I bought a 1997 Honda Civic HX

[Titanium]

I bought a 1997 Honda Civic HX that has a manual transmission from the original owner two days ago. The car is 100% stock, in very good condition and it runs great. This car has 167,000 miles on it.

When I buy a car with higher miles I like to change the engine oil, manual transmission oil, antifreeze, fuel filter, give the car a tuneup with new spark plugs and anything else it needs before I start driving it. I was thinking of using Pennzoil Ultra 5w-30 synthetic motor oil with a Mobile 1 extended performance oil filter on this car. I'm planning on driving this car over 400,000 miles...

I was reading the owners manual on recommended fluids and spark plugs for this car. Of course the manual says to use Honda fluids from the dealer.

What brands and types of fluids are you guy's using in your Honda HX's?

What spark plugs are you guy's using?

[RobertSmalls]

No brand of motor oil is any better than another. There may be subtle differences in viscosity, but as long as it's API certified (as even the generics are), then it has the same additives as any other oil, and it's fine. I like synthetic 0W30 in cars that call for 5W30/10W30, and 0W20 in my car.

There's lots of marketing going around, telling you a certain brand of fuel or spark plug is the best on the market, that your plug doesn't have enough ground electrodes, etc. Nonsense. Just go with a copper plug from the same company that supplies the factory with plugs. So, NGK.

[user removed]

Don't forget the timing belt, unless you have absolute proof of its replacement at a mileage within 50k of what you have now.

Most Honda engines are killed by broken timing belts, or other serious neglect.

regards
Mech

[Ryland]

I read the SAE book that covered among other things, spark plugs, where they tested all the styles that were available to them and it basically comes down to the standard style of spark plug is works well for the shape of combustion chamber that most cars have, including Honda's and that Copper core spark plugs are only out done by silver core spark plugs and that platinum tipped is only good if you neglect your car and only want to change spark plugs every 100,000 miles.
Sparks jump from sharp edges so the NGK V-power plugs are what I have settled with after trying the Botch +4, Pulstar plug, platinum tipped plugs and the NGK v-power plugs changed every 15,000 miles seem to work best.
Honda used to recommend straight 10W30 engine oil in the manual transmision, do not use any sulpher based gear oils as they will destroy the bushings, they still say that if you can not get their transmision fluid to use 5w 30 or 10w 30 motor oil, amsoil MTF is to thin from what I can tell but their 0W 30 motor oil works great, 0w 20 should work well as well in the transmision.
In my civic VX I run 0w 30 motor oil and have had it work great, I change it once a year and use a good quality filter.
Only other thing to really keep an eye on is that the timing belt is good for 100,000 miles and the water pump costs an extra $30 to change at the same time as the timing belt.
If you live in an area with rust then look at your rear wheel wells were the bumper meets the fender, clean that out and rust proof it, under coating works well for this.

[Titanium]

Originally Posted by RobertSmalls

No brand of motor oil is any better than another. There may be subtle differences in viscosity, but as long as it's API certified (as even the generics are), then it has the same additives as any other oil, and it's fine. I like synthetic 0W30 in cars that call for 5W30/10W30, and 0W20 in my car.

There's lots of marketing going around, telling you a certain brand of fuel or spark plug is the best on the market, that your plug doesn't have enough ground electrodes, etc. Nonsense. Just go with a copper plug from the same company that supplies the factory with plugs. So, NGK.

I have been using conventional oil in my cars all my life and I have always change the oil in my cars every 3,000 miles. I have done quite a bit of research on the internet and talked to friends about synthetic oil. I'm going to use synthetic oil in the Honda I just bought and I'm going to also use it in my Cavalier.

I was going to go with the recommended stock spark plug that the Honda manual recommends if everyone said nothing was better.

[Titanium]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Don't forget the timing belt, unless you have absolute proof of its replacement at a mileage within 50k of what you have now.

Most Honda engines are killed by broken timing belts, or other serious neglect.

regards
Mech

Mech

I'm very aware of the timing belt in the Honda and I did ask the person I bought the car from about it before I bought the car. He said he changed it around 100,000 miles, but this car now has 167,000 miles on it. I'm going to inspect the belt and if it looks good I will plan on replacing the belt and water pump at 180,000 miles.

I have owned two Cavaliers and those cars have the timing chain in them which does not really wear out until the engine needs a rebuild, but those cars only get 30 MPG average.

