what engine oil????

[britlude]

i could use a search, but it doesn't consider short words actual words.....

what's the prefered oil.... i know its supposed to be 10W30, and our american friends have all manner of choices, but what are the preferences in the uk....

castrol do a fully synthetic 10W30 over here.......

[Dragonlady]

mobil 1 0w40 or 10w40 which is what our local Honda put in, No problems with either. Booked in for a big service in two weeks and the oil looks and feels like new still.

[NSXGB]

Always used Mobil 1 0w40.

[goldnsx]

NO low SAPS or Eco-stuff please. NO ACEA A5/B5. Just quality A3/B4.

[havoc]

I've always gone with Fuchs Titan Race Pro-S 5w40 (ester-based fully synth, ex-Silkolene branded) for all my Hondas for getting on for 10 years - Opie Oils do it for I think £48 / 5 litres, so it works out +/-£40 when they've got a discount code on.

Heard a handful of horror stories about Mobil-1 0w in the EP3 community years ago (i.e. too thin), but that's as likely to have been people not checking their oil enough and letting it get low then looking for an excuse.


To be honest, it partly depends on how many miles you do between services and whether you take the car on-track or not. If low-miles and no track use, then pretty much any oil 'around' 5w40 will do, but if you do 10k+ between services or do trackdays / lots of hard driving, then you want a better* oil.

Edit: https://www.opieoils.co.uk//p-68897-fuchs-titan-race-pro-s-5w-40-ester-fully-synthetic-engine-oil.aspx



* the more expensive oils, and especially the proper (ester-based) fully synths (as opposed to cracked-hydrocarbon based "synthetics" - Shell Helix I'm looking at you!) are far better at maintaining their properties after prolonged / hard use, whereas cheap oils break down a lot quicker.

[austrian type-r]

street NSX: Fuchs Titan 10W40 since 2005.
race NSX: Mobil 1 5w50 and this year switched to Fuchs 5w50

[Wazzz]

I am a new and first time NSX owner, as su much I am just learning about the car and how to maintain it.

I just called Honda and they used a 5w-30 from factory. Any reason why there is a mix of different grades being used by different people.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Waz

[goldnsx]

Congrats and Welcome!

Just use the oil you feel comfortable with.

I can't comment on the 5W/30 but my recommendation in #4 is still valid.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Hi, Waz.
Congratulations on becoming the owner.

Normally, I won't be involved in eng oil discussion but since I got similar questions from several new owners, hope following info will assist you in the future.

It's a production car engine and only about 8,000rpm max so unless you have serious engine modifications, as long as it's close to the recommended OEM eng oil spec, you can use your preferred oil but probably stay with the ones from the major oil companies.

For some of the modern eng design, they require the specific eng oil but in the era of NSX, engineers would not have designed an eng requiring the specific eng oil that might be hard to obtain as an off-the-shelf product even in the remote island.

In fact, there was less than one year to go before the start of the production when Honda decided to suddenly change the NSX eng design (SOHC -> DOHC, titanium rod, etc) so there were lots of safety margins included as there was no way carrying out all of the testings from scratch.
You will understand this if you look at the shape of the piston head design, oil clearance, etc.

Addition to this, the recommended oil spec changed over the years even when there was no changes in eng design simply because the Honda branded eng oil changed its spec.
In Japan, it started with Honda Ultra LTD API SG class 10W-30 or any oil with at least API SG class or ILSAC certified. For cold environment, 5W-30.

Later, the Honda oil changed its spec and now it's Honda Ultra Gold API SN class 5W-40 or Ultra Mild 10W-30.
The changes were purely based on the fact that these were the oil supplied to the Honda dealers in Japan.

So, as mentioned at the beginning, any oil from major oil companies with viscosity at around 5W-40 or 10W-30 would be fine.

If you are based in UK, just pay extra attention to the condensation inside the engine if not driven regularly.
For this reason, better paying attention on replacing the oil regularly (at least once a year regardless of the annual mileage) than focusing on which oil to use.

For your reference, I drive my NSX almost everyday, owned from new, service it by myself so know all the service history and already covered about 160K miles.
Still good compression data with original main/rod metals, cam shafts/journals with only one minor marking on the cam lobe.
Don't be fooled with some of the oil testing Ad showing two metal pieces scratching each other and measuring the temperature and wear. It's not that simple.

I just change oil every spring and autumn and using Mobil 1 0W-40 for years now. When out of stock, I used Castrol Edge for some time.
In Japan, many owners are using the Nissan GT-R oil (Mobil 1 but MSDS sheet shows different spec from UK).
I think Honda main dealers in UK are using the Castrol.

Kaz

[Wazzz]

Appreciate the help guys. Will go and find something suitable.

Thanks

Waz