When you open owner's manual that Israel importer gave us, you will see the following recommendations (gasoline/petrol engines)
Lets translate this photo to English:
1. Models with service reminder
- Honda Genuine oil, ACEA A3/B3 A5/B5 and above. Viscosity 5W-30, 0W-30, 0W-20, 10W-30.
2. European models without service reminder
- Honda Genuine oil, ACEA A1/B1 A5/B5 A3/B3 and above. Viscosity 0W-30, 0W-20, 10W-30, 5W-30.
3. Other than European models without service reminder
- Honda Genuine oil
- API SM and above. Viscosity 0W-40, 0W-30, 10W-40, 10W-30, 5W-40, 5W-30
Great. Now, when you call to official service garages you will find that they offer you 2 options: Paz oil from barrel or Honda's HFS 5W-40.
Honda HFS has API SL approval and viscosity index 5W40... that is not feet in any of above recommendations.
I called to more than 10 garages in central area. Everyone has this oil and nothing more. They told "this is what you need" and "this is what we have from importer" and "I don't know what standard is it, it's 5W-40". You can check it,
choose any garage and call.
The only garage that have another option was in Herzliya that offer als
CHAMPION NEW ENERGY 5W40 that actually holds API SN and that means it's even newer than SM standard.
My friend with new Civic but manual gearbox called and wrote to Israeli importer about that issue. They told that owner's manual has an error and API SL is what you need bla bla bla. If you have an error, tell us all! You don't need to print new manuals for that, just put sticker on top of error with new instructions.
SL oils was recommended to previous Civics 8th generation. Looks like they sold some old shit that remains in strages OR some strange things happening! Yummy!
So we bombed U.K. Honda Customer's Service representatives with questions, because
new hatchbacks come from their manufacturings.
They are funny. They refer us to Israel dealership.
And for every response they add at the end "some not helping answer bla bla bla dealership, whose fully trained technicians are best placed to inspect your vehicle and provide any advice and/or technical assistance."
Ok, this is dead end. We stop talking with them and wrote to UK garages that can be found on "
find a showroom" page.
I wrote to Chiswick Honda, top UK Honda seller (as also support confirmed later). And got great service from their personnel.
First of all, they use Castrol MP 5W-30. It has API SN approval, newest. And of course not older SL.
The guy was so kind, he put bottle on the scanner and sent me back sticker!
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| Click to zoom |
So to remind you. In UK they use newer recommended SN and in Israel they use old, not recommended SL.
Interesting? May UK have another recommendations even that cars and engines were built on same plant?
I can't find UK's owner's manual on Internet and Israel importer said you need to buy and order it from UK or whatever. And... I asked if he can scan oil pages for me. I didn't expected that he will do that, but he did! :-)
You can
download source from here. Pictures attached below
As we see from last screen, we need API SM, confirmed.
I asked about service reminders. He said that, as far as he knows, Civics doesn't have reminders, only Honda Jazz has. Also Erez garage (Haifa) confirmed that Civic has no reminder.
This is another question for tomorrow's meeting with Honda's local representatives.
Update (2013-10-21)
After meeting with Honda's reps, oil problem explained this way. You can use oils that:
- Or ANY genuine Honda oil (that's why API SL is ok)
- Or any commercial available oil with API SM and newer and matching recommended viscosity.
You can bring your own oil to service but there is a big chance that you will get warranty issues if something happened and it was not oil from official garage.
Update (2013-10-24)
Honda HFS oil come from Europe to Israel. More precisely - Belgium.
TotalElf is blending them.
MSDS of Honda oils.
And this also helpful link -
TotalElf MSDS for OEM oils. Total do that for Ford, GM, Nissan and Mazda too.
5,100 km | 0Y 4M
