romer

The door pillar says 35 psi front, 33 psi rear. How many follow this 2 lb difference? Even if you add a couple pounds per tire which many people do, do you follow the 2 lb front/rear difference? Dealer service says they do 35 psi all around. Thanks.

jcross1231

Why would one NOT observer the settings on the door plate?

Carbon2008RDX

Those numbers 35/33 are recommended for maximum ride comfort and fuel economy. Feel free to play around with pressures that best suit your liking. I personally like a higher pressure year round as the 35/33 seems too mushy for my taste. Remember, always set your pressures when the tires are “cold” or the car hasn’t been driven for a few hours and hasn’t been sitting in direct sun, etc. Also, remember the RDX is a front heavy front biased car (even with AWD) so the front tires will naturally heat up more than the rears when driving hence naturally increasing their PSI. With that said, I usually set the fronts +1 PSI to whatever I choose for the rear. After a little driving the fronts will naturally become +2 over the rears. Always remember to check your pressures year round as well as they can significantly change say from winter to summer and vice versa.

dirleton

37/35. Recommended pressures are what's good for CAFE, not the car/ride. Same deal with 0W20 oil.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

because of physics, varying tire pressure can do cool things in terms of performance!
super cool to bring out the ass end of a FWD vehicle, with slight tweaks to tire pressure

chickdr

Do tell! What is the deal with 0W20 oil? I assume you don't use it in your RDX? I have been using 0W20 in my 11 Tacoma (recommended by Toyota) for 56k miles. No issues....

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

with the same engine, in all of acura's product...why are some calling for 5w-30 and then the newer ones calling for 0w-20? because of the strict government requirements
they call for an entire fleet of vehicles to be in a certain MPG range.
by dropping the weight of oil, ACROSS The whole lineup, Acura and other manufactures are able to meet those requirements

a lower viscosity oil will gain MPG. if you are looking at individual vehicles...the lower viscosity will only gain a slight increase...but if you look at the WHOLE entire fleet, that .1 MPG adds up
same thing with tire pressure...the whole entire fleet gets cranked up to 37PSI

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

CAFE = Corporate Average Fuel Economy

RDX-Rick

This isn't the first time I heard someone say that the manufacturers recommended oil is not the best. I have never understood this claim.

Certainly increasing the CAFE is one of the reasons for suggesting the use of 0W20, but wouldn't the best fuel economy be obtained when internal engine friction is reduced? Isn't reducing internal friction a good thing for extending the life of the engine and our wallets?

If using 0W20 caused increased engine wear (or damage) would the manufacturer use it at the risk of causing increased warranty repairs? Or does the government CAFE mandate mean that manufacturers are actually reducing engine reliability to meet the new standards.

dirleton

The goal of the manufacturer is "good enough" - to get the vehicle to the warranty threshold with a minimum of issues. What happens after that they don't care about so much.

A good example is GDI engines. No longer does fuel wash over the back sides of intake valves so they will run hotter and coke up. There will be a lot of engine issues in the coming years but more efficient and better MPG for now so all is good. And, the average Joe brooms the car before shit happens.

dirleton

Didn't say it is bad for your car, just perhaps not what is best. People who think manufacturers have the customer's best interest as their number one priority are the same people who believe the car salesman is their friend.

CanTex

He's not????

RDX-Rick

I listed my reasons why I didn't think 0W30 was a bad choice, but yet you say "Didn't say it is bad for your car, just perhaps not what is best". I'm certainly not a mechanic, but if you can explain why another grade of oil might be better, I might be willing to switch.

One definition of oil that I found is "to form a lubricant film on the contact surfaces that is sufficiently capable of supporting loads and thus preventing wear and premature fatigue"

Perhaps in the old days (pre synthetic), oils with higher viscosity were better off at supporting the "loads". Isn't the advantage of synthetic oils that the molecules form tighter bonds and do not break down as quickly as conventional oil? Isn't that why the oil change interval has increased so much since the introduction of synthetic oil? Perhaps the theory that more viscous oils were "best" was true when comparing conventional to conventional, because of increased molecular bonding, but I think all synthetic oils benefit from increase molecular bonding and therefore increased load bearing capability.

In the old days car engines were not built to the same tight tolerances as they are today (at least not assembly line engines). I'm just guessing here, but perhaps thicker (more viscous) oils were used to compensate for looser tolerances in connecting rods and wrist pins. The thicker oil perhaps reduced engine clatter in the looser fitting components. I remember the days when people added a can of STP (like pouring corn syrup) before selling their cars to reduce clacking engine sounds (apparently adding sawdust was also useful). Now that factory built engines are tighter, they no longer need the higher viscosity oils.

dirleton

Sawdust was for the tranny - at least according to Andy of Mayberry.

Carbon2008RDX

I remember pouring a can of STP down the carburetor of my ’67 Chevy but, I digress

I thought this thread was about tire pressures?

colt427

chickdr

Ok then- what do YOU think is the optimum oil viscosity for the 3.5l V6 in the RDX? If it's not 0W20 then why?

dirleton

Look closely and see if you can find the word "perhaps" in that quote.

chickdr

You are avoiding the question. What is your OPINION of what oil is better than 0W20? You must have been a politician....