elad68

Hello,

I am nearing my 90K service on my 2004 Accord (4 banger). In an effort to get better gas mileage, a friend suggested that I change out my spark plug now instead of waiting for the 110K period, per the manual..
Any thoughts to his suggestion? Will it help? By how many MPG? Am I just wasting my $$ doing it early?

Thanks.

Accord1234

Can't see no harm changing at 90k.

BLKFLSH

Take the plugs out, and check their condition (easy). No other way to know.

cjo_28

I'd say try it. Be sure to use NGK replacements, though.

Honda has odd maintenance schedules. I think it's a marketing gimmick. If another manufacture says no maintenance for 100K miles, guess what they're all going to say?

Honda recommends Cr-V rear diff services at 60K miles, even though they'll make noise when turning as low as 11K miles. Honda recommends changing the oil at 10K miles WITHOUT the oil filter. It's bad enough most new cars will be 2 or 3 quarts low at 10K miles (the S2K would be bone dry at 10K miles), but what happens when you get a few miles on these things?

And doesn't the oil filter hold .3-.4 quarts of oil? Doesn't it have a cheap bypass valve that likes to fail? What's the real benefit of waiting 20K miles to change your oil filter?

If you want to go crossed eyed, try to figure out what the hell Honda wants you to do with their new maintenance minder system—main codes, sub codes, etc. I've yet to see one customer with any clue what these codes are supposed to represent.

BLKFLSH

There are a lot of confused and uninformed owners out there, since they started the Maintenance Minder. It seems the 06-07 Accord owner's manuals don't have instructions for basic maintenance, like air filters, coolant, and spark plug change instructions. If anyone with the MM system would like to disregard the MM, and go with the old Time/Mileage intervals, you can get the information from this link. Just click on owner's manuals at the left, and enter 03 Accord, instead of 06-07.
https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/logon.asp

Accord1234

Just a quick question. I did what you said to do with the link and was wondering why it said every 30,000 replace brake fluid, anti freeze and spark plugs, and transmission fluid. Always thought that stuff could wait longer.

elad68

Hello all,

I just want to give everyone an update. I had the plugs changed at 90,000 miles. In the first week of driving I've noticed a 15 mile increase as to when my fuel light came on. Will have to keep tracking it week after week to make sure my figure is accurate.

Also, I wanted to give a thumbs up to my dealer who performed the services (Muller Honda, Highland Park, IL) for making the following very inexpensive. I did the 90K service which included (brake service, trans. drain and fill, oil change, tire rotation plus their usual 19 point inspection). I also got new pads on the front plus machined the rotors, the spark plug change (as mentioned above) and new wiper inserts...All for the low price of $593.00. WOW...What a deal. I know, some of you are thinking that you could have done all of this on your own and saved about $200.00, but for the time saved to me, it was not a bad deal at all.