ryanc44

So I finally have 4900 miles on my TSX (bought it back in Oct '03) so I thought I'd do my first oil change. I don't trust car mechanics any farther than I could throw them, so of course I'm going to do it myself. So I head over to my folk's house since I store all my oil there and since my dad has an "ultimate set of tools". In the garage, my cache of 5W30 sits on a shelf next to his identical brand of 10W30 (I think you already know what's going to happen.) The change is going slowly as this is the first time with this car (isn't that filter a bitch to get at?), so by the time I'm ready to fill it back up, it's late, and I'm a bit tired and ready to go home. So to make a long story short, while pouring in the 4th quart I notice that it's a bottle of 10W30, not 5W30- arggghh!!! I immediately pull the bottle back, but the damage was done- half a quart of 10W30 now resides in my car. So at this point I'm wondering if I should drain the whole thing and start over (I already drove it home and to work this morning), or just give myself a swift kick in the ass and forget about it. What do you think? I'm searching around on the internet this morning to see what kind of damage that could cause, but it seems that I must be the only person in the world that has done this.

BTW- anybody notice that the manual says it takes about 4.4 quarts, yet it seems that thing will easily take 5...

miner

You'll be fine - no big deal. As far as the capacity, did you prefill the filter first? That would accout for about 1/3 qt.

Wess

Why would you use 5w30? Here in Alaska we use 10W30, 10W40 would be OK, but for the best performance 10W30. Your saying that 10w30 is going to damage your car??

Wess
LoL, I see now, you already started to fill your car up with 5W30 and you mixed it with 10W30, man that blows. I don't know to much about cars, to be safe I would just redo it.

dom

Wess Acura reccomends 5W30 fro the TSX. Why would you be putting in 10W30? Does Acura reccomend 10W30 in Alaska because of the cold?

ryanc44

Yeah, I've been doing a little oil viscosity research and maybe my dumb mistake wasn't as bad as I'm making it out to be- not that I should be excused in any way...

So how do you pre-fill the filter? Would it all just spill out when you go to install the thing?

Also, a tip for anyone else that's going to do their first change- while the manual says all you have to do is remove the small, plastic access cover, when you remove the filter it will leak oil and get caught up in the larger plastic engine/underbody cover- next time I'll be taking that off as well...

fdl

SO let me see if i understand this. You put in 75% 5w30, and then 25% 10w30. Maybe I am missing something but whats the big deal? I dont see any problem with this. Draining all your oil would be silly IMO.

autox17

1 quart of 10w30 isn't going to hurt anything...draining and refilling would be a waste.

DEVO

Some of you guys need to get a life, this isn't an issue.

dom

Get a life? All the guy did was ask the question.

I'm more concerned with why Wess is putting in 10W30?

dabuda

shouldnt be a problem...

gfxdave99

I concur...

Dont bother re-doing the oil change..

ryanc44

Whoa there big boy!

I really didn't think it would be an issue, but I figured if it was, someone on this site would definitely let me know. There seem to be some pretty rabid TSX owners here that are very anal/protective of their babies- glad to see we're all sensible, intelligent adults even if we check our cars for door dings everytime we park them...

Thanks guys- I'll just pretend I'm running a special 6.5W30 and forget about it until I hit 10K...

DEVO

You are fine. No need to worry. Plus I'll be impressed if you don't have to add any oil for the next 10k miles. So each time you add, the dilution will increase towards 5w.

dom

Can someone explain to me if this is normal?

fdl

Its not. In fact in colder temperatures 5w30 will be better. The lower the viscosity the easier a cold engine will start.

dom

Then someone should tell Wess !

Wess

LoL, you guys are really making me look like a dumb ass. I guess my WRX buddies have me thinking the wrong thing. I'm still running on the stock oil. It has whatever the car came with. I'm getting an oil change this weekend though. I'll just have my dealer do my oil change and have them put their "Acura/Honda quality products in." Heh, thanks for the info guys.

Wes