oil changes and maintenance reminders

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ProspectiveBuyer

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It's been close to 5,000 miles since my last oil changes in January. But I haven't received a maintenance reminder from my car yet. Since I mainly use electric mode, does that extend the length of time that I can drive without taking the car in for service? Or should I schedule an appointment and not wait for the car to sense when it's due?
 
I have 27,000 mile on my 2018 touring. I have changed the oil twice. I wait until the maintenance minder says it is time to do so.
 
The oil change interval is not just based on some fixed mileage criteria.
There is some algorithm known only to Honda engineers.

Go by the maintenance minder. It will inform you when it is time to change the oil.

The one exception that has been noted on this forum (and particularly applies if you don't use a lot of HV miles) is when the Maintenance Minder 'bundles' service items together. The most common example is when the Minder reports A01 (meaning Oil Change, general inspection, and Tire Rotation). We have learned that by just doing the tire rotation (the "1" part of the code), and clearing that portion, the maintenance warning goes away for a significant length of time before re-appearing when it is really time to change the oil.

The general rule is to change the oil per the minder, but never any longer than a year in-between.

You can do a search in the forum for maintenance minder and find a lot more details about what has been learned so far.
 
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ProspectiveBuyer said:
Since I mainly use electric mode, does that extend the length of time that I can drive without taking the car in for service?
Click to expand...

It may extend the length of time until an oil change is necessary. The tire rotation is recommended at 5K miles. Tire miles are the same, gas or electric.

That said, I wouldn’t schedule an appointment until the MM calls for one, unless you suspect something is amiss.

Our first MM service popped up at ~7500 miles. Fuel consumption records indicated that ~3K of those miles were on the ICE. What ultimately triggered the MM is a mystery.

3K on the ICE?
7500 on the tires?
A combination of the two?
Some other factors?

Personally, I’ll be doing oil changes at ~3K ICE miles or 12 months.
 
You shouldn’t see your first oil change until 10,000 miles. Even then, with all the EV miles it will still be almost clear like new oil if it is anything like mine. There has been plenty of discussion about oil on here and when to do it. I only do it when the oil gets more darker in color on the dipstick.

MrFixit said:
The one exception that has been noted on this forum (and particularly applies if you don't use a lot of HV miles) is when the Maintenance Minder 'bundles' service items together. The most common example is when the Minder reports A01 (meaning Oil Change, general inspection, and Tire Rotation). We have learned that by just doing the tire rotation (the "1" part of the code), and clearing that portion, the maintenance warning goes away for a significant length of time before re-appearing when it is really time to change the oil.
Click to expand...

I just had this occur yesterday when clearing the 0, 1, 2 at 20K miles maintenance items. Once I did them the “A” went away and it said maintenance not due for 5 months.


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Mad_River said:
You shouldn’t see your first oil change until 10,000 miles.
Click to expand...

Not everyone drives 90% of their miles in EV. My “A” service appeared at ~7500 miles. The car had used ~75 gallons of fuel at that point, which I estimated to be ~3000 miles on the ICE.

Everyone uses their car differently and everyone has a personal preference on when to perform maintenance. Suggesting that the first “A” oil change shouldn’t be seen until 10K miles is misleading.

Regardless of mileage, the manual recommends changing the oil every 12 months.
 
Landshark said:
Everyone uses their car differently and everyone has a personal preference on when to perform maintenance. Suggesting that the first “A” oil change shouldn’t be seen until 10K miles is misleading.
Click to expand...

I say ignore the miles and go by the maintenance minder (that's why it's there). It will never have you wait too long.
It may request a change earlier than necessary, but that is better than waiting too long. The tire rotation bundling will let you legitimately wait a little longer if you so desire.
 
Landshark said:
It may extend the length of time until an oil change is necessary. The tire rotation is recommended at 5K miles. Tire miles are the same, gas or electric.

That said, I wouldn’t schedule an appointment until the MM calls for one, unless you suspect something is amiss.

Our first MM service popped up at ~7500 miles. Fuel consumption records indicated that ~3K of those miles were on the ICE. What ultimately triggered the MM is a mystery.

3K on the ICE?
7500 on the tires?
A combination of the two?
Some other factors?

Personally, I’ll be doing oil changes at ~3K ICE miles or 12 months.
Click to expand...
 
The service is bundled together. Oil change, and tire rotation are the two that always come together. Honda says to rotate tires at 7,500 miles so a A01 service comes up every 7,500 miles. If you rotate your own tires or take it to a place like Discount tires (who has done mine for free) then the time to take in the car for service will be extended by ONLY resetting the tire rotation and nothing else. When I did that I got another 5 months before was given the code A01 again. THIS DOES NOT affect the warranty in any way you are only doing the tire rotation and the A0 (oil change and inspection) has not been reset so no problems. You reset the tire rotation by using the button on the steering wheel and go to the Icon of the wrench. Press and hold the middle button for 10 seconds on the steering wheel and choose the tire rotation. All done.

If your oil really does need changing it will still show the A0 and the 1 will be gone – 1 is the tire rotation.
 
I seem to ask really dumb, or obviously answered, questions when it comes to this stuff, but...

How does one know how how many miles were on engine power? I put an inductive hour meter in the engine bay I plan to use, but would like to know what it is that is making me stupid about the miles.
 
Landshark said:
Not everyone drives 90% of their miles in EV. My “A” service appeared at ~7500 miles. The car had used ~75 gallons of fuel at that point, which I estimated to be ~3000 miles on the ICE.

Everyone uses their car differently and everyone has a personal preference on when to perform maintenance. Suggesting that the first “A” oil change shouldn’t be seen until 10K miles is misleading.

Regardless of mileage, the manual recommends changing the oil every 12 months.
Click to expand...

The OP said he drives mostly in EV like we do. I was answering his question on when to expect the car to prompt him. I don’t think that is misleading. It may happen sooner or later if his situation is not exactly like ours. If the oil looks like new, he can refer to all the other threads on to change or not change it. I didn’t want to try to repeat the arguments for and against on those other threads.


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Perhaps I should elaborate on the conditions that existed when our AO1 service displayed as due.

~7500 total miles
An estimated 3000 miles on the ICE, based on ~75 gallons of consumed fuel.
4500 miles of EV driving.

That is “mostly” EV miles.

To suggest that someone who drives “most” of their miles in EV shouldn’t see their first oil change until 10K miles, is, to be kind, misleading.
 
My understanding is that it will come up at about 7500 miles or 12 months, whichever comes first. It definitely doesn't matter how many ICE miles you do.
 
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