2013 Accord 2nd oil change

I had the first oil change done at the dealer at 4000 miles. 0w20 and a filter. I could not wait for the service minder to tell me to change the oil at 10,000 miles. So now I'm following the service interval the computer tells me. At 14000 miles I change the oil. The filter is in a convenient place at the bottom of the car, no covers, no reaching in, ect.. I pull the plug and the oil is black. The dealer oil change should have used 0w20 synthetic oil and a filter. Should this oil be black with 10,000 miles of use? I expected the oil to be "new" looking. I didn't go to Hennessey Honda which sucks a bag of dicks, for the first service, but I wonder if they did the first oil change, or just reset the service interval reminder. Will an OEM filter be different than a dealer oil filter? I use conventional oils, do 3500 mile oil changes and never have oil that black.
Thanks

VW says 10,000 mile oil changes................I think they're f'n idiots! I do every 4000 to 5000, they look at me like I'm the crazy one! Whatever!

edit Colour is usually dark amber.....never black!

A friend of mine a couple years ago bought a Mercedes E350 and the oil change interval was 12k miles. I'm no Luddite but there's no way in hell I could allow a car to go that long without changing the oil. I use Mobil 1 and I change it at around 3-5k miles and mine is usually darker than new but not black, just one more reason to do it yourself. Especially after I've heard stories of what techs were pressured to do by service managers at various dealerships.....

Even of I change the oil at less than 5000 miles, in every car I've ever owned, it's always black.

If I were you I would change it more frequently. But I'm an obsessive oil changer. Send a sample out for analysis. A lot of guys on bitog stretch their intervals like that and use uoa to determine whether they should change it more frequently or push the envelope further.

How many months on that 10,000 mile change? I usually shoot for 12 months/7,500 miles whichever comes first.

6 months on that oil. I'm cutting the interval to 6k on the next one, and will note the difference.

How it looks/feels doesn't mean much. If it were mine, it would be fed M1 or some other top shelf synthetic at the computer calculated intervals, with an analysis to confirm the oil is holding up.

Its possible the dealer put conventional 5w20 or 5w30 oil in it, which wont hold up to 10k miles. AFAIK all the 0wXX oils are full synthetic.

Yes, the oil will be black after 10,000 miles.

Supposedly the science says you can extend oil changes to seven digit intervals if you use full synthetics. For those of us that had 3000 mile oil change intervals beat into our heads growing up, it is very difficult to accept. My MINI (and I believe all newer BMW products) uses an algorithm based on your use of the car to determine intervals. MINI insists on a full synthetic and indicated oil interval changes can range from 7000 to 15,000 miles depending on how you use the car. BMW insists that is sufficient based on their research, though I'm a bit suspicious because they are pushed hard by various elements to reduce environmental impact and projected maintenance costs.

That said, I just can't bring myself to wait that long due to previous conditioning. I don't wait for the indicator and I change every 7500 miles, regardless. The newer Toyota I have just seems to use mileage for the indicator and specs a conventional oil. I use synthetic in it and change it at 7500 miles, as well.

It will be black.

I own a 2011 Accord with 60,000 miles - I buy the Honda filter and washer at the dealer and then I buy Mobil synthetic oil at Wally World and change it myself. I usually run to 60% monitor which is 4,500-5,000 miles between oil changes.

Overkill? YES! I burn about 1/4 of a quart (8 ounces) over these 5,000 miles.

My brother was on the Audi maintenance plan with his A4 and was always low on oil before his 10,000 mile dealer oil change. So he would stop in to have the dealer add oil. Somehow the turbo blew and required a new engine at 57,000 miles.

Duke wrote: Even of I change the oil at less than 5000 miles, in every car I've ever owned, it's always black.

+1

vwgehr wrote: VW says 10,000 mile oil changes................I think they're f'n idiots! I do every 4000 to 5000, they look at me like I'm the crazy one! Whatever! *edit* Colour is usually dark amber.....never black!

I had similar concerns, did the first 3 LOFs at the dealer with the fist 30K miles of free service deal, then have done all the rest on my own with Mobil 1 5w30 ESP, which is the only Mobil 1 that meets VW's 507.00 requirements.

I stuck with the 10K interval and at 60K miles I sent a sample to Blackstone Labs to see what they had to say. I paid a little extra for the TBN analysis too, which lets you know how much additive is left. After the analysis I am confident that the VW engineers know what they're talking about, and the 10K mile OCI is more than sufficient for the Common Rail TDI in daily driver duty.

Here's the Blackstone Report (Redacted to protect the innocent)

• Lee

No engine I've ever owned had oil that was "black" before it had at least 100k miles on it.

you've actually waited 'til a car reached 100k miles to change the oil ?

In reply to 1988RedT2:

Never owned a diesel then huh?

'00 Cavalier
'90 Grand Prix
'94 Grand Prix
'97 Wrangler
'95 850
'98 S70

All vehicles owned by and/or regularly serviced by me, got some version of Mobil, Pennzoil, or O'Reilly brand conventional 10w30 at 3-5K mile OCI. All would be dark brown to black.

Several years ago I switched the 850 to Mobil 1 High Mileage 10w30, and add a can of BG MOA at a 5-7K mile OCI, still black.

The Jetta is a Diesel, so it's black after about 10 miles.

• Lee

Modern synthetics will turn black at low mileage, does not mean it is ready for a change. Since about 1994 I started using synthetic oil and once a year changes. usually 8-9 K miles. One vehicle had 75 K on it when I sold it. the other had 72 K. when I traded for the 2011 Fiesta. It had three oil changes up to 42K when it got totaled. Ford recommends 10K mile changes ,which I am going by. You old school guys need to get with the program.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

Nope. Never owned a diesel.

With gas engines I have observed a direct correlation between used oil color and engine health/mileage. Dark oil = worn out engine.

You young-uns can change your oil whenever you like. I'll do the same, thank you.

Black oil just means it's doing it's job.

I have used Mobil 1 Extended Performance in two cars and changed the oil every year. I also leased a BMW and the dealer would change the oil yearly. Never had any problems, never had issues.