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CULater

My view of how to use factor funds in a portfolio differs from most. I do a "barbell" approach. Start with VTI or similar very cheap total market fund and supplement it with the most value intensive, small-cap intensive, momentum intensive, quality intensive fund you can find and don't worry too mu...

CULater

Whole lotta factor squeezing going on here. Will there be any juice left? I guess that's the risk you get.

CULater

If it were me, I'd wait to look at the 2019 RAV4 coming out this winter. Pictures of the 2019 RAV4 look nice, but isn't it bad form to buy the first year of a redesign? Something about the new model having defects that might not be immediately obvious. That would be a problem with the RDX also, sin...

CULater

One other trick I ran across to help accurately monitor oil level on the dipstick. I've had a devil of a time being sure just where the oil level is on the dipstick with fresh oil. It is so thin and clear the border for the oil level has been really hard to determine on the shiny orange plastic tip....

CULater

Ugh :shock: We bought a '17 last year and its been a dream thus far. At about 5,500 miles. Had the oil changed by the dealer two months ago for the first time, , posted 500 miles since, checking the oil no strong smell, however, its past the top mark... will call the dealership. Never smelt gas ins...

CULater

The Honda CRV was at the top of my list when I first saw this thread. I did some reading about it, and now it's not on the list at all. Just as troublesome as the problem itself is Honda's failure to deal with it. Initially I was thinking Toyota as the obvious alternative, but perhaps the Acura RDX...

CULater

We bought ours in July 2017 not knowing about the oil dilution problem. After about 500 miles the oil pressure gauge stayed on indicating the pressure was to high. After taking it to the dealer they kept it for three days trying to figure out what was wrong. They called Honda Tech and changed the "...

CULater

Have you tried using premium gas? If so, did it improve the situation? I've read the debate about whether premium would help. I'd like to try that, but at this point I want to continue running the recommended octane and document the problem via going back to Honda. If they change the oil again, we'...

CULater

I didn't notice the problem until after the first oil change at around 6000 miles. I still had 30% left on the maintenance minder I believe. The dealer oil change seemed to be overfilled but that's happened to me before so I decided I couldn't do anything about it at that time. After hearing about t...

CULater

I purchased a 2018 CR-V in March with the 1.5 L turbo. Wouldn't you know it, I found this thread about a week later. I'm in Michigan. We've had a cold spring and I commute about 3 miles to work. So I'm the ideal candidate for the oil fuel-dilution problem. I have driven my CR-V about 1300 miles so ...

CULater

I bought a spare dipstick and then I removed the orange plastic tip from tip, after drilling indents into the metal where the upper and lower holes were (overfill and underfill points). MUCH better than the lousy orange plastic. Now I can see exactly where the oil level is on the metal. This allows ...

CULater

Listened to a podcast with Elroy Dimson, and he made an interesting point about evaluating "factors." There should be some convincing reasons that there are sellers of factor stocks if buyers are to benefit. For example, he mentions that with small cap value, there are sellers who prefer large cap s...

CULater

Oil Drop Test If you think you might have gasoline in the engine oil on your Honda, but don't know if you want to pay for an oil analysis, you can perform an oil drop test. This is not an exact test and a little subjective, but might give you an idea of whether an oil analysis might be merited. To ...

CULater

Let me just grab this nit here: the number of investors outperforming and underperforming need not be (and certainly is not) the same. It is the amount of dollars above and below the average that must be the same. Of course, but we are speaking of "investors" as a representation of money invested. ...

CULater

China not buying Honda's "fix" for the oil dilution problem. Meanwhile, American Honda says "duh, we don't know nuttin'. Problem, what problem?" April 12, 2018 — Reports of Honda CR-V rising oil levels are being monitored by Honda officials in the U.S. after Chinese officials rejected Honda's plans ...

CULater

I'm sure Yale can do this, no reason for denial. I'm not a typical Boglehead, but studying the concerns of the Boglehead community to modify strategy enough to mitigate risk in the right market environment. I personally found it quite easy to beat the market indices with a lot of work and a good sy...

CULater

^^^ You might want to double-check the first link. When finances are affected, management will notice. The oil dilution issue has been identified as a hit to last month's Honda sales in China. - Honda's China sales fall in March as quality issue threatens growth run , April 3, 2018, Reuters.com - D...

