crazyvlad

not sure if the 2.4 l 204 hp engine has a timing belt or chain. if former then it needs to be replaced at regular intervals, imho, and if latter then perhaps the tension needs to be adjusted from time to time.
any ideas here? also, any engine issues that one needs to be aware of?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

the K24 has a timing chain

crazyvlad

timing chain then...does it need to be checked for tension periodically?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

personally, I think all moving parts should be periodically checked, as moving parts wear.

have you checked what the owners manual says about maintenance on the timing chain?

crazyvlad

not really, but it's a good idea, will check then...have read somewhere that timing chains can elongate enough to cause engine trouble with 2.4 l engine

aomechmarine

Pretty sure it says to inspect at 150,000 miles. Most likely the tensioner will go out first, mosy likely chain will never break. Just make sure you always do the oil changes on time. 4cruizin's ILX has over 200k miles and neither the tensioner or much less the chain have gone bad. i have seen TX's with 500,000 miles on them, original chain and tensioner. Do the oil changes on time, use good stuff. Full synthetic

crazyvlad

thx for the reply...my concern originated from a post i saw somewhere where someone claimed that 2008 2.4 l K24 engine's tensioner and chain can get loose and damage the engine. i guess this is not the case with more recent engines of this type. and i'll use the best oil that money can buy

aomechmarine

A few reasons that probably happened is
1) simple fact, people do not change the oil on time... do not perform basic maintenance on time... but it's a lot harder to get that wrong, with a car with a maintenance minder... even then people still do!! Had a buddy who went past the oil change maintenance minder... it starts reminding you at 15%... he went past zero %... that means he most likely drove over 1,125 miles with the minder on, telling him to change the oil... I guarantee you he's not the only one who does that stupidity... The way I come up with that number is that "roughly" the oil change is supposed to last 7,500 miles... so 7,500 divided by 20 = 375 miles... so the maintenance minder goes down from 100% by 10% until it gets down to 15% where the light comes on to remind you... so every 5% is roughly 375 miles driven...so now when the minder light turns on at 15%... that means 375 (X) 3 = 1,1125 miles till you get to zero... the reason it reminds you early is simple... Early is a lot better then late. Gives you time to schedule, etc... the average person would have over a month to schedule an oil change once the light turns on... a MONTH and this dude went past zero... unbelievable...

2) people drive their cars a lot harder then they realize. People have these cars, and they race them, they stop light race them, they use the car for Uber, they deliver pizzas, they drive a lot of stop and go traffic... that is all considerd "severe" service, which means you are suppose to change the oil earlier, because uou are burning through it, way faster. 7,500 miles in our cars is the recommended generic mileage per oil change... however, that is really like an average... if you are driving under harsh conditions, most likely you meed to change it at about 5,000 miles. Then if you have very long drives at a very steady clip, hardly ever drive in the city, your oil can realistically last about 10,000 miles, especially on a full synthetic...

The maintanence minder is "smart" and can actually adjust to and keep track of your driving conditions to recommend the proper oil change timing... i believe its the engine revs?... but anyway, it can tell of you are driving a bit harder or a bit easier... so some oil chnages will last longer, and some won't.... I'm sure it's not perfect,, but especially if you are using full synthetic, you should have peace of mind. If you follow the maintenance monder properly, your car will do great in the long run... if for some reason, it doesn't tell you to change it after a year... change it after a year too...

I use nothing but full synthetic and when I change the oil, its usually still pretty clear and golden... I could probably run it twice as long... BUT, why would I actually WANT to wait until it's burned up and gunky..? Makes no sense. I'd rather do it while it's not a problem at all. I buy the oil and filter specials from Autozone and O'Reillys and at Walmart...I get free stuff like t-shirts, bobbleheads, free movie tickets... and I use coupons and rebates... Sale price is usually about $30 -$40 for a premium oil filter and a name brand full synthetic. Then I stack coupons and points, and the price usually drops to about $20 -$25 on average... if you add in the value of the free stuff, then its even lower... and thats on average.. I've gotten an oil change special as cheap as $15. Then I pay my independent Acura mechanic $10 for labor to do the oil change. So my total cost of an oil change is usually like $25-$35, and I'm getting cool free stuff, I'm supporting a local small business, and I'm changing the oil at 15%... I probably let it get down to 10% and 5% only once each time, only because I was so busy. I have 3 oil changes chilling in my garage right now.. I need one soon... but castrol right now is giving away $26 worth of movie tickets if you buy a jug of full synthetic.. the jug itself is not even $26 at Walmart. i already know Im going to the movies later on... so to me thats basically free oil that can just sit in my garage intil I need it. I'll use the tickets before the oil...

