Oil dilution. Question

NoHonor937

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So I’ve been taking the highway home everyday because it’s 9 degrees here now and I’m just curious if anyone knows exactly how much of the fuel gets burned up once your engine is warm. For example: I drive 10 mins in the freezing cold to work and on the way back from work I take the highway 15 mins to get my engine warm. Is this enough to counter act this or do I need to be doing stupid long trips to get rid of previous buildup? So the real question is does it just have to be at operating temperature to start burning up excess fuel or does it have to be maintained for a half hour?
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The only way to answer this is to do an oil analysis.
 

PhilF

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In low temps like we're having here in Central Pennsylvania, a 10-15 min trip is not going to get your oil hot enough to boil off much fuel. Coolant temp gauge might indicate operating temperature, but IMHO, I think a 30 min run when ambient temps are below 25f would be a minimum. I have been extending my drives to 30 min until it warms up over 32f, the combination of short drives, low temperatures, a Turbocharged engine with Direct injection and failure to get both oil & coolant temps up sufficiently is what is causing Honda & Honda owners such difficulties as of late. TimberWolf is correct, an oil analysis will tell you where you are with oil dilution. You don't indicate in your header which engine (Black Civic doesn't tell me much) you have, if it's a 1.5t, I'd extend your drive time in cold weather, a 2.0NA not as critical, but still not a bad idea.
 
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NoHonor937

NoHonor937

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This is such bullshit. I gotta drive in fuckin circles so that my rods don’t fuckin break.
 

dallasjhawk

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This is such bullshit. I gotta drive in fuckin circles so that my rods don’t fuckin break.
or just warm the car up for a full 10 minutes and drive normally, and change your oil slightly more frequently. Do you even know if you have a dilution issue? get an analysis.
 


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NoHonor937

NoHonor937

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or just warm the car up for a full 10 minutes and drive normally, and change your oil slightly more frequently. Do you even know if you have a dilution issue? get an analysis.
I’ll have the dealer send one out if they will. Otherwise I’ll get a sample from them. Car hasn’t even had first change.
 

Design

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This is such bullshit. I gotta drive in circles so that my rods don’t break.
Excess fuel isn't going to do anything except accelerate your oil change intervals. And the MM accounts for your driving behavior. Repeated short trips in sub-freezing weather will result in shorter OCIs.

If you're really paranoid, run an oil analysis and look for unusually low viscosity paired with a presence of wear metals. We've yet to encounter this condition, despite FD readings upwards of 5-10%.

YMMV.
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