[Titanium]

Originally Posted by Ryland

I read the SAE book that covered among other things, spark plugs, where they tested all the styles that were available to them and it basically comes down to the standard style of spark plug is works well for the shape of combustion chamber that most cars have, including Honda's and that Copper core spark plugs are only out done by silver core spark plugs and that platinum tipped is only good if you neglect your car and only want to change spark plugs every 100,000 miles.
Sparks jump from sharp edges so the NGK V-power plugs are what I have settled with after trying the Botch +4, Pulstar plug, platinum tipped plugs and the NGK v-power plugs changed every 15,000 miles seem to work best.
Honda used to recommend straight 10W30 engine oil in the manual transmision, do not use any sulpher based gear oils as they will destroy the bushings, they still say that if you can not get their transmision fluid to use 5w 30 or 10w 30 motor oil, amsoil MTF is to thin from what I can tell but their 0W 30 motor oil works great, 0w 20 should work well as well in the transmision.
In my civic VX I run 0w 30 motor oil and have had it work great, I change it once a year and use a good quality filter.
Only other thing to really keep an eye on is that the timing belt is good for 100,000 miles and the water pump costs an extra $30 to change at the same time as the timing belt.
If you live in an area with rust then look at your rear wheel wells were the bumper meets the fender, clean that out and rust proof it, under coating works well for this.

Ryland

The NGK V-Power plug is a good tip, thanks. I wanted to go with the stock NGK plug, so if the stock plug is available in the V-Power version then that sounds good to me.

I have put a ton of research into what oil and oil filter I'm going to use in this Honda. Many of my friends prefer synthetic oil. One of my friends said that when he used conventional oil in his diesel truck the oil would look very dirty after 1,000 miles of use, but synthetic oil in this same truck looks like new after 5,000 miles of use. I have read many posts about oil on the bobistheoilguy.com forum. Many of the people on that forum actually analyze their oil after thousands of miles to determine when to really change it(some of the guy's do this because they have a fleet of trucks). Many forum members over there want to run synthetic oil and a oil filter for over 10,000 miles. I decided to go with Pennzoil Ultra synthetic 5w-30 with a Mobile 1 extended performance filter based on my research there. The Mobile 1 extended performance filter will last 10,000 miles+, but it is expensive.

I think I will visit my local Honda dealer for the manual transmission fluid.

[Titanium]

Ryland

Thanks for mentioning those NGK V-Power spark plugs. They are available in the same exact number recommended in my owners manual. They are actually the only spark plug recommended for my cars HX engine on the NGK website. Very hard to find locally though. AutoZone did not have them and said they could not order them. AutoZone said to visit Napa, so I did and they did not have them in stock, but they said they could order them for me, so I ordered two sets of four since they are hard to find.

[brucepick]

Welcome to the club! I've had mine just over two years now.

Plugs: NGK as spec'd by Honda. ZFR4F-11. This NOT the same as other Civics of the same year. I found them at Honda dealer (sometimes) and at Pep Boys, where I do not usually get parts.

OIL: Mine burns oil. About 20 oz per 1000 miles. Not all burn oil but it's not uncommon.

Oh yeah - it holds only THREE QUARTS! I've seen other HXs, pulled the stick and oil is far over the mark. Nobody believes it only holds 3 qt. You can bet the previous owner/maintainer overfilled it most of the time. Put in 3 qt when you change it. After a quick level check, spin it over, drive to warm it up and then drain down for 1-2 hours. Then check it and see if you agree.

I found that WalMart Synthetic 5W-30 blew right through the engine. Didn't burn much for a couple hundred miles after a change, then whooosh! Far more than 20 oz/K miles. My theory is that the "viscosity enhancers" which create the high viscosity number broke down quickly and then it was thin oil, maybe actually 5W-20. Tried a lot of things including mixing in 8-16 oz of Castrol 20W-50.

I settled on Rotella T6 synthetic, which is 5W-40. It seems to hold it's 40 rating (viscosity in hot engine state) so it doesn't blow through. Now it's using about 20 oz per 1000 miles. It's a diesel oil but also exceeds the spec's for the HX requirement. I get it at WalMart, and right now it's on sale at Advance Auto.

I talked with a good indy Honda shop, they wouldn't be afraid to run it on straight 20-50 if that's what it took to keep it from burning. In other words: yes, the car is spec'd for 5W-30 and 5-40 is thicker, but being thicker would not be an issue if the thin stuff blows right through. I like having the 5 rating for cold state, especially with winter coming. I don't want really thick oil in there at startup.

[Titanium]

brucepick

Thanks for telling me what you have been doing with your Honda HX.

The guy at the Napa parts store did get me the correct spark plugs for my HX. The previous owner had the NGK V-Power ZFR5F-11's in the engine which I took out and replaced with the NGK ZFR4F-11 V-Power plugs. This car was getting great gas milage before I did anything to it. I bought it from the original owner and the car seems to never have been abused at all and it was taken care of.

I have flushed out the radiator and put in new genuine Honda antifreeze. I put a new genuine Honda radiator cap on the radiator. I have a new genuine Honda thermostat with gasket, but I have to have a specialized extension to get that off. I'm replacing all fluids in the car with genuine Honda fluids except for the engine oil. I'm even putting a new genuine Honda fuel filter on this car. I went through my daughters 1998 Mazda 626 in the same way before I licenced it and let her drive it. This Honda Civic HX is really easy to work on and far easier to work on than the Mazda 626.