Oil changes

loomis2

loomis2

Well-Known Member
My Owner's Guide doesn't really get much into the topic of oil changes. How often are you supposed to change the oil on a PHEV?
 
Volt is maximum of 2 years between changes due to oil age. It will depend a lot on miles the engine is used with the car.
 
loomis2 said:
How often are you supposed to change the oil on a PHEV?
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That's going to vary by the model of car. It certainly should be specified somewhere in the owner's manual! (Does it have an index at the back?) If not, you can always call your auto dealer and ask the service department.
 
The owner's manual says to replace the oil every 1 year or when the car tells you to, whichever comes first. This is for US, Canadian items are on the next page in the manual.

maintenance1.png
 
Viking79 said:
The owner's manual says to replace the oil every 1 year or when the car tells you to, whichever comes first. This is for US, Canadian items are on the next page in the manual.

maintenance1.png
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The salesman told me the engine has an oil viscosity sensor. That would be a good solution but all I have is his word on the subject. I see comments online about a Honda Oil-Life monitor and a number of comments about how the system works. They are all different and seem like guesses to me. At any rate it certainly doesn't make sense to use the car's odometer.
 
jdonalds said:
The salesman told me the engine has an oil viscosity sensor. That would be a good solution but all I have is his word on the subject. I see comments online about a Honda Oil-Life monitor and a number of comments about how the system works. They are all different and seem like guesses to me. At any rate it certainly doesn't make sense to use the car's odometer.
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The ECU knows exactly how much fuel has been burned in the engine. This is used to calculate when to change the oil. Nearly every single automaker uses the same type of calculation. Ive never read about any of them using a viscosity sensor.
 
West1 said:
Ive never read about any of them using a viscosity sensor.
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Seems rather problematic to use a viscosity sensor. When it's very cold, viscosity increases dramatically. When it's very warm, viscosity goes down. That's certainly not an indication of when it is (or isn't) time to change the oil!
 
Our 07 Civic Hybrid did the same thing- it'll count miles and conditions an then show a service code telling you what to do. Not convinced there are sensors involved or just software
 
Look at the second instruction - "If necessary, drive the vehicle until the engine turns on." Can anyone say "joyride!" :eek:

Might want to pull the dipstick more than once a year...:rolleyes:
 
I suspect with the Clarity, you could get away with taking it in every 10K - or at least once a year. My sense of the EV/HV ratio so far for me is 80/20. On my old PriusPHEV that was reversed. I took that car in every 7500K miles, so that was about twice a year. I suspect I'll take the safe route with the Clarity, but I'm not putting that many miles on it so far, so far the average is about 600mi/month. That would mean once a year if I stuck to the 7500K maintenance plan.
 
FYI: To avoid possible warranty issues, you have to obey the all powerful manual which says to change the oil whenever the maintenance minder pokes its head out from behind the curtain in Oz, or 1 year, whichever comes first. You don’t want to give Honda any reason not to honor the warranty! And don’t forget to reset the maintenance minder.
Since my driving is also predominantly EV and under 12,000/yr, I had to put a reminder on my calendar so Siri can remind me based on time as my gasoline engine usage will be so low that I bet the maintenance minder will not come on within the 1 yr period.
Or does anyone know if it will time out at 1 yr and come on? Guess we’ll find out later this year.
 
Ken, do you know how to reset the maintenance minder? I tried hold down the trip reset and power on together beyond 25 sec but still it won't reset. Thank you
 
TimoClarity said:
Ken, do you know how to reset the maintenance minder? I tried hold down the trip reset and power on together beyond 25 sec but still it won't reset. Thank you
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Here it is from p479 in the manual:

1.Set the power mode to ON.
2.Press the (display/information) button.
3.Press the “arrow L/arrow R” button to select the “wrench” icon, and press the ENTER button.
4.Press and hold the ENTER button for about 10 seconds to enter the reset mode.
5.Press “up arrow/down arrow” to select a maintenance item to reset, or to select All Due Items (You can also select Cancel to end the process).
6.Press the ENTER button to reset the selected item.
7.Repeat from step 4 for other items you wish to reset.

My apologies, the icons did not copy over. I added the parts in quotes.
Be sure to keep your receipts and document everything just in case you have a warranty repair later.
 
My car just popped up the first A1 reminder. 7K miles on the odometer, but only roughly 12 gallons of fuel burned in 8 1/2 months. Using 44 miles per gallon, that comes to 528 miles driven in HV mode. Roughly 10% of my driving. Took the car into the dealer for the service and asked the service writer about changing the oil after only 5-600 miles, if that made sense. Service guy says he's never been asked that question, so he goes to ask the shop manager. I can overhear their conversation and the shop manager says things like "Honda uses key turns and other criteria to determine when to change the oil". Same kind of nonsense answers I've gotten from service techs before. Makes no sense at all to change the oil after 600 miles of driving.

Personally, I think that Honda is using the same criteria for an oil change on the Clarity as they do on all their other cars. Kind of like the HV range issue. The software isn't taking into account the difference between a standard gasoline powered car and a plug in hybrid. Just my opinion, though.
 
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