Since its US release in 1976, the Honda Accord has continued to amass a following of loyal fans. Fast-forward to today, and you won’t make it 15 seconds on an American highway without seeing one. To keep yours lasting as long as possible, you’ll need to change the oil regularly, making sure to always use the right amount.
What is the oil type and capacity for the 2012 Honda Accord?
Depending on the engine (2.L I4 or 3.5L V6), the oil capacity ranges from 4.2 to 4.5 quarts.
As for the oil type, Honda suggests using 0W-20.
2012 Honda Accord: What is the Oil Type and Capacity?
As with many modern vehicles, the 2012 Honda Accord has an Engine Oil Life Display, which is located below your shift indicator on your dashboard. The display monitors your engine oil condition by percent, alerting you when it should be changed, though at a minimum, it should be changed annually.
When the Oil Life % message adds “Service” to the beginning, plan on changing your oil shortly. If you accidentally bump and hold the reset button, you should change your oil every 3,000 miles, so check your maintenance records to see what the mileage was when it was last changed.
Even if you’re expecting a long oil change interval due to low miles or infrequent use, always check your oil at least weekly. The 2012 Honda Accord has had some complaints about burning oil or excessive oil consumption in the engine, which can leave you low.
When you’re going to change the oil in your 2012 Honda Accord, check that the oil you’re adding has the API certification mark. This helps to protect your engine, ensure good performance and meet your warranty needs. Both the I4 and V6 engines take premium-grade 0W-20 oil.
However, even though both engines take the same oil, they do have different oil capacities. This is good to know when you go to buy oil, so that you know how much to buy. The engine oil capacities are:
- 2.4L I4: 4.2 U.S. quarts includes the filter change
- 3.5L V6: 4.5 U.S. quarts includes the filter change
Oil Type Explained
API, 0W-20, premium oil: What do all these letters and numbers mean? In this section, we’ll talk about these terms, including a few special environmental situations for which you should consult your local dealership to ensure your Accord is properly maintained.
API is the acronym for American Petroleum Institute, an organization that developed standards to classify engine oil, including the thickness or thinness of the oil, referred to as “viscosity.” Too thick, and it doesn’t flow well when cold. Too thin, and it burns up and doesn’t protect your engine properly.
Though Honda doesn’t directly recommend moving away from the recommended oil weight, there are some situations where you may. Living in extreme temps, such as Tucson, Arizona’s 120°F or northern Minnesota’s below -20°F, should involve a call to the dealership for recommendations.
What’s up with 0W-20? These are designations for a type of oil that works well in both summer’s heat and winter’s cold. It delivers the equivalent of 0-weight oil protection in the winter so that it flows in the cold and 20-weight oil protection in the summer for heat protection.
Why Synthetic Oil?
Shopping for oil, given the huge selection, can be a mind-boggling experience. Though the brand is often more a personal choice than a significant difference, the differences between synthetic oils and regular oils can be somewhat important.
Both oils are a petroleum product, undergoing fractioning and a wide range of highly-technical processes that can be difficult to understand. Regular oil comes from this process and has been used for well over a century to keep your engine lubricated and protected from damage.
Synthetic oil is also a petroleum product, but it goes through a wide range of additional purification and filtration steps. This makes it a purer oil, able to deliver better performance and more protection than the less-refined regular oils.
Most of the time, synthetics are simply a blend of a strongly-purified base oil, proprietary additives and a carrier oil to keep everything evenly suspended in the final mix. Due to the lack of a global synthetic oil standard, the term “fully synthetic” isn’t anything but a marketing ploy.
The 2012 Honda Accord doesn’t require synthetic oil, as a number of modern vehicles now do, so the decision of whether the added protection and performance are worth the higher cost of an oil change is up to you. Your Accord will do well either way.
Know Your Vehicle
Though you don’t need to understand every part of your car, making sure that it’s being properly maintained helps you get more mileage out of it. But how do you find out what you need? Your owner’s manual and the Vehicle History database get you farther down the road.
