Everyone says switch to synthetic oil on older engines, but my 95 Civic with 180k started leaking from the rear main seal after I tried it. Swapped back to conventional and the drip stopped in a week. Anyone else have worse luck with synthetic on high mileage cars?
I have a 2000 Civic that I got last summer and I thought I was doing everything right with the oil changes. Every time I checked the dipstick it looked perfect but my engine started making a weird tapping noise around 55 mph. My neighbor who works on his own truck came over and asked when I last changed the oil. I told him I did it two weeks ago and he looked at my dipstick and said it was way too high. Turns out I was filling it to the top of the crosshatch mark without warming the engine first so the oil was draining back slow. He showed me the proper method of wiping it clean and checking it cold and then after idling. I had been running a quart over for 8 months and probably messed up the seals a little. Has anyone else made this simple mistake with their first car? I feel pretty dumb about it honestly.