I have an 08 HCH. I've been told or read that supposedly the Maintenance Minder is more than a countdown clock, yet I've also been told or read otherwise. I searched the forums and see people mentioning both sides of this when discussing whether they "trust" the Maintenance Minder system but no one that I saw addressed it outright.

Does the Maintenance Minder do anything more than countdown time/miles? If it reads stats on the oil, then why does it need to be reset? Shouldn't it reset when it reads the new oil? What about regular oil vs synth - or does it not matter based on how the MM (supposedly) checks the oil?

 

It's in your owner's manual:

 

Thanks av. Based on the two sections of the manual then, wouldn't it stand to reason that the Maintenance Minder doesn't take into consideration whether you are using synthetic or not and you'd be better off going off miles vs the Maintenance Minder when using synthetic (at least if you believe synthetic to have a longer life than standard oil)?

 

That is correct, the maintenance minder system doesn't know what type of oil is being used, so it's possible you would be changing the oil sooner than needed if using a full synthetic. But most vehicles that i see end up driving ~5k miles between oil changes when following the maintenance minder system.

 

I follow the MM using synthetic. Oil changes occur between 7K-8K miles.

 

Do you wait until 15% on the MM to change? or keep a mental note of the mileage?

 

15% or lower.

 

That's just a waste of $ right there. The oil change intervals were created with regular oil in mind, with synthetic you should be going longer between changes.

 

I change my oil less than twice a year, I'm not wasting millions here.

 

The MM light does not know what kind of oil is in the car or when you change your oil. It is just like a clock. It must be reset manually everytime.

 

How do you figure?

 

What do you mean how do I figure. I dont figure, I know this for a fact. Call honda and ask them. There are no sensors in that car that can tell oil type. The oil life % is just based on driving habits. Thats why Sometimes it goes to 15% in 3500 and sometimes its 6500miles.

 

the ecu can calculate how "hard" you drive the car and the MM adjusts accordingly.

when my drive to work was all highway miles it would tell me to change the oil at about 8800-9000 miles (at 0 percent), now my drive is in a ton of traffic, now it tells me to change the oil at about 7500 miles