Last week, my Honda Civic Hybrid II (Generation2), had a maintenance reminder light come on. My Civic tells me that its oil engine life is at 0% and needs an oil change. It was on a monday so i didnt have time at night to change the oil. I had ordered my OEM oil filter and new crusher washer online for $5 and went to Walmart to buy the correct grade of engine oil (0-20w). Ofcourse 0-20W is very hard to come by. Changing the oil was easy. (Read more...)
At the dealer, a quart of 0-20W will cost about $7 a quart for regular oil (non-synthetic). At Walmart, they cared Mobil 1 Synthetic 0-20W for about $6 a quart. I needed 3.4 quarts, so I bought 4 quarts. So the material costs: $30.
For my Honda Accord with uses 5-20W oil it would have cost me 4 quarts x$2 + oil filter + washer = $14; however i would change it every 4000 miles. So its about the same.
I followed the instructions on the manual to replace my oil:
- Warmed up the car (from shopping for oil)
- jacked up the car
- unclipped the bottom plastic cover
- removed the engine oil cap
- removed the oil filter and bolt
- Drain till empty
- Installed a new oil filter, and washer and bolted the drain plug
- Poured 3.4 quarts
- started the car, checked for leaks
- put back the bottom cover
- OK all done! (I recycle my oil at local college. good for the environment. good for the college which sells it back to oil refinery companies to make more oil.)
The oil change process was fast! 0-20W oil flows like milk! The engine was drained in about 2 minutes! Total from start to finish it took about 20 minutes- it would have been 10 if i didnt get curious with looking at the hybrid parts and checking out all the nooks and crannies of the engine!
Very easy and very cool. Small simple gas engine.
I later checked with the honda dealer it would have cost me about $65 for an Honda 0-20W oil change! I SAVED $35 bucks! YAY!
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