Questions and Answers

Why The Oil Change? Q. Greetings, I have a 2002 Honda Accord V-6, automatic transmission, P/S, A/C and cruise. The owner's manual says to use 5W-20 oil. I called many dealerships even in some hot-climate states and they all say that they use 5W-20 but no one could give me an answer why the change from 5W-30 to 5W-20.

I have a friend who has an exact same model but the year is 2000, his manual says to use 5W-30 oil. Please advise any reasoning behind, could it be commonality between all other models (i.e. Hybrid etc.) I am not sure if Honda has changed some specs for engines on newer Accords.

Thanks,
Shawn
Seattle, WA

A. You want me to explain why an engineer did something? I've been trying to figure out why engineers do the things they do for 30 years and I still haven't come up with an answer.

The best I can do is offer speculation. There may have been a design change that only requires a lighter oil. It might be a way to improve fuel economy. They might have gotten a note from the oil companies saying they have a lot of 5W-20 and they need to push it out. Or it could be a combination of all these reasons.

Either one is perfectly okay to use in either engine.