Opinions on Honda maintenance plan?

Oil change is probably the only aspect which does not go by mileage alone, but - like most traditional Honda vehicles - it monitors oil life by some means and lets the user know if the oil needs to be changed. However, Honda has adopted a strategy of tagging on service items when another service is coming due. In most traditional Hondas, the most frequent item is the engine oil & filter change, and then it will tack-on any imminent service item (for instance, tire rotation or replacing air filter, etc.) and move i up for the same service visit, so that you don't have to book multiple appointments.

But in the Clarity, the engine is used so infrequently for many users, that the tire change tends to be the most frequent service item, and so when it gets triggered, it adds on the oil change that is anticipated to be coming up next. It makes little sense to many of us, since in many cases it can be <2000 miles on the engine after 7500 miles on the car. Keep in mind that if you get your tires rotated (either yourself, or at a local garage, particularly for those of us in northern North America when swapping out snow tires), we can reset the maintenance minder (MM) tire rotation. This will then defer the oil change; in most cases for another 7500 miles or several months.

I think your mileage estimates are a little conservative. I think people may report getting a notification on their dash of an upcoming service for tire rotation at 6200 - 7000 miles, but that is a 4 week/1 month warning, so it is really based on ~7500 miles, unless the car is driven aggressively. The oil change, can probably be deferred by resetting the tire rotation on the MM up to 12 months of oil life (when it must be changed), unless the engine is used a lot.

All the numbered MM items are governed by mileage alone, unless you get to the time window (like your example of the brake fluid replacement every 3 years, and the engine oil every 12 months minimum). Honda doesn't publish what the mileage trigger is for these items on the Clarity, but they can be estimated based on service schedules for other Honda cars, and by user reports in here.

The prepaid maintenance plan is probably not a good idea for the Clarity if oil changes are every 12 months, and brake pads get very little use. If you put on a lot of miles, and drive in mountainous areas, then it could accelerate some of the wear and tear, but I still doubt that a service plan would be worthwhile. But I'd have to see the numbers to know for sure.

 

I had an oil change notification pop up at 3800 miles (almost all gas miles do to a 2000+ mile road trip). There is some serious glitches to their maintenance minder, or they somehow allow the dealer to control it?

Anyway, in just under 30,000 miles and 1 year it will have called for 5 oil changes and a filter replacement. Realistically 2 oil changes and the filter change would be acceptable, and even 1 oil change would have been fine. The car has about 12,000 gas miles (but hard to know exactly). A Prius can go 10,000 miles on the oil on the normal hybrid, even Accord Hybrid is something like 10,000 miles on conventional oil.

The dealer is also calling for a $600 30k mile service, but my guess is that is just dealer BS.

Realistically, this car should need 1 oil change per year, not more frequently. Many will get this, but only if you don't ever use the gas engine.

 

Yes, I read your experiences in the article. Very interesting reading!

Hard to know for sure, but I think the 2000+ mile road trip probably estimated that within the next month it would experience the same high mileage use, so it was warning at 3800 miles to rotate the tires, and "oh by the way, change your oil". I think if you had rotated the tires before that service was due then it would have pushed off the oil change for a while. I'm not guaranteeing it, especially since you appear to put on a lot more miles than most of us do, but it appears to me that the instigator are the tire rotations, and each time any service is triggered, it asks to complete an oil change at the same time. YMMV

 

Interesting, I found the Honda MM seems to want an oil change more frequently with the lighter weight oil.
Compared to the older Pilot, Civic and Accord we have the Clarity uses the lightest weight oil I have ever seen.
Case in point: oldest Civic uses 30W and does not need an oil change until 10K miles while the newer Pilot uses 10W requesting oil changes around 8K miles and this car uses zero (0-20 wt) ?

This might be the reason why the condition based service (CBS) as we called them on BMWs maintenance system - might detect more oil breakdown with the zero weight oil being used in current cars ???

Well I bought the Honda Care maintenance that covers oil changes because I figured if this car has more frequent oil changes, then it might be worth it...

 

Good discussion all. Would appreciate instructions on resetting Maintenance Minder on the Clarity. Thanks,

 

Do you have the PDF version of the Clarity Plug-In Hybrid Owners Manual? It's a lot easier to search than the printed manual. Page 479 shows how to do it.

 

On the console unit, go settings, vehicle, reset maintenance items. You can reset each item individually and before due, rather than dismiss all minders including oil change.
This way, you won't void the engine warranty in case Honda dealers asking for proof of oil change.

I reset tire rotation counter when I got my winter tire. If dealers ask for proof, I can explain that I got new tires, and there is nothing to do with engine oil. Next maintenance time not changed, because I drive little, expecting less than 7500mi per year.

 

Again good discussion and many thanks, Frank