I wasted 27 bucks plus filter. Oh well. Lesson learned.

-Chris

I put in Mobil 1 5w30 in my friend's 2000CRV and no increase in noise was noted. That car had just over 200k miles on it and never had synthetic oil in it before. However, it did seem to spin over faster when the temp got around 32F or colder.
Buffalo4
PS:Still doesn't use over 1/2 qt in 3k miles. I believe that engine is different than yours.

[Christopher Racine]

Correct it is a differnent engine with different valve train also. Changed to ivtec 2.4 in 2002 but that's about all I know I've heard you can use heavier weight oil like 5w 30 intead of 5w 20 but recommended only if the engine is well worn in...which of course over 200,000 miles certainly qualifies I think the valve lash on the older models is supposed to be checked every 30,000 miles or 50,000 miles, or if making noises. The newer ones only if noise is present...since they are hydraulic etc etc or something to that effect. It is super bad to ever let them run low on oil also....since oil pressure is key for these engines. Ive seen a Civic engine run low on oil because of an idiot step son that had no clue, and all kinds of engine codes popped up....(I own a code scanner) They got lucky no serious damage was done.

[Carbuff2]

The 2.4 liter CR-V engine does NOT have hydraulic lifters.


It DOES have roller cam followers on the camshafts...which IMO reduce the need for periodic valve adjustments.


Being somewhat anal, I have checked and adjusted my V's valve lash anyway, every 50K miles. While a few followers were off by a thousandth or two, there were never any that were in danger of closing up (as the Generation1's were prone to do).

The interval to check is 110K miles according to the 2006's maintenance schedule on the Honda Ownerlink.
http://www.ahm-ownerlink.com

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Regards changing to synthetic oil on older engines:

We only started using synthetic at about 150K miles on our Acura TL. Because of rebates and promotions and extended drain intervals, it became CHEAPER to run synth than mineral oil. There have been no undue consequences from the use of synth oil in that car.

In the V and the Fit, we have run synthetic oil after the second oil change.

[Christopher Racine]

oops was thinking of the lifters in my 1990 nissan pathfinder which were hydraulic... I've only had my 2002 CR-V since this past July. Thanks for the correction.