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Roger,

It is disappointing but you cannot force out codes on newer Ridgelines period.

Thanks,
Cory
Apparently, Honda realized this is a problem.

"Starting with the 2018 Odyssey, the maintenance minder system includes a 365-day timer that keeps count from when the last oil change was done. Once the system hits the 310-day mark, it will trigger a Maintenance Due Soon message on the driver information interface and it will read Oil Life: 15% when you access the maintenance minder information. All models will apply this new logic at it's next full model change timing."

The Odyssey is the only Honda at this time that includes time as a factor in calculating remaining oil life.
 

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Just received a reply.



Apparently, Honda realized this is a problem.

"Starting with the 2018 Odyssey, the maintenance minder system includes a 365-day timer that keeps count from when the last oil change was done. Once the system hits the 310-day mark, it will trigger a Maintenance Due Soon message on the driver information interface and it will read Oil Life: 15% when you access the maintenance minder information. All models will apply this new logic at it's next full model change timing."
Thanks for running down that info.

Pretty pathetic, isn't it?
 
So... since my RL was built in March of 19, but not purchased until September of 19... I should expect to have the yearly reminder pop up in march 2020, before my 15% oil life remaining?

And if so...I should ignore.... or change the oil because it is a year old.
(There is a slim chance that the dealership reset the oil life (annual counter) when I purchased, but I doubt it.

Or did I misread your post. And the 19’s do not have the annual prompt...?

Thanks.
 
So... since my RL was built in March of 19, but not purchased until September of 19... I should expect to have the yearly reminder pop up in march 2020, before my 15% oil life remaining?

And if so...I should ignore.... or change the oil because it is a year old.
(There is a slim chance that the dealership reset the oil life (annual counter) when I purchased, but I doubt it.

Or did I misread your post. And the 19’s do not have the annual prompt...?

Thanks.
The 2018-current Odyssey is the ONLY Honda that includes elapsed time as a factor in calculating oil life. If the oil life hasn't reached 15% by the 310th day after the last reset, the oil life will decrease to 15% and prompt for maintenance.

The Ridgeline won't include elapsed time as a factor until or unless there is a third generation.
 
I'm neither concern with nor affected by the ability to "force retrieve" pending codes since I always follow the Maintenance Minder.

If there's anything that does bother me, it's the inconsistency in Honda's implementation of the Maintenance Minder.

Early models with the MM like the G1 Ridgeline allowed for forced retrieval of pending codes. The G3 Pilot and G2 Ridgeline removed that capability. In other models like the G10 Civic, Honda added the ability for owners to reset individual maintenance items without the need for an HDS.
What would happen if you drove the Miata more and the Ridge less such that you didn't trip the MM for an oil change within 1 year and fell back to the annual oil change spec. Would you then reset the MM or not? If not, then you're off the chart, as I understand it.

Or, what if you operated your Ridge in severe service conditions such that your service intervals were halved? Would you reset the MM at each service, even though the MM didn't call for rear diff service, tranny service, etc.?

I assume the G2 Ridge has similar normal/severe service callouts like the G1 Ridge.
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As long as one follows the Maintenance Minder or changes the oil every year without resetting it as I suggested a month ago, I don't see any problem. :)
I confess that I'm a little confused as to whether or not Honda expects the owner to reset the MM if doing an annual oil change in lieu of a MM call out for the oil change.
 
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So here you go from the Piloteers Forum. Could this be related to uninformed resetting of the Honda MM?? Hard to believe the brakes lasted that long.

2013 Pilot with 130k miles...and no maintenance done
So my wife has had her pilot since new. Has taken it to a shop every time the maintenance minder popped up. They've reset it each time. Come to find out the only thing ever done was oil changes. Nothing else. Of all the cars I've owned, and she's owned, we've done nothing but oil changes :D. Honda Accords (a few), Toyota Highlander, etc. All ran to 150k-200k without much of anything done to them...

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I'm honestly not sure what to think about this. Is the shop incompetent? Is Honda at fault for having a MM system that can be easily bypassed such that maintenance events can be totally missed? Not every consumer is going to be browsing enthusiast forums like Piloteers and the ROC and will know what they're missing.
 
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What would happen if you drove the Miata more and the Ridge less such that you didn't trip the MM for an oil change within 1 year and fell back to the annual oil change spec. Would you then reset the MM or not? If not, then you're off the chart, as I understand it.

