[Vincent Ridge]

My honda tech advised me to not follow the extended oil change scheduls .

She does her civic every 5000 miles. My ridgeline gets done every 6000 miles

 

[zroger73]

All this low maintenance stuff is competition between manufacturers to advertise low operating costs.

I can't remember the last time I saw an automaker advertise low operating costs. Can you point me to something?

 

[14v6]

MM debate aside, check your oil level. The only time I've ever seen oil level go down on a Honda V6 was during the first oil change interval.

 

[Sparkland]

I scheduled the first oil change for my RL from the dealer I purchased it from, only because they are giving me one free oil change.

Yesterday they called and said, “Even though your appointment is for 7:00 AM that is just to meet with the service advisor, it does not mean work will be starting on your vehicle at that time.”

I cancelled, as I expect it may be hours before
they get to it. The Kia dealer did an oil change and gave us a one hour timetable.

 

[bruceking0691]

I can't remember the last time I saw an automaker advertise low operating costs. Can you point me to something?

Not sure where or if auto makers ads are saved on the web. In 1986 I bought a new BMW with the maintenance lights and the dealership had posters in the showroom touting lower operating costs. The Japanese may have been first but only in Japan where they had extended oil changes and a mandantory $3k inspection around 10 years where most owners got rid of their cars instead of paying the money. Then I saw all car makers touting the lower costs soon after BMW. Mercedes got sued 20 or so years ago on their extended oil change system and lost. Engines were gummed up and failing.
(google inserted my picture on here automatically, I was 45 then and almost 63 now

 

[kaminsknator]

My light for A1 came on at 5100 miles.

 

[Ramasun7]

Just had 1st oil change on my 23 RTL-E. Dealer recommended every 5,000 miles and I agree. This was part of Honda’s 2 years free service - bought my RL in late March 23. They changed the oil filter, for free also. They reset the Maint Minder that was at 50% (what’s the big deal on resetting every oil change?). They use Mobile 1 (0w20) and document it on the service order.
At 5,097 miles my oil was still at the full mark on dipstick. I put a lot of miles on it the first 10 weeks. But I did “brake in” driving for 1st 500 miles even though nothing in the manual about that. Then I drove it hard and easy - enjoyed great gas mileage on 2,000 mile trip. It’s a great truck!!

 

[BruceX5RL]

Just had 1st oil change on my 23 RTL-E. Dealer recommended every 5,000 miles and I agree. This was part of Honda’s 2 years free service - bought my RL in late March 23. They changed the oil filter, for free also. They reset the Maint Minder that was at 50% (what’s the big deal on resetting every oil change?). They use Mobile 1 (0w20) and document it on the service order.
At 5,097 miles my oil was still at the full mark on dipstick. I put a lot of miles on it the first 10 weeks. But I did “brake in” driving for 1st 500 miles even though nothing in the manual about that. Then I drove it hard and easy - enjoyed great gas mileage on 2,000 mile trip. It’s a great truck!!

Sounds good! From info on this forum the oil reset causes other maintenance items to show up later than normal. I think you reset at 15 percent. What a pain it is dealing with notifications that probably are not in line with how you want to service your truck. I remember taking the instrument cluster out of my first bmw to kill the led light bar that I hated and it eventually failed along with the battery in the cluster that kept the memory for it. Luckily the odometer retained its memory.

 

[Ramasun7]

It’s hard to believe that the various maintenance items are not tracked independently from each other. I doubt that resetting the oil change tracking is going to off set the timing belt, antifreeze, & transmission fluid tracking also.

 

[dkayak]

Why on Earth would you take the advice of the dipsh*ts at your local dealer over the manufacturer?
Honda has spent decades and hundreds of millions of dollars engineering/designing/testing/building/researching their engines.

As zroger states, Honda would be shooting itself in the foot if they gave bad maintenance advice.
Dealership service departments are largely made up of transient low-level workers who don't possess strong knowledge/expertise, and are motivated to compete the most amount of service work at the highest possible price.

My salesperson says the dealer recommends every 5000 miles, contradicting Honda’s engineers, who have vastly more data and knowledge than any dealer or tech. As an engineer myself, I appreciate and respect the know-how behind the MM.

Somber dealer recommendations for more frequent changes are a widespread scam among all brands. The SUV I drove for six years before my RL was a Porsche Cayenne S with a 3.6L twin turbo V6 that put out 420 horsepower . My dealer said Porsche’s 1 year / 10,000 miles default was fine. It had a MM too and generally it reminded me around 9K. My local independent import shop recommended every 5K for every make and model. I trusted the OEM engineers in Stuttgart.

You’ll need to decide whether to trust Honda vs your dealer. Either way, enjoy your vacation in peace.

