I have an 2009 Coupe that's ready for it's first oil change. I have 4k on the clock and 60% on the usage "meter". Should I go to the recommend 5k or use the % as a guide? If so, at what percentage should I change the oil? Thank you.

 

Change it every 5-6K miles or 6 months, whatever comes first. You should be around 40-50% oil life per the maintenance minder.

 

Wrong.

Honda designed the Maint. minder for a reason. It's very accurate and I highly recommend using it.

 

OK, so the maint. minder says to change oil....when?

 

15%, so that is every 8-9K miles depending on your driving style. Could be up to one year with the same Dino oil in your pan. 4/4 Honda dealers in my area still follow the 3/3750 oil change schedule despite what the MM says. Its your call, MANY Honda technicians themselves don't agree with the MM unless you are changing the oil with a Synthetic. So I and many others follow a simple 6 month / 6K mile oil change.

 

I've used Mobil 1 in previous vehicles and a 3/3k change cycle. Now with a Honda product if I use a synthetic oil I should be able to go let's say to 15% MM, with dyno xx%? If so what is the dyno xx%? Also, are there other suggestions for another synthetic brand? What do Honda dealers use? What about oil filters? Other than Honda filters, are there other brands that are acceptable? Oh, by the way, specifically, how is the MM% computed? Road miles, RPM, engine temp, etc? Sounds to me, using the MM% is the way to go, not the "old fashioned" linear month/miles figure. Sitting here and thinking, even though the MM process computes various factors, can you really count on it as the way to go. I mean different oils react different under the same circumstances, heat, moisture,etc. If so, the MM% may not truly reflect the actual condition of the lubricant i.e., 15%MM for one type of oil is not the same for another. Uh oh, back to the 3/3k (well 5k) mode? Thank you for any replies.

 

Here is what I do:

2006 Accord Synthetic Every 6K Miles / 6 Months
2008 Pilot Synthetic Every 5K Miles / 6 Months (MM drops much faster than Accord)
2007 BMW 335i Synthetic Every 7.5K Miles BMW does free ones at 15K
1993 Accord Dino Every 3K Miles / 3 Months

If you are using Dino stick to a 3/3, using Synthetic 5 or 6/6. Take my advice with a grain of salt if you will as others will disagree and agree respectively.

 

I'm a real life Honda technician. I tell my own mother to follow the maint minder in her 08 Accord. It works, I have no reason not to believe it does.
Most other technicians are too ignorant to believe anything that didn't apply back in 1995.

 

I wait for the 15%.

 

It is your car. You decide. I've done oil change just under 3K and also 6K. Changed it 6 months, and also 1 month (after a 2,000+ mile trip) which push it over 3K.

We should say no one know a Honda better than Honda. If they say 15%, then go with 15%. Keep in mind that 15% is a calculation. Not a lab analysist of oil quality.

What is your budget? How much do you want to spend? Can you afford 3K/3m? You car is not going to blow up if you change it as 10% vs 50%.

IMO, I would do 4K-5K/4M-5M. Because my weekends are too busy for an oil change, with a wife and kids. When it gets to my To-Do list, it will get push back a few weeks. No other reason.

P.S. Dino all the way.

 

my dealership will tell u to follow the maint. minder

 

If you are uncomfortable using the maintenance minder, ask yourself this...

If the maintenance minder does not work, why would Honda install something on their vehicles that would keep customers and their dollars out of their service bays?

 

In my moms Odyssey I always just have her follow the maintenance meter. I am starting to do the same in my rsx. Really there is no reason to change it any sooner if you are using good oil.

Unless you fall under the severe service indicator. Meaning you like to drive the car hard, live in severe cold, hot, or dusty conditions, or towing(dunno who the hell would in an accord).

Just my $0.02 but to each his own.

 

we had an old couple a few weeks ago that traded in their 06 civic with a towing hitch for a 09 model and one of the techs had to take off their old hitch to give it to them to have it installed on their new car so they could tow stuff around

 

Accords with a hitch i've seen a few of those. any way just did my first oil change on my 09 civic Si at about 5k which was at 15%. i say it works just fine.

 

Im a honda tech and dont agree with the %. I would never go 10k on one oil change, the oil hasnt changed that much in the past 10 years to make it last substantially longer. The reason they have the maintenance schedule is so vehicles are "greener" and dont waste as much oil threwout its lifetime since your only changing your oil twice a year. customers think there maintenance costs are less but its really they want you to change your fluids less often. I wouldnt go past 4-5k on an oil change

 

I have a theory. There was a time when Honda engines last about 100K. It was just common thinking that one should get rid of it before the 100K mark because everything was designed up to that point. That was the 70s.