CULater

Maybe passive doesn't always beat active? At least for institutional investors. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b17qpx3nyyqywd/we-crush-stock-indexes,-yale-claims Thanks for the link. Very interesting. I started writing a reply, but it quickly got out of hand and I realized I had way ...

CULater

I opened a ticket with Honda Customer Service on the oil dilution problem. I asked what steps would be taken to address the issue. Here's what I got back. What the heck does this mean? It sounds like basically they aren't going to do anything. Is there any point to contacting Customer Service? Has a...

CULater

Not just Yale that outperformed so different active strategies may be involved other than Swensen's (not to mention Berkshire, which is also actively managed). This cohort includes Princeton University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, each led by Yale endowment alums, as well as Duke Unive...

CULater

Sounds like the problem is particularly bad with the old MD-80 jets and Allegiant has a bunch of them. Allegiant bought these geezers cheap from foreign airlines that were retiring them. I think I'd avoid flights on these for sure. I flew Allegiant once and one leg was on a new Airbus. I think the r...

CULater

squirm wrote: ↑
Sun Apr 15, 2018 4:39 pm
Our Honda runs fine on just about any gas I buy. I've seen very long lines at Costco. We are members at Sam's, we've never had to wait in line.

I've noticed that too. Wonder why. They always have the same price and is the lowest in the area.

CULater

If you're worried about shortfall, perhaps you should focus on how to to save more vs. hoping to get great investment returns from your retirement portfolio by loading up on stocks. Pascal's Wager - which choice has a worse potential outcome? (hint: it's not trying to work longer and save more). Let...

CULater

Check out Dimson's work. He has studied the relationship between real interest rates and stock prices and finds there is a negative correlation: high or increasing real rates -> low real equity returns (e.g., the 1970s in U.S.); low or declining real rates -> high real equity returns. Nominal rates...

CULater

Yale should use past tense for the claim. They've only generated an annual return of around 8% in the last 10 years, vs 9.7% for US stocks. Not taking sides, but are you asserting that short term returns provide better data than long term returns? Could also mean arbitrary starting points is a prob...

CULater

Check out Dimson's work. He has studied the relationship between real interest rates and stock prices and finds there is a negative correlation: high or increasing real rates -> low real equity returns (e.g., the 1970s in U.S.); low or declining real rates -> high real equity returns. Nominal rates ...

CULater

jalbert wrote: ↑
Sun Apr 15, 2018 3:22 pm
Yale should use past tense for the claim. They've only generated an annual return of around 8% in the last 10 years, vs 9.7% for US stocks.

Not taking sides, but are you asserting that short term returns provide better data than long term returns?

CULater

Meb Faber podcast with Elroy Dimson, author of "Triumph of the Optimists." Ranges over a number of interesting topics: - negative correlation between economic growth and stock performance; emerging markets are a risk story, not a growth story. - relationship of high stock valuations to real interest...

CULater

Maybe passive doesn't always beat active? At least for institutional investors. Yale University's endowment has offered a rebuttal to Warren Buffett and other proponents of low-fee, passive investments. In its 2017 annual report, released this week, the Ivy League school's investment office argued i...

CULater

Not much luck with Pixel. I got a Pixel 1 last September and it spontaneously erased itself a few days after I started using it. Google replaced it with another one, and now it seems to be dead as doornail. Turned it off last night and turned it on this morning but nothing. Plugged in the charger co...

CULater

I had my oil checked by dealer yesterday. I had him check the dipstick front of me. Said the oil was "perfect". I couldn't argue, looked like the oil was at the full line. When I said it smelled of gas, he offered a generic BS explanation. Told me that I just need to get used to the smell. I suppos...

CULater

I have a 2016 Civic Touring w/ the same 1.5T as the cr-v. Thanks to this thread, I became aware of this potential issue and checked my oil level. The level was above the full mark and definitely smelled of gas. I did my oil change today (I do it myself and definitely measure out the required 3.7 qt...

CULater

FWIW, I noted that on the CRVOwner's Club website, there are two prominent threads on the CRV gas dilution issue that are generating the most traffic on the forum by far, indicating the growing scope of the problem. One of them now has almost 36,000 views and nearly 400 posts. The other has over 16,...