I wrote all that because most dealers and oil change places want maybe $90-$120 for a full synthetic oil change.. so I generally don't use them for that. 3-4 times the cost,and no freebies. Even if you don't go as deep into it as I do, and collect rebates and freebies...you can still save a lot more money by just stopping in, picking up a special for maybe $40, and then either doing it yourself, or finding a mechanic to chnage it for you for $10 to $15... you can just Yelp Acura shops and call them amd ask bow much they would charge. Then you have a cheap Acura mechanic, too, bonus.

aomechmarine

Think about it... even changing it early... I only need about 3 oil changes a year... and that means at a a dealer or Lube shop I would spend at least around $300... but instead I spend less then $100 plus I collect all my freebies.... for me, it literally pays to change the oil early.

DaIll1

So, you're saying, change oil more often than needed, adding to pollution? A Porsche nut I worked with tracked his daily driver. He did a study to monitor his oil. Every 1000 miles, he changed his filter replacing lost Royal Purple. He sent a sample for testing, he quit at 10k with all properties still at normal levels. I change mine at 10k, whether it needs it or not. The filter is important, both in filtration type and pressure bypass.

aomechmarine

No, no no.. I didn't say that either, c'mon man... Clearly twisting what I said... I agree that too much is stupid as well. I gave my SPECIFIC example of probably changing it a little early. I change it at 15% when it reminds me too. I never change it before that, thats overkill. So for me, thats about 6000 miles. It's good for 7,500 roughly, again thats the AVERAGE... so a little early, is perfectly reasonable. I do like to speed and stuff too, so I don't feel it's unwarranted or pushing it... I also noticed that in very hot California weather the oil gets burned through a lot faster... the few times that the oil was darker, or more used up, was the summer... The car even sounded a bit different and performed a little different, once it was very close to the oil change being needed... a few times this actually happened when the oil was about 30% or 20%, and then it seemed like it immeditaely dropped to 15% right after.. so I think the maintenace minder is accurate in my opinion... It's a lot more noticeable on my car because it's modified and the exhaust note is loud...

BUT, I'm specifcally saying to just change it on time. Thats it. When the maintence minder says to change it, pay attention. If you are letting it go past that you are being irresponsible with your car.

I'm not sure if you are saying that your Porsche you let run for 10,000 mile intervals or an ILX..? As far as I know, a lot of Porches that don't have a maintenance minder specify a 10,000 oil change interval as OEM spec recommendation, so I don't see that being outrageous, thats exactly on time. Now if you changed it at 9,000 would that be an outrageous waste..? What if you got a cool t- shirt you wanted out of it too? Or it was just convenient to knock it out because you were alredy knocking iut brakes or something.?

aomechmarine

And if your ILX says to change it at 10,000 miles, that may actually be 100% reasonable if you drive the car a certain way. Long trips at a steady click. The 7,500 oil change interval is an average. So that means some people WILL be having that 10,000 mile oil change interval. In fact, some people have posted about that previously. Most of the full synthetic oils I use even specify that they can go longer. Like the Mobil One Extended performance says it's good for up to 15,000 miles, or up to one full year, whichever comes first. And that is under "regular" or "light" driving conditions, so "severe " would still be much earlier, at about 6 months and 7,500 to 10,000 miles. But I have no wish to actually push it that long, to that 15k mark. The EP formula is only a couple dollars more then the regular mobil one stuff too. I mean I trust the brand, I would just rather change it according to the maintenance minder. Early change to me, is when it says 15%. Latest for me is at 5%, to me that means change the oil ASAP... I only did that once, I was at 10% and literally as I pulled in, it rolled over to 5%. So maybe my oil has actually been averaging about 12% or 13% life by the time I take it in... i don't see that as being way too early... I'm still using close to 90% of the oil's life span before i change it. Maybe if I didn't have the maintenance minder, then maybe I would be more inclined to follow the Mobil One EP 15K mark tho.And Mobil One actually just started making a filter that they now say can be used for 20,000 miles or one year. So I think that one is replacing the one that lasted for 15,000 miles...

As far as filters, I use the best filters that Mobil one, K&N, Bosch, and Wix make. A lot of those say you canuse the filter for up to 10,000 to 15,000 miles too. But again, No desire to push that filter to its limit... most of the time on specials I'm getting these filters for anywhere from $3 -$7... so they are so cheap, I'm getting my little freebies... it all seems perfectly reasonable to me...

schen72

Honda went through a lot of effort to come up with their oil analysis monitoring algorithm. Just follow it. On all of my Acuras, the MID tends to come on right around 7500-8000 miles. I usually get the service done sooner instead of waiting until 0% because all the dashboard lights is annoying.

I get oil changes at my dealer as it seems reasonably priced to me. Oil changes are $45 and they do a full inspection including checking rotors and pads. They also give me a voucher for a full service car wash at a local spot. (They do this because the city doesn't allow them to do their own car washes as they do not have the equipment to recycle water.)