high mileage oil?

[Speeddog]

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ohh and speeddog
it's an 02 honda civic ex with 168,750 miles on it.
it's been very well maintained and as far as i can remember hasn't had any problem more major than a flat tire or dead battery until now.

With basic care and feeding, that car would go another 170k, IMO.

At some point it will start needing stuff besides oil and tires and brakes.

I ran an '80 Civic wagon to about 350k miles, needed a water pump and a couple of clutches, a set of halfshafts, and of course the usual tires, brake pads, fluids, etc.
But really minimal for that kind of mileage.

[Howie]

Knight, if the "high mileage oil" helps her feel better and keeps peace at home it is actually working.  Placebos have scientific merit

[KnightofNi]

Knight, if the "high mileage oil" helps her feel better and keeps peace at home it is actually working.  Placebos have scientific merit

i hear you only gain such wisdom through experience. is this true? 

With basic care and feeding, that car would go another 170k, IMO.

At some point it will start needing stuff besides oil and tires and brakes.

I ran an '80 Civic wagon to about 350k miles, needed a water pump and a couple of clutches, a set of halfshafts, and of course the usual tires, brake pads, fluids, etc.
But really minimal for that kind of mileage.

yeah, i'm sure it can go quite a while before it actually dies. even longer if i don't drive it that often.

[corndog67]

Sounds like BS to me.

Not if you are a distributor for "High Mileage Oil."

[scott_araujo]

Bottom line is any good oil of the proper weight and rating for your high mileage car should work just fine if changed frequently enough.  

I have a Honda Civic with 189k miles on it and the original motor, still has good even compression and still runs fine.  Over the years I've tried everything from full synthetic to the cheap store brand stuff.  I have done my own changes and had others do them; I have been to Jiffy Lube many times along the way.  I think longevity depends on good base motor, a little luck, and regular oil and filter changes.  I've stopped dealing with the oil silliness.  For the longest time now I've been using good quality name brand oil and a new filter every 3000 miles and call it at that.

Scott

[Porsche Monkey]

Your first mistake would be to believe anything a parts monkey from AutoZone tells you. He is a parts vendor, not a mechanic or technician by any means. He is there to sell you parts by looking them up in a computer and without that computer he would be clueless. I have been into many engines although none were Hondas.  If a car is designed to use synthetic oil then use it. On a car that has higher mileage or was not designed to use synthetic it can most certainly cause oil leaks. As far as longevity is concerned, it may help the internals of the engine last longer but there are lots of other things that can go wrong outside of the engine.

[Langanobob]

Not if you are a distributor for "High Mileage Oil."

The part that troubles me is that I don't think they are intentionally trying to make more money - the problem is that many of the guys who work on  our cars actually believe the BS that they spout.

I've had many bad experiences with repair shops in the Reno area and there used to be a columnist on the local paper who was also a serious car guy, also wrote for AutoWeek.  I offered to collaborate with the columnist  on sort of a 60 Minutes type sting and take a perfectly good car around to various shops with say a shorted spark plug wire and get estimates for repairs and he could write up the results.  His response was that he thought it was a great idea but the newspaper  management nixed it because they need local business advertising revenue.  So much for journalism.