Honda feels that engine lasting 300K is wrong. For example, my uncle's Legend was still running fine at 250K with "no engine problems." The only reason he sold the car was because he wanted a new car (TL).

IMO, what matters more in customer satisfaction is the first original owner. Most 1st owners will keep the car up till around 100K miles. After that, if the car goes bad, they would NOT blame Honda. They would just say the car was old. If one buys a used car and the engine goes bad at 150K. That's what you get by buying a used car. No one will blame Honda.

Service dept make more money with major engine work vs. $29 oil changes.

So you should either pay for a new car. Or pay to keep your old car running. No free lunch.

A $2000 1995 Civic with 213,000 miles that runs fine as a DD is almost like stealing.

 

im a honda tech and dont agree with the mm%. there is no way the detergents and other properties of oil can still be effective in the later miles of usage. that **** looks like crude sludge blacker than blackness when i change the oil in a car at 15%mm

 

Just change your oil every 3K and leave it at that...

 

Well I just reached 5k on the clock, 50% mm and had the filter and oil changed. I plan to change each 5k as Honda recommends.

 

Interesting that you'd mention that. I was initially pretty open to the Maintenance Minder concept myself.

However, I've noticed an alarming trend: Every time we have a 2006+ Accord in the shop that has had oil changes done following the Maintenance Minder, it invariably will have an alarming amount of oil varnish and burnt brown sludge caked to everything under the valve cover.

'03-05 Accord engines which have had their oil changed every 3,500 miles are still clean and golden inside. Oil sump capacities haven't changed in the time frame since the K-series was introduced, nor has oil quality - in fact, anti-wear additives like ZDDP have been reduced to avoid negative effects to catalytic converters. So why have the change intervals been more than doubled?

We had a customer whose MM told him to change the oil in his '06 Civic LX for the first time at a little over 9,000 miles. He sent the oil in to Blackstone Labs for an analysis, and they concluded that it should have been changed quite a bit sooner.

I have been and will continue recommending to my customers to change their oil at 3,500-5,000 miles for conventionals, and 5,000-8,000 miles for synthetics. Since most people never check their oil level either, the mild oil burners don't have a chance to consume nearly the entire sump over an oil change interval.

It's funny; just a few years ago, customers would be chastised and have fingers pointed at them for neglecting their oil changes for thousands of miles. Now that Honda says it's okay, suddenly everything is peachy. Unfortunately, I can name quite a number of occasions on which Honda has been wrong, and I believe this is one of them.

Do you change the filter at every other oil change like Honda recommends too?

That's not to say that the Maintenance Minder is a completely crap concept, either. In fact, I think it's one of the best ideas that they've come up with to minimize confusion in vehicle service. However, poor implementation has caused more confusion than it has alleviated, and I feel that Honda wasn't conservative enough when they came up with the calculation algorithms.

Just some thoughts.

 

^ditto.......i never follow that as it is very inaccurate to what the actual condition of the oil really is.

I always change my oil every 3k if i use dino or 5k if i use synthetic. I dont care if some or all of you disagree, but it is my money and my vehicle. I dont mind spending a little more time and money to keep my engine clean and in good condition.

Oh yeah i do reset my oil maintenance everytime so that when it does get to 0%, it wont keep reminding me!!!!!

 

What kind of oil does a Honda dealership use? Conventional or Synthetic? What brand? Is there a "break in" oil used when shipped from the factory?

 

From what I've heard Honda's oil is "Mobil Clean 5000". I have an 03 V6, and under severe driving the maintenance schedule says 3750 miles. Now, with the MM, the same engine in an 06 V6 is expected to go 9,000 miles or more. My oil looks pretty dirty at 3,000 miles, so I'd hate to see what it looks like at 9,000. I think Honda wants to lower the maintenance cost, thereby improving their "True Cost to Own" figures, but going 9,000 miles is way too much, IMO. Honda also states that the transmission fluid should be changed at 120,000 miles, but I can't imagine what the fluid would look like by then, if the transmission was still alive at that point.

 

It varies from dealership to dealership.

Most dealerships use Honda-branded bottles of natural ExxonMobil for 0W-20 and 10W-30 viscosities since they are low-volume movers, but for the common 5W-20 and 5W-30 viscosities they typically buy natural oil in bulk from a local supplier. Dealerships can use whatever brand of oil they want, so this bulk oil can be branded Mobil, Castrol, Valvoline, Shell, etc. Some dealers offer oil changes with synthetics at additional cost.

The factory fill oil is a natural ExxonMobil product. It has been speculated that it has a number of additives to aid break-in, but I haven't seen an analysis sheet to confirm exactly what it contains.

Indeed; good luck with that.