Had a little over 5000 miles on my BE as of today and I do a lot of towing so decided to proceed with an oil and filter change. I have a set of ramps which the truck drove up on easily and gave plenty of room to get to everything underneath. The oil drain plug is very easy to access and oil drains straight down without hitting anything. The oil filter is a little harder to get to but not that difficult. However, it is hard to get it out without at least some oil splashing down. I think the angle of how you get to it and remove it would help with that issue a bit so next time I will approach it a little differently once I get it loose and can just spin it off. If you tip the filter at all some is going to splash. But even with that, I had minimal drips and was able to wipe everything up with a towel easily. Putting the new oil is best done with a funnel as the oil fill opening is a little low to just pour freely without worrying about spills so I used a funnel with no problems. Cost of the Honda filter and Mobil 1 synthetic oil was under $35 total. Total time for the job was less than 30 minutes so I will continue to do my own oil changes.
First Oil Change Thoughts
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Honda advises not to perform the first oil change until the Maintenance Minder instructs you to do so. Subsequent, premature oil changes won't do any harm, but are wasteful. The oil life monitor considers operating conditions. Be sure to reset the oil life monitor if you haven't already.
Forgot to mention about resetting the oil change indicator. I could not get it to reset while any other messages were present in the information display - for example, an open door. Once I closed all the doors and had the normal display I was able to reset the indicator without a problem.
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Just a friendly tip when changing the oil filter, if you turn the steering wheel all the way to the right, you can access and change the oil filter without getting under the vehicle. A lot less mess to clean up too. Hope this help on the next oil change.
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Advice from someone who has done countless oil changes on just about everything. If you can avoid jacks aka the vehicle is high enough, you'll always get a more complete drain with it level. The "turn the wheel right" (easy to do with no ramps present) is good advice from mcmanut01.
I also recommend letting the maintenance minder be your guide. The suggested intervals in all vehicles are best followed verbatim as any shorter change intervals with modern oils is wasteful. A decent, inexpensive synthetic IMO is Castrol GTX Magnatec Full Syn. Available at Walmart super cheap and I had excellent results with it in my G1. Castrol GTX MAGNATEC 0W-20 Full Synthetic Motor Oil, 5 qt jug for $17.88...you can't beat the price and gets stellar UOA per many at BITOG (Bob Is The Oil Guy). More than adequate for the typical MM intervals most will get...
I was also a big proponent of a fresh crush washer each time but over the years, with Hondas and other vehicles, I'm not so sure that it really matters if you use the same washer for 2-3 changes (assuming you are never over torquing the drain plug).
I also recommend letting the maintenance minder be your guide. The suggested intervals in all vehicles are best followed verbatim as any shorter change intervals with modern oils is wasteful. A decent, inexpensive synthetic IMO is Castrol GTX Magnatec Full Syn. Available at Walmart super cheap and I had excellent results with it in my G1. Castrol GTX MAGNATEC 0W-20 Full Synthetic Motor Oil, 5 qt jug for $17.88...you can't beat the price and gets stellar UOA per many at BITOG (Bob Is The Oil Guy). More than adequate for the typical MM intervals most will get...
I was also a big proponent of a fresh crush washer each time but over the years, with Hondas and other vehicles, I'm not so sure that it really matters if you use the same washer for 2-3 changes (assuming you are never over torquing the drain plug).
But it didn't take into account regular, semi-synth, synthetic, and EP oils. Too bad.
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He also mentioned a lot of towing. Is the maintenance minder that intelligent, to know hard use? I think I prefer his way, the way he did it. Only thing I would have done differently is take an oil sample from the middle of the drain and send it to Blackstone. Get some hard data instead of minders. Honda hasn't proven to me they can even build G2's without issues so I'd be prudent with the oil changes myself.
I agree w/ the above, however, I'm 3500 miles away from the 1st change, so I'm wondering for those that have done theirs already, can you get under there w/o putting it up on ramps or jacks? I'm pretty sure we don't have the clearance to use a creeper...
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I have in the past, when dealing with hard to reach filter...using a screwdriver to puncture the filter at the angle that I'd like, to minimized the mess if required. :wink:
I am firmly in the camp to do the first oil change between 500-1000 miles. You will likely have more foreign material in that first oil change than any subsequent oil change until you get beyond 150K miles. No sense letting that stuff circulate.
My First oil analysis for our 3.5L Honda was 18 PPM Iron, 1 PPM Chromium, 2 PPM Lead, 3PPM Copper, 7 PPM Aluminum.
My Second oil analysis on the same motor was 6 PPM Iron, 0 PPM Chromium, 0 PPM lead, 2PPM Copper, 2 PPM Aluminum.
