[Epona]

Hello Fellow CRV Neighbors,

Have you all seen this video of a man driving his CRV here in the US (Tulsa, OK) and hitting 980,000 miles? This is mind blowing to say the least. These CRV's are amazing. I know they are known for longevity but this is beyond anything. No engine or transmission work performed on this CRV. So, just take good care of your baby and it most likely may outlive you LOL. I am only at 122,000 miles, so my CRV will absolutely out live me. I wonder if anyone here has made it to 300,000 plus miles? What a vehicle!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0cbVQ3iHNY

 

[Wildcat]

A few years back, Honda made a big deal out of Million Mile Joe, who put over 1 million miles on his Accord. I think it was 20 years old, and he put on over 50,000 miles a year as an insurance claims adjuster. The one thing that made his mileage legit was that he kept all records, including a logbook, of all of his maintenance and repairs. They gave him a new Accord after a ceremony in his hometown. I only say "legit" because on the old mechanical speedometers, it is nothing to go in and change the mileage by rotating the cylinders.

My '97 made it to almost 290k miles but I "retired" it due to numerous problems, and rust. The worst of it is the transmission--there is something wrong with the parking pawl getting stuck in park, so I have to leave it parked in neutral (with the brake on, as always). Paying to get it repaired would cost way more than the '97 is worth, so I'm looking to replace the leaky oil pan (it's rusted through) and just sell it off as a mechanic's special, or just drive it to the junkyard (after taking off the nearly new tires).

 

[Epona]

A few years back, Honda made a big deal out of Million Mile Joe, who put over 1 million miles on his Accord. I think it was 20 years old, and he put on over 50,000 miles a year as an insurance claims adjuster. The one thing that made his mileage legit was that he kept all records, including a logbook, of all of his maintenance and repairs. They gave him a new Accord after a ceremony in his hometown. I only say "legit" because on the old mechanical speedometers, it is nothing to go in and change the mileage by rotating the cylinders.

My '97 made it to almost 290k miles but I "retired" it due to numerous problems, and rust. The worst of it is the transmission--there is something wrong with the parking pawl getting stuck in park, so I have to leave it parked in neutral (with the brake on, as always). Paying to get it repaired would cost way more than the '97 is worth, so I'm looking to replace the leaky oil pan (it's rusted through) and just sell it off as a mechanic's special, or just drive it to the junkyard (after taking off the nearly new tires).

Hey Wildcat,

Your CRV did well to get almost 290k miles on that '97. I would imagine with such long heavy winters cars collect rust easily in MI. Perhaps your 2009 EX-L will go the long distance too.

I have not heard of Million Mile Joe before, I will go look him up. Honda must be tickled to have him in the driver's seat.

 

[Wildcat]

Yeah, rust is probably the worst part of what happened with the '97--it is at the point where fixing many of the parts is impossible due to bolts being rusted on. It's more a matter of when, not if, bolts snap off when trying to remove them. (It doesn't take much.) Doing the front ball joints was a draining exercise since it required a bit of muscle to get the bolts out.

I'll probably have my '09 for only another year or two--I'm finding too many things going wrong in both of ours that I'm not convinced they are reliable long-term. If it was random things, sure but I'm having the same major replacements on both of them within months of each other, and mileage is within 4k-5k between them. (They were built only weeks apart.) I'm at the point now where I just buy two of everything--if it fails on one CR-V, it soon fails on the other.

My '97 still has the original AC that still works, original starter, pretty much original everything except for the wear/dry-rotted items. Yet the '09s drive world better and are safer than the '97.

I'm moving on to an Acura RDX (2nd generation, not the 3rd with the turbo), or an MDX or Pilot. Mainly, I want the V6.

 

[fubarnow]

We had a guy in Woodbridge Va. that brought his
manual Trans Accord in for regular service.
His Accord had a million miles and sales guys
made a big deal for the customers.

 

[fubarnow]

I now have 180.000 and went by Honda today
and bought Power Steering Fluid and Honda Trans Fluid.
I do my fluid changes with Honda Fluids except Brakes and oil.

