E92Vancouver

Please don't say none if you never check your oil level between oil changes.

My MDX burns about 1/2 a litre every 6,000 kilometres.

For Americans, this is 1/2 a quart every 4,000 miles.

My Bimmer's burn no oil between 20,000 km or 12,000 mile oil changes.

hondu

My dipstick was halfway between the max and min point after about 6,000 miles or so. I did not really have to add any oil, but I went ahead and put about 1/4 quart in to put it back at the max level marking on the dipstick.

This was before our very first oil change on the vehicle.

What kind of Bimmer did you have and what kind of oil are you using in your MDX?

E92Vancouver

Bimmer was an E46 and E92. Have always used synthetic, Currently 0W20. In my 2011 MDX I used 5W20.

Every Honda I have owned (many Preludes back in the day-1985, 1987, 1988 & 1992) used oil.

Edward'TLS

Fuck, I always thought that only the 3.7L-V6 had the "excessive oil consumption" issue, and the 3.5L-V6 was immune !

Now it's the Direct-injection 3.5L-V6's turn.

hondu

I have an E82 with the N52 engine and it doesn't use any oil as well. My previous Honda vehicles that had the J35 engine never used oil, so I was surprised I had to add some to my MDX. Then again I believe a lot of engines use some oil while breaking them in, so we'll see what happens in the next few thousand miles. Direct injection engines could be more likely to consume oil.

Other than the J37, I know the K20 was also an oil consumer.

hondu

I forgot to ask, what brand of oil are you using? I just used Mobil 1 AFE 0W-20 to replace the factory fill.

ezgobob

I use no oil in 7000 miles check oil level weekly
Use Mobile One 0w20

E92Vancouver

Yes, my 3.7 litre in my 2011 MDX burned just as much oil.

E92Vancouver

I am using the Acura 0W20 synthetic.

hondu

Try switching to Mobil 1 EP 0W-20. It has a relatively high PAO content (more Group IV synthetic), which could help with your oil consumption. I think the Honda/Acura 0W-20 is more a Group III synthetic made by Conoco-Philips.

csmeance

Honda engines with VCM tend to burn a little bit more oil than we are used to. Using an oil with a better HTHS will help out. Mobil 1 5W-20 Extended performance (gold cap) is good! So is Mobil 1 0W-40 European

E92Vancouver

Mobil 1 use to advertise that they were the OEM oil for the Acura RDX Turbo. They made the oil for Acura.

This fact is still on this literature on page 16 of the footer.

http://www.exxonmobil.com/AP-English...persyn_eng.pdf

hondu

The attachment is dated 2008 and only pertains to factory fill. I believe it was also before Acura changed to 0W-20 across the board for all of their vehicles.

Honda/Acura 0W-20 you buy in the aftermarket used to be made by Idemitsu, but it is now made by Conoco Philips.

Mobil 1 0W-20 EP has very high levels of Group IV synthetic (60-70% PAO) which could help with oil consumption. I believe Mobil 1 0W-20 also has a relatively higher viscosity for an 0W-20, which could also help.

Mobil 1 0W-20 AFE has less Group IV (30-40% I believe, but going from memory on this), which is still more than the Honda/Acura 0W-20.

Edward'TLS

For reference, the Honda 3.7L-V6 has excessive oil consumption problem, and nothing (factory/aftermarket/conventional-oil/synthetic-oil/0w20/5w20) will help to fix this oil burning issue.

However, some affected members have more luck going to thicker viscosity oils than the standard 0w20/5w20 weight.

hondu

Yes, but I believe that was due to poor choice of piston ring material (softer)? Not sure on that, but I could see why nothing with regard to oil choice can solve that problem with the 3.7L.

I imagine with respect to the direct injection J35Y, they went back to better piston ring design and oil choice may have a better chance to affect oil consumption.

Edward'TLS

^^^^^

Exactly, since the DI-3.5L-V6 is using the good-old bullet-proof ring design, it shouldn't consume engine oil like the oil-burning 3.7L-V6.

So why is it also burning oil ?

hondu

My guess would be that it is due to the higher levels of fuel dilution in your oil associated with DI. Fuel dilution lowers the flash point and viscosity of your oil, which results in increased fuel consumption.

E92Vancouver

Are you a petroleum engineer by chance?

hondu

I am an engineer, just not a petroleum engineer. I was not a big fan of the organic chemistry class I had to take in college.

However, I've also spent way too much time doing research on oil (bobistheoilguy.com is one good source).

hrdman

I changed to synthetic and my MDX never used oil between changes

BackHomeAgain

Interestingly, BMW considers burning a liter of oil every 500 miles to be acceptable. So if you have a new BMW that burns a liter every 600 miles, sorry about your luck...