Hey guys-

Forgive the ignorance, but I find the manual a tad confusing as to when exactly to change the oil. My oil life reads 15% right now and the maintenance minder indicator is on. The manual says "The 15 and 10 percent oil life indicator reminds you that the time is coming soon to take your vehicle in for the required maintenance".

And then it says when the oil life is 5 to 1 percent you will see a SERVICE message along with the same maintenance code...."when you see this message, have the indicated maintenance performed by your dealer as soon as possible".

SO all that to say, my question is, do I need to have the oil changed now, or can I wait till it reads 5%? (not that big of a difference I know, but money is real tight right now...

Thanks in advance!

 

if you drive it normally it should be perfectly fine with going down to 5%.

protip: change the oil yourself. dyno oil is cheap and should only cost you like 15-20$ for an oil change

it will give you a letter and number, like B1. you can look that up in your manual and it will tell you what other things you need to do. it's most likely just checking fluids in the engine bay.

after you've done the maintenance, hold down the trip button for like 15 seconds and it will start beeping. let go of it and hold it down once more, and it will finally reset back to 100%.

please excuse my grammar, i've been at school all day and it's time to relax

 

when the car tells you to change the oil is when you do it. the milage indicator is adaptive, it goes by how the car is driven. drive it hard it will tell you sooner, drive it easier, it will let you go longer

 

i know someone that drove it to -5%, but that's on you. i'd say do the oil change yourself, it's really easy since the r18's have the oil filter right on the bottom.

 

there are two trip meters on the new civics. i use one for oil changes, i usually change mine around 4500 miles.

 

5qt jug of GTX 5w-30 14.50$ at walmart, along with a Fram filter comes out to about 18$. I know that engine calls for 5w-20, but it will be fine. I have changed my Gf's fg2 oil about 4 times with that combo. If you have never worked on cars, or have never seen a oil commercial, every 3000miles!

 

Just change it every 5k. 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k 5k

 

If your motor is stock then there's no use counting the miles yourself. Let your car do it.. it was put in there for a reason.

 

Even mechanics from way back will tell you 3k is too often. A better way to do it, if you don't want to get into the extremes of it, is to just follow the minder in the car. It adjusts to how the car was operated over a period of time and will lower the % life of the oil accordingly.