 

[kloker]

There are a lot of things to take into consideration to make it to that mark. The guy must be a courier. To average 100k for ten straight years is no small feat. Looks like he was still getting close to 30mpg too. That in itself is a pretty good trick. I figure he must be running premium gas, and he must have some things like tires and maintenance choices down to a science. I'm a retired truck driver, and I can tell you a big truck is pretty beat up by that mark, and has spent plenty of time in the shop. So is a spinal column.

I'm thinking about switching over to premium fuel, depending on what gas prices do in the near future. But, being as how I'm retired and put relatively few miles on my V, it wouldn't cost me that much, and might be worth it in better fuel mileage and performance. I need to sit down and run some numbers on it to figure out the fuel cost per mile first. But based on what I have seen, if I can get close to 30mpg the cost might even out. I am going to run a full tank through and see. My '07 has just under 93k on it now. If anyone else has done this I'd be interested in seeing your numbers.

Oh, yeah - my ex still has her old business vehicle, an Accord wagon, with over 300k on it, still runs fine. She keeps it around for family members to use when they need a loaner. Most of them drive Hondas too.

 

[robbyg]

I have been around a lot of car owners in my life and the ones that had cars that lasted the longest are always from Toyota or Honda. I have noticed a few things that almost all the vehicles with over 300K had in common:

Most were driven in dry places with low humidity and low rain fall.
The vehicles where driven consistently on lots of medium and long drives, very little city driving.
The owners are not lead foots or wild drivers, they keep a fairly constant speed
They mostly drove on good roads.
They used good coolant in the engine. (One guy swore this was the magic sauce)

The odd part was whenever I asked them the secret of how they got so many miles with almost no problems I got mixed answers on oil and transmission fluid. Some changed it regularly and swear by one particular brand and others said they changed it whenever they felt like getting it done which seemed to be rarely and they did not care about the brand of oil. I got the oil is oil lecture on one occasion.


Rob

 

[fubarnow]

. I got the oil is oil lecture on one occasion.


Rob[/QUOTE]

Well, considering most oil is made in very few locations
and most of it is good quality--Oil is Oil if you know when to Change it.
If you run dino and don't change it for 10 to 15K you're asking for trouble
unlike Synthetics. In the end, oil is oil.

 

[robbyg]

Well, considering most oil is made in very few locations
and most of it is good quality--Oil is Oil if you know when to Change it.
If you run dino and don't change it for 10 to 15K you're asking for trouble
unlike Synthetics. In the end, oil is oil.

Very true, but Castrol certainly had a lot of people fooled throughout the 80s and 90s.
You also have a lot of older people who think that frequent oil changes are just a scam invented by the oil companies. I have seen people do a lot more than 15K with their oil but for me it is not something that I need to take word of mouth on. I have felt the difference that fresh oil makes in the way my engines behaves and sounds. I have also seen oil that had done about 20K emptied out of an oil pan and it was mostly a chocolate sludge, it had taken in a lot of water and dirt, It probably shortened the guys engine life in half.

Old thick oil would be the death of something like the 1.5T engine with it's tight tolerances but I also think that plays into why normal OD is not an issue with the 1.5T. Honda used the thinnest engine oil you can buy, I think that the engine would happily run on oil even thinner if it was available. I believe that normal OD probably keeps the oil still in the optimal viscosity range for this engine. Those who put in 5W-20 might actually be putting the engine way out of spec.
If Honda thought that normal OD was going to be an issue they could have easily just used 5W-30 instead on 0W-20.

 

[kloker]

Unfortunately, there is probably little reason to mention the 1.5L turbo engine here, as I seriously doubt any of them will even remotely achieve any real longevity. I don't even really see any of them making it to 100k.

 

[crashcramer]

That is an accomplishment for sure, but am I the only person here that noticed the light on in the instrument cluster?! It could’ve been fuel low, but since I don’t know what year model this is, IDK for sure, but it sorta looked like the engine light was on!! Ok, enough of my skepticism, I’m for the lots of miles out of a car. My 1999 V. Has over 260000 miles on it, I drive In congestion every day, have had the transmission rebuilt about 4 years ago because I don’t like car payments and I’m currently in a weather postponed timing belt change with new motor mounts thrown in for good luck. I want to see 300000 miles and more in my V, I will need someone to redo the seat foam for my drivers seat though as it is deteriorating more and more.