Just Bought a 2006 Accord EX V-6 6 SPD CPE

This is my first Honda. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I am reading the owners manual as I type. I plan on making it last for 200k. Thanks in advance.

 

Suggestions? In what way?

 

If you want your Honda Accord's oil pan to last as long as the engine it's
bolted to, make a firm commitment, now, to always have your oil changed at a
Honda dealership. The cost is the same - sometimes less - than at the quick
oil change stores, and the Honda dealer will always change the 5 cent zinc
washer on the drain plug, something the oil change stores will never do.
Your Honda Accord has an aluminum alloy oil pan with a steel drain plug, and
the zinc washer, which is quite deformable compared to the aluminum alloy,
protects the drain hole threads from stretching (and, eventually, stripping)
when the plug is snugged up; when the threads have stripped, that's it for
your $400+ oil pan. The false economy and dubious convenience of quick oil
change stores retired the original oil pan on my 1988 Honda Accord at about
60,000 miles (changing oil every 5,000 miles); the oil pan on my mother's
1995 Honda Accord was done in at 40,000 miles (roughly the same change
frequency).

 

it's aluminum, not zinc. and in my experience, dealer oil changes are
delegated to the least skilled person in the shop who is just as capable
of screwing it up as monkeylube.

most oil pans are steel - to withstand road debris damage.

steel is $37.73 retail.

dealers rarely use honda oil, so what's the point?

all that says is that it was messed up, and that can happen anywhere.
i've watched dealers do it may times. the crx i got at 305k miles was
on its original oil pan and had never been serviced at a dealer its
whole life - i had the full service history. according to your dictum,
the pan should have been replaced many times. it all comes down to
having it done right, and that is a function of training & skill of the
technician, /not/ the name on the door of the shop.

 

Sometimes true.

Not always, and not if you specifically request a technician that you
know isn't that guy.

No one touches my car except one guy--well, the drivetrain, anyway. If
there's *any* upholstery work or power sliding door issues, there's one
other guy who specializes in that. And I've known him for 20 years, too.

There's a reason to be a regular customer...

 

Have a '04 Accord EX-L sedan with 25K pampered miles on it ...

Always request, if available, the same technician at the local Honda
dealership. Insist on the technician using individual bottles of Honda
5W-20 motor oil (from the parts department) rather than from the bulk
oil dispenser in the service bay (or you can bring in your own oil that
you purchased from Pep Boys). Also insist on them using fender guards,
steering wheel covers, etc. and keep the engine bay clean!

Keep the factory oil in your engine until the mileage recommended in
the owners manual, because it has special additives. For my VTEC
4-cylinder, I got my first oil change at 5K miles, as recommended, and
then regularly get it changed at the dealership every 2500 miles. This
oil-change interval (every 3 months) seems to be a little excessive,
but it brings peace of mind knowing that you are always feeding your
engine parts with clean oil. Tire rotations should be done with more
frequency than recommended -- I get mine rotated every other oil change
-- or at 5K-mile intervals.

Congratulations on your new Accord! Welcome to the Honda family!

 

Guess DIY oil changes are a thing of the past - takes me a whole 10
minutes to do that - change oil at every 4 to 4.5K. Use Castrol and
quaker state filters. Do not use Fram filters - there are some pretty
good ones including Wal Mart house brand.

Probably the worst place to have your oil changed is one of those
franchise fast change places - they get the bottom of the barrell at
least in my neck of the woods. Years ago while living in Atlanta - my
next door neighbor had an 80 accord like myself and was about to make a
long trip and asked me if any place in the area could change his oil -
changed it for him - had extra filters. Previously he had the same
dealer do all of his servicing. The filter had not been removed for a
long time - looked like it was the filter that came with the car. Had
to use a wrench to get the thing off and the gasket seperated and
stayed on the block - had to scrape it off.

He was an excellent lawyer - wanted to go after the so and so's - but
point is this - even dealers are not above crooked games. One of the
local garages heats with used oil in the winter - he is happy to see 5
gallons of oil in late winter.

Use only honda power steering fluid - anything else will blow the seals
- pricey repair - yours is a manual tranny - check on the tranny oil
change interval and use what is recommended by the OM. Don't ride the
clutch - always completely remove your foot when shifting - even a
little pressure releases the clutch plate - mechanics like clutch pedal
riders. My 97 had 194K on it now - good for probably 250K before it
starts getting pricey to maintain.

 

You're correct, the drain plug washer is aluminum, not zinc. Be that as it
may, the point is that it will always be (and should always be) replaced
with every oil change at a Honda dealer, and it will never be changed in a
million years if you get your oil changes at a 'monkeylube', as you call
them.

We're not talking about most oil pans ... we're talking about the oil pans
that come as factory equipment on a new Honda Accord - in particular, a 2006
Honda Accord - and they are manufactured from aluminum alloy.

Your point?