CULater

I've ordered my oil test kit. I will post the results. Are you having issues? My dipstick looks just like yours, and there seems to be an odor of gasoline. Be interested in your oil analysis results. On bobistheoilguy.com I found the following post regarding oil analysis report for the 1.5L turbo e...

CULater

JPH wrote: ↑
Sat Apr 14, 2018 8:17 am
I've ordered my oil test kit. I will post the results.

Are you having issues?

CULater

Article headline from MarketWatch today: Dow's 122-point stumble driven almost entirely by JP Morgan, Boeing stocks I've noticed this sort of headline a few times lately, and it makes you think that it must be unusual that the daily move in a stock market index could be driven by just one or two sto...

CULater

I've checked it multiple times both when it's been sitting overnight in the garage, and also after I've driven it and the engine is hot. Always have it parked in the same place when measuring. Honda Owner's Manual doesn't say specifically to check it when cold or warm but the instructions are to (1)...

CULater

Tacked on another 50 miles and now the level has risen to at least 10 mm above the top (overfill) mark, which translates into about 15% dilution according to the chart. The driving was mostly freeway driving at 65-70 mph and not short trips, and it's been 90+ degrees in Phoenix so the short trip/col...

CULater

In case you were wondering, I've checked online and found several places where it was stated that <2% dilution is the max acceptable level and anything over that is excessive, such as this site: https://www.amsoil.com/techservicesbulletin/MotorOil/TSB%20MO%202004-07-02%20Fuel%20Dilution.pdf As I ind...

CULater

I agree. I'm not overly confident in the service people at the dealership; they almost never seem to be able to do an oil change without overfilling because they're just using bulk oil out of a drum. Only way I'll know for sure it is a valid oil sample is to get it myself. I also like the idea of ha...

CULater

Ah. Where can I get a dipstick tube? Hey. I don't tease you about having an engine with the oil filter on the underside, you don't tease me about ignorance on details of the access plumbing for oil level measurement? On my rides it'd be possible to lower a flexible vinyl catheter/siphon, from a har...

CULater

ofckrupke wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:29 pm

CULater wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:07 pm
Any good solutions to this dilemma?
Pull it up through the dipstick tube, or replace the drain bolt on the pan with one of those (service-marked) replacements with a built-in stopcock?

Ah. Where can I get a dipstick tube?

CULater

If I had this model and had this issue, in addition to filing a formal complaint with Honda, I'd document the problem by sending 3 consecutive engine oil samples right before each scheduled oil change, to an independent lab like Blackstone labs for formal analysis. https://www.blackstone-labs.com/ ...

CULater

Not to repudiate your concern, but wrt the impact on making it to the finish line of the sort of a ~100k or 120k service life that would horrify Honda owners but might be the most they'd ever grant in extension of the original owner's warranty, remember that many two stroke engines use the fuel, at...

CULater

tapotti wrote: ↑
Thu Apr 12, 2018 6:40 pm
Going to have my oil checked tomorrow.

I've already made complaints on the various websites just to get the ball rolling.

Me too. I've sent complaints and description of the issue to all the sites I can. Most people (including me) just sit it out, but not this time.

CULater

Found this image showing the relationship between mm oil overage and percent dilution of the oil by fuel. I'm presently showing approximately 7 mm of overage after driving just 385 miles, which translates into around 10% oil dilution, according the the graph. How comfortable would you be knowing tha...

CULater

I've also just opened a ticket with Honda on this issue. Doubt much will come of it, but I'm laying down as much groundwork as I can on this. Here's where you can do that:

http://owners.honda.com/help/customer-relations

CULater

Here's another nice article on the problem, which also provides advice on actions you can take including where to file complaints.

http://www.hondaproblems.com/trends/crv-oil-dilution/

CULater

March 3, 2018 — Honda CR-V SUVs and Honda Civic cars with high oil levels are waiting to be fixed in China as Honda tries to respond to a growing chorus of owner complaints about overwhelming fuel odors in the vehicles. In addition to the high oil levels and fuel smells, customers report illuminate...

CULater

Another lawsuit on a related issue. Some complaints have associated the fuel-in-oil problem with fuel smell in the cabin in more severe cases, but don't know if they are the same problem or different problems. It's interesting that all affected vehicles don't have the 1.5L turbo engine, and that als...

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