First oil change at less than 3500 miles?

frontlinegeek said:

It's your money dude.


30.00 bucks for amsoil and $5 for an oem filter I’m not complaining! And my si isn’t stock either. There’s def nothing wrong with fresh oil every 3k. You can run oil to your 10k miles all day I’m fine.


Challenge LONG past accepted. I live in a small city with little in the way of high speed feeders to get around. NEVER had an issue. Average oil change distance is about 12,500 KMs



You can do whatever you want to your car and with your money. Being paranoid doesn't make you right, it just spends your money faster.



Considering that you should be checking your oil level at least once a month (Because you really don't know and something very weird can happen and you not immediately know), not sure how this is Honda's fault, lease or not.

Why should I have to check the oil ? If the motor blows they replace it not my problem. I have friends that work in Honda I see a lot of crap they get into all the time.



Oh, so it is down to that is it? The ONLY cars I have bought are Hondas. 5 now so far. Only ONE ever burned oil and that was a 1989 Accord EX-i that I drove the piss out of. Two CRVs and two Civics (Counting this new 2017). And for driving time on them, almost 1,000,000 KMs across all 5. The 2000 CR-V drove from New Brunswick to Florida TWICE. So, ya, I am DEEP in and KNOW that FAR more the average, Honda motors are the best on the planet. Now automatic transmissions from the early 2000s??? That is a whole other issue...

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Never owned a auto except a 2016 Infiniti Q50 red sport. But I had about 15 other Honda’s. And they weren’t stock either.

burningoilagain said:

Ive rebuilt motors, I have gone through it all. Ill never put my motor through 10,000 miles before an oil change. If its a lease I could care less. Im at 2600 miles and have a 40% indicator. I do a lot of city driving so yes I will change my oil every 3k. Ive never had a single issue from rebuilt motors putting 100,00 miles into them. I want you too do 10,000 miles in city driving and see if your oil last that long. I also do some hard driving as well.

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That's interesting. I guess that's the same mentality that people hold towards rental cars. A lease is, in effect, long-term car rental. People generally don't take care of things that they don't perceive to own, especially cars. And your statements of "not caring" and "hard driving" is exactly the reason why I don't by lease turn-in cars. Saving money on a car isn't worth inheriting the problems caused by someone else.

Luckyarmpit said:

That's interesting. I guess that's the same mentality that people hold towards rental cars. A lease is, in effect, long-term car rental. People generally don't take care of things that they don't perceive to own, especially cars. And your statements of "not caring" and "hard driving" is exactly the reason why I don't by lease turn-in cars. Saving money on a car isn't worth inheriting the problems caused by someone else.

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And you are exactly right! It can be an si or even an m3 id never finance a lease turn in. People here in NYC love to abuse their cars. I wouldn't. On the other hand my si is owned, and im taking care of it my way and wont have a single issue with it. Changing the oil at 3k or at 10k. Oil tends to get really dirty around those high numbers. I rather have clean fresh oil and my tuner has also approved that.

Thanks.

grifocx said:

I also get a bit of a chuckle when I read about the “factory break in oil.” Can anyone actually cite a legitimate source that supports the existence of this magical oil supplied to our new cars?

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Feedback from Torrance is that it's standard 0W-20. The difference is that it reportedly contains a high amount of molybdenum paste from the assembly process.

Don't take my word for it. There's reportedly an internal memo from AHM instructing dealers to avoid changing the factory fill before 15%. And that's been corroborated by the two Master Techs I've spoken with here locally. After the FF is out, they are reportedly free to change as often as they wish.

Take it for what it's worth...

zroger73 said:

As I mentioned in post #19 above and can be confirmed by reading Honda's technical paper on the subject, the Maintenance Minder's oil life calculation is not based on time or mileage - it is based on engine revolutions and operating conditions.

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@zroger73 - Old post but worth revisiting. The MM logic has been enhanced to include a time element on the more modern Honda platforms. That may not have been the case 15 years ago when this paper was written.

