ok this is how I stop my car from pinging. It may be controversial but who gives a flying f*ck.
To squeeze out the extra power and fuel economy Honda USA uses a 0w-20 oil as a factory fill. In Australia Honda uses 5w-30 as a factory fill.
The Honda service dept said the pinging was normal which was a total copout.
People think that using a thicker oil give better protection than a thinner oil which is infact incorrect. It MAY be so in a enduro racing environment where you are at redline all the time. In real world driving thinner is better. In normal driving conditions you'll be luckly if you can hold redline for 10 seconds.
What you want is the thinnest oil possible for your engine protection. A thinner oil flows better than a thicker oil. Thinner oil reduces friction, thicker oil increase fiction and friction generates extra heat. Oil in an engine acts as lubricate as well as a coolant to reduce / remove heat from the pistons. If you know people who build engines, especially motorcycle engines, they all have oil injectors under the pistons to cool the pistons down. MV Agusta F4, BMW S1000RR engines pumps out 200hp out of a 1litre motor and these engines don’t ping. Oil is used to cool engine components down.
Using a thinner oil reduces component drag, from friction, oil pump works more efficiently which / does reduce the engine temperature. If everything else is equal a cooler engine reduces the chances of pinging compare to an engine that is running hotter.
Remember the temperature gauge you see is actually the temperature of the coolant not the engine oil temperature. People think that because we live in a very hot country we should use a thicker oil. Which is bullcrap. The radiator / thermostat regulates the engine temperature not the temperature outside.
The engine temperature once warmed up should be the same in subzero temperatures as well as 50deg C temperatures.
My theory is that using a thinner oil which is factory filled in the USA, should solve my pinging problem.
I had some 0w-20 Amsoil that I use in our Toyota Prius and I thought what the hell, give it a go. So I dumped the factory filled 5w-30 oil and put the 0w-20 Amsoil. Drove around for 20 minutes in stop go traffic to build up heat and try to make the car ping. I turn on the aircon to add more load on the engine and the engine didn’t ping.
You can give it a try, it will only cost you $100 and 1/2 hour of your time to change the oil. If you think the oil is too thin, the drain it and put 5w-30 back in there.
I’ve been using the 0w-20 for over 16,000km and no pinging.
This is only my findings and observation, I take no responsibility if your engine blows up etc. BTW I've driven from Seattle to Las Vegas via Death Valley (hottest place in the world) to visit friends and the car I was driving didn't blow up or left me stranded. I didn't have to change the engine oil for a thicker oil because I am going to Death Valley. Yes the car was filled with 0w-20 which is normal in the US for majority of cars there.
http://www.honda.com/newsandviews/ar...spx?id=6212-en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAYkigNbzgs
