Oil Change already?

Mine is at 2100 miles with 80% EV (~9 gallons of gas used) and MM says 5 months. So that would be close to around 6-7K miles.

 

The 11-yr old car I retired required an oil change every 10k miles or once a year. My A01 popped up this week at 6500 miles. I’ve only gone through maybe 40 gallons of gas. Seems wasteful of oil, time, and money.

 

1 month old, 900+ miles and less than 1/3 of gas tank used. Shows maintenance due in 8 months.

 

I will be getting my winter tires at Active Green and Ross this time. I used to get them from Costco but a friend of mine told me AG/R rotate or here in Ottawa (not sure about other locations) change from summer to winter or vice versa for free. Since my insurance specify that I must have winter tires on my car between Nov and Apr for a discount, I have absolutely no reason to 'rotate' the tires at Honda since it's done twice a year during tire change (and I have been changing my tires for the last 10 years). If and when I do receive the A1 and/or 9 service, I will go into the dealer to complain about that especially the '9' brake service.

Has anybody file a complain (or reporting a defect/bug) with any federal agency or at least Honda Corporate?

 

I am starting to think there's a legitimate issue here. It might actually be unintended. The rest of my Honda cars have maintenance minders that track engine RPMs and report the oil life remaining as a percent. Tracking it as how many months or weeks you have left is a bit bizarre. I can see a background 12 month timer to enforce a minimum time as per the manual if the oil life doesn't hit first, but that's not what's happening.

 

Does what we usually think about car engine apply to Clarity?
It's more a power generator than a car engine.
They actually turned FCX into a mobile fuel cell power generator.

 

I think it's a fair bet that it was already 4 months since the car was built and the dealer never reset the timer. So it's probably timing out after a year at this point.

 

Here's another data point. We bought our Clarity in mid-May. We just returned from a road trip that doubled our car's miles from 2,000 to 4,000. At the start of the trip, maintenance was due in 5 months; at the end, it said 2 months.

I find Emanuel's observation interesting, though. Is there a way to determine the date of manufacture -- from the VIN, say?

 

The month and year of manufacture is on a plate on the driver’s door sill. It’s the same plate that tells you what pressure to have in the tires, etc

 

Don't………
Run-in creates more metal particles. That's why the first oil change is earlier.
If you go to a Honda dealer, they will provide the oem oil, which is same as factory ones.

 

That's a bit of a "duh" that I hadn't considered. One of the first things I did when I got my car was look at the maintenance reminder and it said 9 months. I figured my dealer took delivery two months before I bought it based on the state inspection sticker, and it probably took a month on the boat.

Do we have any people coming up on their second service time yet? I'm wondering if the second interval is more reasonable.

 

Interesting.

I remember my first new car I ever got in 1980 the instructions were clear you HAD to change out the break-in oil in the first 300 miles. Yeah, just 300 miles. I wanted to take a trip somewhere early on in that car and ended up joyriding around a few days after I got it so I could get the service before going.

Obviously tech has changed a lot since then.

 

I was planning on doing an DIY oil change at 5k then 10k/12 months thereafter while under warranty. I am obviously old school since changing at 5k (1500 on ICE) is preventive minded...old school folks were raised with that mindset.

Personally, I think Honda MM is a bunch of garbage for this particular car...like most others I am running conservatively a 70/30 split EV versus ICE. Honda knows this and is placating the stealerships to ensure the cash-cow BS oil changes keep on coming in like clock work. The algorithm for the MM needs a serious overhaul to be a useful tool for the everyday driver for this particular car.

This is my first Honda ever...so how long does one keep Honda break-in oil in the system? Is it safe these days to forgo the early first oil change to rid the system of potential production contaminants?

Thanks

 

It does seem that for some the MM calls for oil changes long before overall time or ICE operation time/milage would warrant. It almost seems like it’s using total miles instead of HV miles.
However in my case of low miles ~4,200 in 6 months and an 85/15 EV/HV split, it’s calling for the oil change at 11 months which seems reasonable. But that may be because my total miles are so low that it’s timing out at 1 year or ~8,000 total miles.

I have researched as much as I can on the oil issue. What I’ve found is that Honda used to specify that the Factory Fill (FF) oil not be change early since it was beneficial in breaking in the engine. However now all Honda says is to “avoid full throttle starts and rapid acceleration” (Honda.owners.com) when engine is new and says nothing about oil change frequency other than following the MM.
On the Honda tech forum (not official
Honda) the consensus is that there is no special break in oil used. However the assembly lubricants used have a large mount of molybdenum additives that mix with the FF and make it like a break in oil with additional properties. This may be why Honda used to say don’t change the FF early.
Bottom line is just using any quailty oil that meets Honda’s viscosity and API requirements and following the owner’s manual will be fine. That means a synthetic or semi-synthetic since that’s all you can find in 0W20.
Since the first oil change has to be with in 1 year now matter how low the miles on the ICE, I will use the Honda full syn (rather pricey IMHO) since it has been reported (but not verified) to have a higher moly content that their synthetic blend or Mobile 1. But that’s because I will only have ~500 miles on the ICE by then . After that, it’s whatever I can find on sale.

 

The MM in our Clarity with 2K miles in 8.5 months says we're due in 4 months. I hope the tires can last that long without rotation. Oh wait, we took the snow tires/OEM wheels off and put the OEM tires/accessory wheels on in April, so I think we'll make it OK.

 

Wow, @insightman, you’re the first to have so few miles that the MM is not triggering within one year. (And I thought I didn’t get out much. How can you let that Clarity just sit there begging to be driven?)
You may be the first to have to go by the manual’s notice to change in one year if MM message does not appear. Don’t forget to reset it.

 

KentuckyKen...thanks for the additional info. I had gleaned some of that during research but bottom line is Honda is not clear at all on the initial oil. Like you, I plan for 1 year intervals since miles on Ice will likely be less than 4k over any rolling 12 month period. Still ciphering on the early first change though...old habits hard to break...lol.

insightman...thanks for the reply. For clarification...the MM on my Clarity has not sent me a notification...really preplanning for the eventuality that it will notify me way to early. Interestingly, my Clarity is right at 2k and the MM shows me 4 months as well. When I first checked the MM a few days after purchase, it clearly said 9 months before maintenance was due. The 9 months correlates with the April delivery date and July purchase. Suddenly MM says 4 months which has to be based on mileage driven over x days or months...which is why I say it is total garbage.

Honda is just another example of a company which chooses to gouge consumers...nothing new here...Toyota, Subaru, GM...they all do it. I read somewhere 3.5k for a head unit...gimme a break.

My thought process is if I change it at 5k...then 15k...I have technically met Honda's 7.5k general rule of thumb. Use high quality, full synthetic, extended life oil with proper API certification and a quality extended life filter...a owner will be fine.

I have 3k miles to cipher on a plan...as I gather more info on Honda's break-in oil.

Thanks

 

a) I do beg. The Clarity is my wife's car, so I have to ask nicely and come up with an approved destination
b) We still have a gen 1 Insight and a gen 2 Insight that we use for short trips to crowded parking lots
Soon, I'll force myself to part ways with my faithful red gen 1 Insight. The Clarity will get more use then.