Oil Change already?

Michael Borquez

Michael Borquez

Active Member
I have reached 5000 miles and the maintenance light has come on. It is calling for an oil change, what? I’ve driven my car in about 70% electric meaning the ICE has less than 2000 miles on it. Is this another bug? This is way to early to be changing the oil, especially for the first change since all of the break in lube is still in the ICE. I shouldn’t have to change the oil until at least 10k miles based on how I drive it.
 
I would go in and explain to the dealer whats going on. I expect to have the same problem. I might even be on the dealers provided gas, so I will get to ask them if I really have to change the oil every time I fill the gas tank. If it happens twice and the dealer dose nothing I will likely take Honda to small claims court if not just to raise awareness in Honda of the issue. They claim the MM measures oil life. I think we can easily prove it doesn't.
 
How many months have you had the car? There's a theory that it goes at six months no matter how many miles of ICE are on it.
 
Michael Borquez said:
I have reached 5000 miles and the maintenance light has come on. It is calling for an oil change, what? I’ve driven my car in about 70% electric meaning the ICE has less than 2000 miles on it. Is this another bug? This is way to early to be changing the oil, especially for the first change since all of the break in lube is still in the ICE. I shouldn’t have to change the oil until at least 10k miles based on how I drive it.
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even though it wasn't part of our original deal, the dealer did it for free (and rotated the tires etc)
 
weave said:
How many months have you had the car? There's a theory that it goes at six months no matter how many miles of ICE are on it.
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That theory is incorrect. I purchased my car late December 2017 and now have a little over 4000 miles and no maintenance light.
 
I was wondering about this when I was beginning to research the car, and asked the sales guy about it. Since I have a short commute to work, I anticipated using the ICE very seldom, and how that would affect the maintenance interval since it would be crazy to change out relatively unused oil. He checked and came back to say it is best to follow the standard maintenance schedule (every 5k).

Later I found this Clarity press kit on the HondaNews website (http://hondanews.com/releases/2018-honda-clarity-plug-in-hybrid-press-kit) that stated:
"The Maintenance Minder™ system monitors operating conditions such as oil and coolant temperature along with engine speed to determine the proper service intervals. Depending on operating conditions, oil change intervals can be extended to a maximum of 12,000 miles, potentially sparing the owner considerable expense and inconvenience over the life of the vehicle. The owner-resettable system monitors all normal service parts and systems, including oil and filter, tire rotation, air-cleaner, transmission fluid, spark plugs, coolant, brake pads and more. To reduce the potential for driver distraction, maintenance alerts are presented only when the ignition is first turned on, not while driving."
 
I don’t think it automatically times out at 6 months either. I do think it may be using total miles instead of HV miles since some have reported MM oil change light at 6,000 miles/<6 months with very few HV miles.

I’ve had my Clarity for 6 months and 4,300 miles and the MM is showing service at 11 months from purchase.
My driving has been 3,700 EV and 600 HV (86% EV/14%HV)
 
Honda didn't want to deprive their dealer service departments of their bread and butter revenue, so they seem to have set the same service intervals for the Clarity as for a regular old Accord or Civic. A ~10,000 kilometer oil-change interval is certainly not reasonable for a car that may have less than an hour on its engine, but those tires--those poor tires--they need to be rotated!
 
bpratt said:
That theory is incorrect. I purchased my car late December 2017 and now have a little over 4000 miles and no maintenance light.
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Correct, I’ve only owned the vehicle for less than two months. It was in the lot for awhile, manufactured February 2018.
 
In my opinion the Clarity MM is complete BS! In my previous Accord (non-hybrid) the MM would show an oil change needed at 15,000 km. The Clarity, which I estimate to be driven about 75% in EV mode, gave me an oil change warning at just over 10,000 km. I waited 5000 km to do the oil change and the oil was so clean you could barely read the dip stick (I realise that a visual check doesn't tell the whole story, but still).
After resetting the MM it should that the next change was due in 3 months. That would be about 9000 km. There is no doubt in my mind that the MM does not monitor anything but the odometer.
 
I got my Car in June 26 and already put 9100km in almost 2 month and I am also getting message that Service A 19 is due in three weeks. I simply do not understand even though if we assume , 100% of km is in HV more , we have synthetic oil and the Oil change frequency for even CRV and all cars with synthetic oil change is 15 000km ,so why so early.

In regards to rotation , I am telling my story for my old Corolla at Active green and Ross store.
I got my all four tire installed with them , so tire rotation is free for life.
I went them after 20 000km and ask them to rotate my tire. They said we measure your thread and we do not see need for tire rotation.
In my Opinion even though I had free tire rotation under warranty, I have always rotated my tire at 25000km interval.
I do not think it is worth of throwing money on an item which is not required.
 
I got my Clarity in the beginning of December. I have 6,100 miles on it and I’m still on the 2nd tank of gas. My MM shows service due in 2-months.
 
I've had Honda dealers tell me I don't need a rotation. I'm not sure if they were being honest, or lazy since my wheels are locked with Gorilla locks (each nut is locked and requires a special tool which they don't have, that I supply). This was for an older Honda Fit, which for some reason is a prime target for wheel thefts.
 
As others on here have noted, it's probably mostly a dealer income thing. I had a Toyota manager tell me recently that cost/price information so widely available on the Internet has leveled the playing field on vehicle sales (new and used) such that dealers no longer have the upper hand in cost/price negotiations. That competitiveness in sales means that the dealer profit center is now in service. That in turn means they have to see every vehicle as often as possible for as much service as possible, whether the car needs it or not. Most of us who use dealers for service have had them "recommend" far more service than what's in the owner's manual. And, I suspect the MM algorithm has this concept baked into it.
 
My thinking is that we know that the car will not break apart if I do not change oil which has no problem to start with and do not rotate tire where there in no non uniform wear and tear which is not noticed till 25 000 km in my practical world.
 
Atul Thakkar said:
My thinking is that we know that the car will not break apart if I do not change oil which has no problem to start with and do not rotate tire where there in no non uniform wear and tear which is not noticed till 25 000 km in my practical world.
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Regarding the oil, I think most of us are wondering about warranty coverage after/if we ignore Honda's recommended oil change schedule.

Basically, Honda needs to fix their algorithm to reflect the best evidence regarding oil longevity in their product.
 
Michael Borquez said:
Checked my oil today, looks new. Literally no color change, there is no reason to change it.
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While I agree that the MM is set to call for oil changes too soon in some scenarios, the manual does state that you can’t go over 12 months. Also, any trilbologist will tell you that you can’t determine the condition or useful life by an oil’s color. So if you’re going to ignore the MM and go by HV miles or engine time, then I strongly suggest yearly oil and filter changes. And remember failure to follow the MM could possibly cause a warranty issue.
 
I think it is simply a software bug (probably carried code over from hybrid). I am on my third oil change. At 18,500 or so it reminded me it was about time for Service A012. It is being done at a bit over 19,000 this week. I actually drive a fair amount of gas miles, but still not enough to warrant that many oil changes, probably a average 2,000 to 3,000 per oil change.

The dealer seems totally uninterested in looking into it and they don't understand what a PHEV means for engine run hours. They just blindly follow service indicator. They told me I could skip the tire rotation if I wanted, which is funny as if you rotate tires you should never go more than 6000 miles, and if you do you should consider not rotating them anymore as they could adversely effect handling if they are worn and rotated.
 
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