 

[911medic]

I doubt that resetting the oil change tracking is going to off set the timing belt, antifreeze, & transmission fluid tracking also.

No it doesn't 'offset' them. You'll just never see the prompts if you don't let the MM get to 15%. They simply don't show until it reaches that number.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Ramasun7]

My salesperson says the dealer recommends every 5000 miles, contradicting Honda’s engineers, who have vastly more data and knowledge than any dealer or tech. As an engineer myself, I appreciate and respect the know-how behind the MM.

Somber dealer recommendations for more frequent changes are a widespread scam among all brands. The SUV I drove for six years before my RL was a Porsche Cayenne S with a 3.6L twin turbo V6 that put out 420 horsepower . My dealer said Porsche’s 1 year / 10,000 miles default was fine. It had a MM too and generally it reminded me around 9K. My local independent import shop recommended every 5K for every make and model. I trusted the OEM engineers in Stuttgart.

You’ll need to decide whether to trust Honda vs your dealer. Either way, enjoy your vacation in peace.

Could be a scam - but as mine was a free oil change and dealer provided new Honda oil filter at no cost, I don’t believe my dealer was trying to scam me. Totally free, no “environmental” or shop charges at all. Oil was dark amber on mine at 5K, but not black. I like to do an early oil change on a new engine just to get those little bits the manufacturer may have missed during assembly. I’ll see what the costs are after the free oil changes are over!

 

[longboat]

Could be a scam - but as mine was a free oil change and dealer provided new Honda oil filter at no cost, I don’t believe my dealer was trying to scam me. Totally free, no “environmental” or shop charges at all. Oil was dark amber on mine at 5K, but not black. I like to do an early oil change on a new engine just to get those little bits the manufacturer may have missed during assembly. I’ll see what the costs are after the free oil changes are over!

If the dealer convinces you to come in and get an oil change every 5k, they will sell you two "free" oil changes and 18 paid oil changes over 100k miles. If you follow the MM, you will only make a dozen trips to the dealer instead of 20 in that same time.

Additionally, every time the dealer gets you into the dealership, they have an opportunity to sell you on many other overpriced services, such as $100 cabin filter replacements.

You might not see it that way, but your dealer does.

 

[RT66]

When I first got my 20 rtle I went round and round on this forum regarding the MM and oil changes.
I have learned that there is no "break in" oil.
I also learned that NEVER reset the MM early and follow its advice if you haven't performed that maintenance already.

With that said I change my oil and filter way before the recommended interval I also did the trans, rear diff, etc. early.

I keep a manual record of maintenance and reset the MM at 5-10%

The MM being on schedule is a backup for me in case I forget something in the future I will have the recommended service performed when Honda wants me too.

I know I may be viewed as wasteful or throwing money away, but I have my piece of mind and feel safer.

Case in point, I put new tires on my RL after they had 25000 miles on them. Why? Because the new tires are much better in braking, rain, cornering, dry traction, ride comfort, on and on.
Why should I drive on the crappy OEM Firestones when I can be safer with the new tires?
Driving the recommended 60,000 miles on the OEM tires just to save money made no sense to me.

FWIW my wife's Acura MM has the ability to reset the oil change independent from the rest of the MM intervals.

 

[Ramasun7]

Why never reset the MM for early oil changes?? I just had my first Dealer/Honda paid oil change. Dealer recommends 5,000 miles, and I did mine at 5,087. Dealer changed my filter for free, even though (I hear) Honda only pays for filter every other oil change.

The Dealer reset Maintenance Minder for oil and now mine reads Oil - 100%.

I'm trying to understand why not reset early? Especially since dealer did reset...

 

[Ramasun7]

No it doesn't 'offset' them. You'll just never see the prompts if you don't let the MM get to 15%. They simply don't show until it reaches that number.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

Thanks. Please help me understand what this means "you'll never see the prompts"? Are these early warnings of an upcoming MM event, or do you mean that the MM will skip notifying you of true maintenance needed?

 

[zroger73]

I'm not sure how much clearer @911medic's explanation can be.

The only time the Maintenance Minder is capable of indicating what maintenance is due is when the oil life reaches 15%.

 

[Ramasun7]

I believe my question was pretty clear too.

So since the dealer reset my MM at 5087, and if they continue to reset it every 5000 miles for subsequent oil changes, are you saying I'll never see any other MM notifications?

 

[zroger73]

Correct. The MM simply does not prompt for ANYTHING except when the oil life reaches 15%.

 

[Ramasun7]

Correct. The MM simply does not prompt for ANYTHING except when the oil life reaches 15%.

Thanks - as a 1st time Honda owner, this is all new to me.

I wonder why the dealer reset my MM, knowing this is an issue. Wishing Honda would have a software update to correct this.