Or, what if you operated your Ridge in severe service conditions such that your service intervals were halved? Would you reset the MM at each service, even though the MM didn't call for rear diff service, tranny service, etc.?

I assume the G2 Ridge has similar normal/severe service callouts like the G1 Ridge.
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I would have ended up in that scenario in my 2017 Ridgeline had my Civic Si not been vandalized. Knowing what I know now, I would have changed the oil after a year and documented it, but not reset the MM while still under warranty. After the warranty was up, I would have let the oil go longer than one year. Honda says to change it at a least every year, but that has to cover the worst-case scenario - people who make lots of very short trips in cool climates where the engine never gets to operating temperature long enough to evaporate any fuel and moisture that may have accumulated in the crank case. In my particular situation, the vehicle sat in a heated garage during the week, but when I did drive it on the weekends, it reached and maintained full operating temperature for over an hour.

If I met the "severe" requirements, I would perform the specified service at the mileage indicated, document it, and not reset the MM unless an oil change was also due at that time then I would reset the MM.

I confess that I'm a little confused as to whether or not Honda expects the owner to reset the MM if doing an annual oil change in lieu of a MM call out for the oil change.
If you follow the advice of the owner's manual, the script readers at Honda customer service, and at least some dealers, then you should reset the MM when changing the oil before prompted by the MM.

I'm honestly not sure what to think about this. Is the shop incompetent? Is Honda at fault for having a MM system that can be easily bypassed such that maintenance events can be totally missed? Not every consumer is going to be browsing enthusiast forums like Piloteers and the ROC and will know what they're missing.
Apparently, Honda did not plan for a scenario where owners would repeatedly perform oil changes before prompted by the MM. If they did it only once, then the MM should prompt for the late maintenance the next time the oil life reaches 15% resulting in maintenance that is late, but not necessarily dangerously so.

If I person drives so little that they need annual oil changes, the vehicle will likely be well out of time warranty before any failures related to maintenance neglect occur.

Let's say Bob buys a new Ridgeline, drives only 3,000 miles per year, and changes the oil every year. If he resets the MM every time without allowing the oil life to reach 15%, he'll NEVER see any of the codes that tell him to rotate the tires or change the rear differential fluid or the transmission fluid or the timing belt or anything else. Assuming the first rear differential fluid change is due around 15,000 miles, it'll be 5 years before he reached that mileage at which point the 5-year powertrain warranty will have expired so it's no longer Honda's responsibility.

The big problem I see is a scenario where Bob buys a new Ridgeline, drives 12,000 miles per year, changes the oil every 5,000 miles, and resets the MM before the oil life reaches 15% as instructed by Honda in which case the MM will never prompt for the other services due. If he keeps doing this, he'll never know he's supposed to change his rear differential fluid, transmission fluid, timing belt, etc. even if he reads the owner's manual from cover to cover.
 
I would have ended up in that scenario in my 2017 Ridgeline had my Civic Si not been vandalized. Knowing what I know now, I would have changed the oil after a year and documented it, but not reset the MM while still under warranty. After the warranty was up, I would have let the oil go longer than one year. Honda says to change it at a least every year, but that has to cover the worst-case scenario - people who make lots of very short trips in cool climates where the engine never gets to operating temperature long enough to evaporate any fuel and moisture that may have accumulated in the crank case. In my particular situation, the vehicle sat in a heated garage during the week, but when I did drive it on the weekends, it reached and maintained full operating temperature for over an hour.

If I met the "severe" requirements, I would perform the specified service at the mileage indicated, document it, and not reset the MM unless an oil change was also due at that time then I would reset the MM.



If you follow the advice of the owner's manual, the script readers at Honda customer service, and at least some dealers, then you should reset the MM when changing the oil before prompted by the MM.



Apparently, Honda did not plan for a scenario where owners would repeatedly perform oil changes before prompted by the MM. If they did it only once, then the MM should prompt for the late maintenance the next time the oil life reaches 15% resulting in maintenance that is late, but not necessarily dangerously so.

If I person drives so little that they need annual oil changes, the vehicle will likely be well out of time warranty before any failures related to maintenance neglect occur.

Let's say Bob buys a new Ridgeline, drives only 3,000 miles per year, and changes the oil every year. If he resets the MM every time without allowing the oil life to reach 15%, he'll NEVER see any of the codes that tell him to rotate the tires or change the rear differential fluid or the transmission fluid or the timing belt or anything else. Assuming the first rear differential fluid change is due around 15,000 miles, it'll be 5 years before he reached that mileage at which point the 5-year powertrain warranty will have expired so it's no longer Honda's responsibility.

