My fit has 18k on it now and I have done all the maintenance myself. So far I have changed the oil and rotate the tires 3 times each. I have none all of this without receiving the reminder and I always reset the oil life back to 100%. My question is, because I'm not allowing the MM to alert me that it is time for service, will it still alert me for some of the other items like the air filter or cabin filter or should I change them at some recommended interval?

 

It is not a mystery- just look at the maintenance schedule that come with your car. If the incoming air stinks before the change mileage recommended by the maintenance manual, change the cabin air filter. If the engine air filter is dirty because you live and drive in a dusty area, change that one too.

 

Changing the cabin air filter is your prerogative, as it is just a comfort issue, and does not affect the vital mechanics of the car. You can always peek at it and see how much crud is in there. Maybe every year or 2 change it out.

The air filter you can take a peek at every 15k miles, but I believe the MM is set for it to roll over at 30k miles. MM doesn't sample the air, it doesn't even sample the oil. It's just a combination of miles, fuel used, engine and fudge factors. I'm sure you can reduce it's formulas to just 1-2 variables.

The design of the Fit's air filter is a modern low maintenance design. The air filter upside down, and has ducting and an airbox. All these help to separate out a lot of the particulates before they hit the filter itself as compared to much older air filter designs. This is how it can go 30k miles on 1 filter.
Even if the filter looks only slightly dirty greyed over, it still is providing plenty of airflow. If the filter is finally black, and the dirty goes all the way down into the pleats, then you should change the filter.

But hey, it's also your car. If it makes you feel better to change things, go for it.

 

And to follow up on that, the change alerts for the filters etc are different from the oil; so they should still flag unless you have reset them previously.

 

If you can outsmart Honda's engineers for your oil changes, outsmarting for other maintenance items should be a breeze.

 

What is this "maintenance schedule" you speak of? Have you read your manual?

All alerts are reset at the same time as the oil alert. The only way to reset them separately is if you have Honda's diagnostic system (HDS).

If you choose to ignore the mm, or reset it earlier than it calls for, you're on your own.

Not that it's rocket science.

I'd go with 1 year intervals on the cabin filter, and two years on the engine air filter, assuming you drive about 12,000 miles a year.

You've already opted for 6k oil changes. Not sure why. Depending on how you drive, 3k or 10K are also appropriate.

"tune ups" are a thing of the past. Plugs need changing @100K at which time you should also have the valves adjusted and serpentine belt replaced.

Coolant is almost permanent. I'd monitor the level in the overflow reservoir and top off with Honda's antifreeze. I'll probably do a drain fill on it at 100K

Automatic transmission service is a touchy subject. The mm would flag the first drain/fill after 100K but I chose to second guess the Honda engineers on this and do a drain/fill every 30k. If you do it yourself it's cheap.

 

I have 33k, and the minder has never come on. I reset the oil life when I do the changes, but nothing else has been reset.

 

I do it at 6k because of fuel mileage. I track my mileage and outside of the occasional spirited run, my habits and routes stay the same. After an oil change I usually see 40+ mpg and as its life decreases it as the miles rack. Usually by 6k the average is around 36 mpg. Since I do the work myself and I catch deals at the auto parts store, a 6k change is easy.

 

I don't reply to idiots.

 

Your "not replying" needs work.

 

Im probably will be doing mine every 7500. At my current rate of miles, the MM wont say anything until 12K miles lol. I have over 5500 miles and it shows 60% remaining. I use the Toyota 0W20 synthetic i buy at work, its cheap for 4 quarts under $20.

 

If you really are seeing a 10%+ difference with MPG due to an oil change, then you have a good logic to change the oil at that interval.

However, getting a 10% difference seems abnormally high. Even mobil1 afe which makes claims of fuel economy, only claims "up to" 2% MPG increase for oil, and that is mainly due to reduced friction during cold startup due to the 0w vs 5w spec, not due to degradation.

Either it's a placebo effect, or something really is going wrong with your old oil if it is degrading that badly over 6k miles or it's the wrong spec or something. If you still are seeing this behavior, I think it might be worthwhile for you to spend for an oil analysis.

I really can't give much other advice, as my strategy is to follow the 1/year change racking only about 6k/year on this car.

 

This is using Mobil 1 0w20, except for the last change I used Castrol Edge 0w20, I'm not seeing the same increase so it may be placebo, could be coinciding with weather changes. I don't particularly know how the MM decides when to drop in percentage so I prefer my 6k/semi-annual oil change. It gives me a chance to check everything out as well.

 

Engine revolutions with factors for how the thing is run, i.e. is how long at operating temperature to boil off water and other contaminants from the oil.

Anecdotal evidence from people reporting here indicates it varies the interval from 2,500 miles to over 10,000 miles consistent with peoples' driving profiles that would be considered "severe" or "normal." Oil analysis done by third parties lends weight to the argument the thing is effective at judging the correct oil change intervals.

One place it fails, is, if you wait for the "maintenance needed" light you've gone beyond the ideal mileage for tire rotations. It doesn't flag more frequent maintenance items separately from oil life, but tire rotation is about it.

It tracks transmission fluid life using similar logic.

Shop manual

NA Honda provides no maintenance schedule other than a few mileage references for maintenance when towing etc., in either the owner's manual and accompanying materials or the shop manual.

 

I think you are doing excessive maintenance and might have actually done some damage if you took the original oil out early. Honda specifically recommends against that. If you insist on changing the oil that early, why not let the mm run so that if will accurately tell you when to do all the other things the car needs and change the oil at 50% or at some arbitrary mileage interval?

 

Could you show me where Honda says that doing maintenance before it is required can cause damage?

 

this has been rehashed before in the "first oil change" mega thread.

Yes, honda does specifically say in the manual to not change the oil early.

However, what's up for debate is whether it's a simplification of combining break-in instructions together with MM instructions to keep from confusing our simple american minds.

I think practically you can reason that break-in occurs after a few thousand miles, and so say you go 5k miles, which is approximately over a million revolutions on the engine, everything that should be break in, should've done so by now. But the oil is still good, so why waste it, so there is no reason for Honda to give advice to change it early or write up a whole special case paragraph that explains break-in. So they say keep it in until the MM lights up.

Either way, it's your car do whatever you want. Maintenance threads spiral down into debates with people justifying what they do to maintain their car and trying to convince others to do what they do. But practically this is just a lot of hot air when really there is nobody asking for the advice.

 

I can see your point. My intentions are to increase the intervals for the oil change. I recall reading through the first oil change thread some time ago and my original justification for the first change at 6k came from people who reached 15% at or before 6k so if their engine was broken in my should be also. I was anxious to see if an oil change would increase my fuel economy which it did. I will have to look at my maintenance log, I think the weather along with my mind may have caused a placebo effect. As I mentioned I didn't see the same increase this time, but the change was in the middle of winter so maybe my mind was playing tricks on me in the past.

I am an engineer by trade so my OCD brain may not allow me to follow the MM. Based on my driving habits, I think the MM wouldn't reach 15% until over 10k and I'm not sure I can handle it

 

Also, by my calculation, if I assume that I travel at an average speed of 50 mph and an average engine speed of 2000 rpms, to complete 6,000 miles would take 120 hours meaning over 14 million revolutions. I never realized you could rack up so many revolutions so quickly!

 

Increases in MPG are also attributable to break-in. Mine continued to improve through 20K miles.

I agree with others that engine oil at best will only get a 2% increase, and that's if you go from petroleum (dino) oil to synthetic.