My point is that it's the failure of the quick lube shops to replace the
aluminum drain plug washer with each oil change (or ever in a million oil
changes) that causes the drain-hole threads on a Honda Accord's aluminum
alloy oil pan to become stretched and, eventually, stripped ... the nature
of the motor oil provided may be important from a number of other points of
view, but it is completely and totally irrelevant to the problem of stripped
drain-hole threads on aluminum alloy oil pans.

Theoretically, yes, it could happen anywhere. As a practical matter,
however, it doesn't happen just anywhere ... it happens with regularity
among Honda Accord owners who have made a habit of frequenting the quick
lube establishments, and it almost never happens among Honda Accord owners
who never have their oil changed anywhere but the service department at
Honda dealership.

Right, and the Honda service technicians are trained to change the aluminum
drain plug gasket with each and every oil change, while the 'technicians' at
quick lube establishments are *not* trained to change the aluminum drain
plug gasket ever in a million years. It's just that simple.

 

Also if the aluminum pan is damaged and every oil change was done at Honda
shop, Honda should cover the tab.

 

No argument on that one.

 

honda lists both guy. check for yourself. i'll take steel for the
reason stated.

not true guy. it depends on where you go, and whether they're any good.
i've watched a "trained" honda technician leave the oil filter gasket
in place, then screw a new filter and gasket on top of it on my civic
once. he looked most "confused" when a fountain of oil sprayed
literally 3' out of the engine compartment. so i say again, there's no
guarantee that a honda tech is better than any other on the dumb as
rocks stuff like this.

 

In 1996, for my 1988 Accord LXi, the repair at my dealer broke down as
follows:

Oil pan, complete 138.00
Gasket, oil pan 13.32
Labor 135.20
Oil/filter/drain plug washer/labor 20.86
Total $307.38 + tax

My recent oil change, at the same dealer, was $20.04, which includes the
36-cent aluminum washer that they always replace when they change the oil
.... the same 36-cent washer that was never changed by the quick lube
establishments right up to the day that one of their 'technicians' came in
to the customer waiting room to tell me that "when I tighten the drain plug
it just goes around and around."

Your view is that trading at the quick lube establishments is a well-managed
risk for an Accord owner, and my experience tells me that this risk isn't
very well managed at all, if for no other reason than the rhetorical
quasi-fact that 99.9 percent of all Honda Accord owners don't have a shop
manual for their vehicle and have no idea that the aluminum drain plug
washer needs to be replaced with every oil change, or ever for that matter.

 

not true guy. it depends on where you go, and whether they're any good.

No matter where you go, there is always a chance they will screw it up.

I took my new car to the dealer for its first oil change. When it was all
done, I started the engine. A lot of smoke came out. A senior mechanic came
out and he said some oil got spilled on the engine. He flushed the oil off
the engine but I still had to smell the oil burning for the next 30 miles. I
also found out later they put 5 quarts of oil in there when it only needs
41/2.

Needless to say, I was very surprised. I am not a mechanic. I have only done
oil change myself a few times before and never had any problems. So I am
going to do my own maintanence from now on.

They recommend changing the drain plug gasket every time to avoid leaking. I
just don't buy it. There must be design flaw if an old gasket can damage the
oil pan.

 

it's not the gasket that's causing damage, it's over-torque of the drain
plug stripping threads out of the pan. there's only so much a
manufacturer can do to idiot-proof something so basic. personally, i've
never stripped a drain plug and i only replace the gasket every 3-5
times i drain, but hey, i'm reckless, inexperienced and unqualified, so
i'm cavalier about such risks.

 

How is a new gasket going to avoid damage if you over-torque. There is
really no need to change it that often. A ton of high mileage cars on the
road probably never had the gaskets changed.

 

The drain plug gasket is aluminum, with a Young's modulus (modulus of
elasticity, the slope of the linear portion of the stress/strain curve,
derived from standardized materials testing) is lower than either the steel
drain plug or the aluminum alloy oil pan (which includes the drain-hole
threads), so overtorquing results in permanent deformation of the drain plug
gasket before permanent deformation (stretching) of the drain-hole threads
occurs. The need for a regular change of the drain plug gasket arises from
the fact that the material from which it is made strain-hardens as it is
permanently (inelastically) deformed; if the drain-plug gasket remains
unchanged, the drain-hole threads quickly become the most easily-deformed
element in the system (drain hole, drain plug and drain-plug gasket). This
is basic engineering mechanics and materials science.

 

Sure, it will deform if over-torqued. There is no argument about that, but
it is really not the point. The question is whether the gasket should be
replaced at every oil change regardless of the condition. Of course, I am no
scientist, but experience told me that it is unnecessary.

 

Experience, by its nature, is subjective ... your experience is what you
think (or imagine) it is.

 

No, that's real world experience. It is more real and objective than any
theory.

 

I don't believe your hypothesis that it was because the washer wasn't
changed.

Answer this one: did you watch any of those oil change jobs? Did they,
by chance, use a pneumatic impact wrench to install the bolt instead of
torquing it by hand?