The big problem I see is a scenario where Bob buys a new Ridgeline, drives 12,000 miles per year, changes the oil every 5,000 miles, and resets the MM before the oil life reaches 15% as instructed by Honda in which case the MM will never prompt for the other services due. If he keeps doing this, he'll never know he's supposed to change his rear differential fluid, transmission fluid, timing belt, etc. even if he reads the owner's manual from cover to cover.
I agree with your analysis and summation. Which just goes to show that a good schedule is hard to beat and cannot be circumvented unintentionally. I think Honda should put the schedule back in the OM for the express purpose of covering those situations the MM cannot and will not be able to handle.

Of course that will probably just confuse people even more.

At least in the Bob example posted above, a g1 Ridge will show the upcoming maintenance for a brief time during the reset process. I am at a total loss as to why Honda deleted the force retrieval info for the G2 Ridge, although it sounds like they have learned the error of their ways.

But that still leaves people who drive few miles and those who operate under severe service in relatively uncharted territory. Factory guidance is apparently faulty as regards how to correctly deal with the MM reset in either case.
 
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I would have ended up in that scenario in my 2017 Ridgeline had my Civic Si not been vandalized. Knowing what I know now, I would have ,,, snip
And you, being an experienced owner with, what, 5 or 6 Ridgelines under your belt? How would an average consumer ever sort this out? I suspect there may be a lot of AWD Hondas out there with nothing more than oil changes because the owners and/or independent shops don't know the vehicle nor the MM well enough to know what they're missing.

Do you recall the fiasco when the 2006 Ridgeline came out and a number of dealers didn't know anything about the transfer assembly and that the fluid needed to be changed? (a takeoff on the 2003-2005 Pilot when the TA was an integral part of the transmission and used tranny fluid for the lube).

Like you, I have my own maintenance scheduling process that tends to be an ever evolving schedule... loosely based on the MM.
 
I also read of a few dealers putting VTM-4 fluid in 2017 Ridgelines!

Everything is becoming incredibly complex for the average consumer and I find that people use only a fraction of a device's capabilities whether it's a car, a television, or a dishwasher. I've owned nothing but Apple computers, phones, and other devices for over a decade now because they are durable, look nice, feel nice, reliable, and are easy to use. I purchased a Dell laptop for my mother for Christmas. First, I had to pick a brand. I had no idea what to choose, so I chose a Dell because it was familiar. Then, I had to choose between consumer or business class. I chose business thinking it would be more durable and contain less bloatware. Then, I had to choose a line of business laptop that seems primarily based on form factor. Then, I had to choose a series within that line. Then, I had to choose a specific model within that series. Then, I had to choose which screen, processor, storage, memory, software, and dozens of other features and options to include. It was absolutely freaking insane. Ultimately, I chose a random model that appeared in a flyer at the price point I was looking for. It cost 80% of much as a MacBook and has a horrible screen with poor contrast and low resolution, a plastic body, finicky trackpad, tinny speakers, and Windows 10 is a hot mess. I tried the simple task of installing her printer driver, which would never complete or allow me to delete it and start over. Finally, after three manual reboots it just started working on its own and printed out every test page that Windows previously said had failed due to a problem with the printer. I'm far more patient now than I used to be, but I was 30 seconds away from throwing it in the garbage and buying her a MacBook. Unfortunately, her embroidery machine isn't Mac compatible.

Anyways, before my blood pressure escalates... :)

I, too, suspect there are many Hondas running around with neglected maintenance because owners, dealers, or independents keep resetting the MM at each premature oil change. I also suspect there are many more non-Honda models with even more neglected maintenance because the vehicles aren't equipped with the equivalent of Honda's Maintenance Minder and even though a mileage-based schedule is included in the owner's manual, how many people do you believe actually read and follow it?

Let's take my 2019 Miata, for example. The Owner's Manual contains no less than nine (yes, nine) different maintenance schedules for both fixed and flexible modes in the US, Canada, and Mexico for normal and severe conditions based on a dozen different severe driving criteria. The vehicle can be configured to prompt for oil changes based on actual driving conditions (not including elapsed time), preset distance traveled, or custom distance traveled. The factory default setting is mileage-based oil changes every 7,500 miles. I changed mine to "flexible" mode so that it calculates oil life based on actual driving conditions and it's looking like it's going to prompt for an oil change around 5,000 miles.