Code 7 is triggered every 3 years, for example.

Design said:

@zroger73 - Old post but worth revisiting. The MM logic has been enhanced to include a time element on the more modern Honda platforms. That may not have been the case 15 years ago when this paper was written.

Code 7 is triggered every 3 years, for example.

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Thank you for that update. I'd love more information since that didn't seem to be the case with either my 2017 Ridgeline RTL-E or 2017 Civic Si. The Ridgeline did NOT prompt for an oil change after one year nor did the indicated oil life decrease on either vehicle when each of them sat for months without being driven. The indicated oil life on my 2019 RDX didn't decrease when it sat for two months without being driven.

Also, the Owner's Manuals for both of these vehicles along with my 2018 Accord and 2019 RDX advise changing the oil if the MM doesn't prompt for an oil change for 12 months. I would think if time were a factor, the MM would know to prompt for an oil change at 12 months by going "instantly" for whatever oil life over 15% (say, 40%, for example) to 15% at exactly one year since the last reset. Or, I would expect the indicated oil life to decrease more rapidly such as occurs in newer GM models that aren't driven enough to prompt for an oil change in less than one year. Neither of these expectations seem to be the case.

Also, the Maintenance Minder description in the service information for these vehicles doesn't include any references to time. For example, the 2018-2019 Accord (one of their newer platforms) reads, "The Maintenance Minder is an important feature of the multi-information display. Based on engine and transmission operating conditions, and accumulated engine revolutions, the Accord's onboard computer (PCM) calculates the remaining engine oil and the transmission fluid life. The system also displays the remaining engine oil life along with the code(s) for other scheduled maintenance items needing service."

Did I miss a ServiceNews article, TSB, or some other communication from Honda that explained a change in MM logic? If so, I'd love to read it. I'm not saying your wrong - I'd just like to find some more evidence that supports your claim because I love learning new stuff!

This was feedback from a couple techs at the local dealership. They aren't sure when the clock starts, but suspect it's initiated upon first startup at the factory. They were very specific about Code 7 as it's a fairly recent addition to the MM algorithm. With regards to A or B, I'll ask next time I'm there, and whether there's a communication for it.

Brake fluid reminders have been appearing as low as 13K miles on the CivicX platform. The only consistency appears to be time.

Design said:

They aren't sure when the clock starts, but suspect it's initiated upon first startup at the factory. They were very specific about Code 7 as it's a fairly recent addition to the MM algorithm. With regards to A or B, I'll ask next time I'm there, and whether there's a communication for it.

Brake fluid reminders have been appearing as low as 13K miles on the CivicX platform. The only consistency appears to be time.

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I suspect their suspicion is incorrect. Even if the MM now considers elapsed time as a variable, I can almost guarantee it doesn't start at the factory. Otherwise, we wouldn't see those slow-selling Ridgelines and Accords that have been sitting on the lot for six months still indicating 100% oil life and there's no instruction in the PDI/TQI to reset the MM. I see where Honda added code 7 for brake fluid, but there's still a footnote in the manual advising to change the brake fluid every three years if code 7 hasn't appeared within that time...and why wouldn't it if the MM considered elapsed time? So far, all published information I've seen from Honda excludes elapsed time.

The earliest 10th Civics are just now turning three years old since they didn't go on sale until mid-November 2015, so any time-based, 3-year brake fluid reminders would have had to appeared only in the last month (mid-November to now). A 10th Civic showing a code 7 before mid-November 2018 would not support a time-based interval since three years would not yet have elapsed. If anything, a Civic less that three years old that displayed a code 7 would support factors other than elapsed time being used. Perhaps the MM uses ambient temperature, brake temperature, and number of brake applications as variables instead of elapsed time to determine when to display code 7 and those that have displayed a code 7 as low as 13K miles were subjected to conditions consistent with brake fluid contamination earlier than three years. I love a good mystery!