That's about 3x the metallic contaminants in the first oil change at about 1000 miles than an oil change at around 85000 miles. I change oil every 7500 miles and used Mobil 1 exclusively until 280K when I changed to Castrol GTX because I started to get a tiny bit of seepage from the rear main.
Based on my oil change intervals and Blackstone results I would be comfortable going longer between oil changes if I had more confidence in the filters. As long as I am changing the filter, I might as well change the oil.
My Honda, Subaru and Toyota vehicles Maintenance Minders are strictly odometer dependent. The algorithm in my Corvette supposedly takes into account RPMS, Oil Temp and time. I'm not so sure....but it has varied quite a bit.
My First oil analysis for our 3.5L Honda was 18 PPM Iron, 1 PPM Chromium, 2 PPM Lead, 3PPM Copper, 7 PPM Aluminum.
My Second oil analysis on the same motor was 6 PPM Iron, 0 PPM Chromium, 0 PPM lead, 2PPM Copper, 2 PPM Aluminum.
That's about 3x the metallic contaminants in the first oil change at about 1000 miles than an oil change at around 85000 miles. I change oil every 7500 miles and used Mobil 1 exclusively until 280K when I changed to Castrol GTX because I started to get a tiny bit of seepage from the rear main.
Based on my oil change intervals and Blackstone results I would be comfortable going longer between oil changes if I had more confidence in the filters. As long as I am changing the filter, I might as well change the oil.
My Honda, Subaru and Toyota vehicles Maintenance Minders are strictly odometer dependent. The algorithm in my Corvette supposedly takes into account RPMS, Oil Temp and time. I'm not so sure....but it has varied quite a bit.
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The same item in Canada is over $60 !! >
it's ridiculous how some prices are between the 2 countries ( for other items as well AND the shipping from retailer to consumers too !... a lot of stuffs are FREE shipping within the USA...not here in Canada ! )
I guess this can "partially" compensate you guys for the price differences on the RidgeLine ! >
:grin:Cost you guys "LESS" to maintained and accessorized !!
Yes, probably half my miles are towing a 20 foot bass boat. Towing over 150 days per year. Under the old service manuals, this would classify as "severe" duty and there would be a different maintenance schedule with mileage intervals much lower. I'm comfortable changing oil/filter every 5000 miles given how I use the truck.
I don't know if you can get under the truck with a creeper if it is not raised up at least a little. It would be very tight.
I don't know if you can get under the truck with a creeper if it is not raised up at least a little. It would be very tight.
I can't imagine that the MM in the G2 isn't at least as smart as the MM in the G1. My minder has gone as far as about 8k miles for a few oil changes, but the most recent will want about 5 k in less then a year. All oil now either PP or M1EP 5w20, and all good reports from Lab One for last 20-30k miles. Started testing on G1 RL late in ownership (last 4-5 years).
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If I'm not rotating tires, I just crank the wheel right and gain easy access to the filter (as mentioned above). But I normally do a tire rotation at each OCI so I have it up on 4 jackstands anyway. Everything is easy to get to in that scenario.
The only problem I have with being on jackstands is splash (especially from tranny fluid). So I have to elevate the waste container to minimize splash. Otherwise, my Fumoto valve and plastic tubing is basically no muss, no fuss for the oil change. And a freezer quart size baggie over the oil filter helps contain any oil spill, with a shop rag over the frame beneath.
The only problem I have with being on jackstands is splash (especially from tranny fluid). So I have to elevate the waste container to minimize splash. Otherwise, my Fumoto valve and plastic tubing is basically no muss, no fuss for the oil change. And a freezer quart size baggie over the oil filter helps contain any oil spill, with a shop rag over the frame beneath.
Because with my vehicle on 4 jackstands, I can scoot all around underneath.
It's like having a TV remote... You can get up and change channels on the TV manually... but, if you don't *have* to, and if it makes things happen faster... well...
Yeah... ok... whatever you say...
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I'll admit, that is kind of a shocking difference on the early UOA...It makes sense as the millings and crap should be present early in the engines usage...
On the MM for Honda, it definitely is RPM and operating conditions, not just miles.
I'd actually get a short interval with my G1 if I did a lot of towing between changes. It varied from just over 7,000 miles to almost 9,000 miles when no towing/open highway cycles were high. Here is the Honda verbiage on the MM:
The Maintenance Minder is an important feature of the information display. Based on engine and transmission operating conditions, and accumulated engine revolutions, your Honda's onboard computer (ECM/PCM) calculates the remaining engine oil and the transmission fluid life.
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