I predict that my Ridgeline will continue to be driven more than 8,000 miles per year, so I'll continue to follow the MM exactly as I have on all my Hondas. The Miata has accumulated only 1,000 miles in three months, so it'll probably get annual oil changes. Unlike Honda's Maintenance Minder, Mazda's system only prompts for oil changes and tire rotations. You must refer to one of the nine schedules for other maintenance.

The bottom line is that it's just easier, more efficient, less expensive, and more effective to follow the Maintenance Minder in Hondas if you use more than 85% of the oil's life in one year. If it's been more than a year since the last oil change and the oil life hasn't reached 15% yet, you'll need to either wait until the oil life reaches 15% or change the oil and NOT reset the MM even though Honda tells you to.
 
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I agree with your analysis and summation. Which just goes to show that a good schedule is hard to beat and cannot be circumvented unintentionally. I think Honda should put the schedule back in the OM for the express purpose of covering those situations the MM cannot and will not be able to handle.

Of course that will probably just confuse people even more.

At least in the Bob example posted above, a g1 Ridge will show the upcoming maintenance for a brief time during the reset process. I am at a total loss as to why Honda deleted the force retrieval info for the G2 Ridge, although it sounds like they have learned the error of their ways.

But that still leaves people who drive few miles and those who operate under severe service in relatively uncharted territory. Factory guidance is apparently faulty as regards how to correctly deal with the MM reset in either case.
This is what I have been saying all along but I'm glad you aren't going to get the countless thread quotes on here due to your 'beliefs'. I'm one of those people you mention. The G2 is not my DD and likely to get 6k put on it annually, perhaps more when I have the time to start traveling more as after all it's my roadtrip and towing machine. But the MM won't work for me. So I'll apply 28 years of automobile ownership instead. I'll be going many years past the normal driver until I hit X mileage. So regular intervals and testing fluids is what I'll do. Even if it brings down the heavens.
 
FWIW, I don't touch the MM. But I do rotate my tires at 50% OCI and 1% OCI. The reason being is that the dealer changes my oil and Discount Tire does the rotation. Discount Tire and Costco have adjacent parking lots so that makes it easy for me.

Forgive the following off-topic rant. In my experience, the hysteria regarding Honda dealer maintenance quality doesn't match reality. NOT my experience with the dealer maintenance on my Miata at Crater Lake Miata in Medford, OR. On two occasions my Miata left me stranded, not because of the quality of the Miata but because of the poor service performed on it by the dealer.
 
This is what I have been saying all along but I'm glad you aren't going to get the countless thread quotes on here due to your 'beliefs'. I'm one of those people you mention. The G2 is not my DD and likely to get 6k put on it annually, perhaps more when I have the time to start traveling more as after all it's my roadtrip and towing machine. But the MM won't work for me. So I'll apply 28 years of automobile ownership instead. I'll be going many years past the normal driver until I hit X mileage. So regular intervals and testing fluids is what I'll do. Even if it brings down the heavens.
I didn't use to be, but over the last year or two have become one of those people too. I put about 3500 miles a year on my Ridge. And while I know better, I can't help myself when it comes to being about a year or so since my last OCI, and I change it anyway. I just don't reset the MM at that 'interim' oil change.;)
 
Seeing different information regarding break in period. I have had my 2020 ridgeline for 1 month now and have close to 900 miles on it. I was planning on taking it on a 350 mile trip to Alabama in a couple weeks but I am not so sure. I myself kinda feel like I should have some more road time on the RL before striking out on a longer Journey. Any thoughts?
 
I myself kinda feel like I should have some more road time on the RL before striking out on a longer Journey. Any thoughts?
Yes, I have a thought, well, more of a question. Taking your Ridgeline out on the highway now would be the best treatment that you can give your Ridgeline, what is causing your concern?

Bill
 
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Speedlever,

I like the comments on changing the oil early...

Change Your Oil Right Away !!
The best thing you can do for your engine is to change your oil and filter after the first 20 miles. Most of the wearing in process happens immediately, creating a lot of metal in the oil. Plus, the amount of leftover machining chips and other crud left behind in the manufacturing process is simply amazing !! You want to flush that stuff out before it gets recycled and embedded in the transmission gears, and oil pump etc...
 
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