Hey all, just adding to the stack of Maintenance Minder woes and consulting the hivemind. Before purchasing the car, I noticed lots of threads complaining about MM and responses describing the process to clear out individual codes. When I got the car, I found the menu and figured I'd try clearing individual codes and report back how well things made sense. So am now at 10,000 mi and a little confused. Around ~7,500 I got "A01". I figured it was the rotation. Got the rotation, cleared the "1" in the menu. It all went away. Nice. Last week (roughly a year after purchase), I got "A0". Changed the oil (and put in a Fumoto valve. That thing is awesome), then cleared the "A". I imagined I'd be left with "0" or the prompt would go away altogether. Was surprised to find that the car now alerts me "01". I've seen folks theorize that MM tries to group service visits. https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/minimizing-mm-oil-changes.3985/#post-39929 This makes some kind of sense. Following that logic, I'd assume that the reason I've now got "01" is that MM doesn't allow for single-code prompts, and instead holds a database of roughly-coinciding codes to reduce service visits. In which case, "01" is the shortest set that includes "0" which is all I really need. In any case, I've got an inspection scheduled at a local dealership. Going to ask that they not mess with MM so that I can clear the "0" (inspection) out myself and see what happens. Anyone run into this? Did I miss a thread somewhere describing this situation?
In my opinion, the "0" inspection is rather trivial. If you are changing your own oil, just look around at the items identified by the inspection code, consider them complete, and clear both codes at the same time. The dealership would do nothing special here... Just a reminder as to which items are supposed to be 'inspected':
It's that 3rd bullet that made me think I might want to take it to a dealer. Don't really know what to check for. I also figured I'm under warranty, and figured Magnison-Moss would cover me if I kept receipts. Even then, I got an OEM filter. I don't really know what to check for with all the others, and thought the dealer's signoff would also serve as "validation" to Honda that the oil change was done correctly? But maybe I'm being too cautious.
If you know enough (are confident enough) to do your own oil change, you could easily learn enough to know what to look at for these other items. Part of the trouble can be that some may not be visually accessible with all the bottom covers in place, etc. Also, I will grant you that some are certainly easier to see with the car up on a lift. In my opinion, if an item is not accessible without dissassembling something like the bottom covers, then the dealer is likely to just check off the item without necessarily bothering to truely see it. Most of these have an extremely low chance of failing until the vehicle gets pretty old anyway.
The CV (driveshaft) boots are easy to inspect when doing an oil change. One just looks for splits in the rubber. Any splits are usually at the bottom of the rubber boot groves. In reality, any splits in the boot will be oozing out grease that will be very noticeable. If boot splits are caught early, before much grease leaks out and dirt or water gets in the CV joint, usually only the boot needs to be replaced and some more grease added. Unfortunately, the Clarity PHEV driveshafts are unique to the Clarity PHEV (not on any other Honda) and are not available as an aftermarket item. Fortunately, it has been my experience that Honda Accord drive shaft boots last at least twenty years before splits develop. I would expect that the Clarity PHEV boots would have a similar lifetime. Leop
Yeah, dealer wanted $40 for the inspection and the tech went on about how hard it is to “check fluids and battery health” while leaning into my car, 10 inches from my face and maskless. Could smell what he has for lunch. No thanks. Had trouble googling what things like “Stay RR” and “RR Subframe” are, but I think it’ll be worth it long term.
