Hey I have a question. I’m looking to buy a 2013 Honda Crosstour from local Toyota dealership. It has 104,000 miles and has the Earth Dreams v6, gdi, vcm systems with a 6 speed auto. Wondering if this is a good car and will the engine last? Good maintenance records and locally owned here in Knoxville TN. Heard these earth dream engines have problems with oil dilution. I saw a vcm tuner for 100 bucks online and thinking that may prolong engine. Any tips?
Which VCM tuner?
VcmTuner 2. I’m open to recommendations.
the v6 engine do not have oil dilution problems and those are generally great vehicles but I always have a mechanic like myself check it out before you buy
If you want to buy a car over 100k miles, that’s a pretty good one. Or a venza, same vintage.
The problem I have with that vehicle is its V6 has cylinder deactivation (VCM as Honda calls it) but in this context it is already over 100,000 miles. If the previous owner never disabled the VCM all that time, who knows what wear it may have sustained. I’m already not a fan of cylinder deactivation and especially on a used vehicle with that mileage. I would not get it - it’s a risk.
Scotty has videos on the Crosstour and they are pretty well made vehicles. The turbocharged GDI Earthdreams did have oil dilution issues, but not the V6 ones like Scotty said.
The systems you described are known to wear out engines like @daywalker said, but Honda did a good job at integration of the VCM and GDI after some production, and honestly you aren't going to find many modern Hondas without those technologies.
The V6 in a heavy Honda crossover sounds like a disaster for transmission failures but fortunately Honda traditional automatic transmissions have improved from their early 2000s Honda Accords.
Click here to watch Scotty's video on the 2009-2015 Honda Crosstour
