Please read below and let me know if you have different thoughts.

It's my understanding that Honda Maintenance Minder (MM) utilizes pre-defined calculation algorithm using your driving profile and other various standard parameters read off the car sensors and other estimated (aka assumed) values to arrive at oil life left, that it DOES NOT actually sample various fluid involved ( oil , transmission fluid, coolant , etc ).

I believe MM has limitations. The algorithm probably has enough buffer built in to account for wide range of driving styles, but I believe one crucial missing piece is that there is NO real sampling capability within MM to determine the quality of the oil (or other fluid). I believe MM is going off key assumptions (like when you reset the MM, you have poured in new oil, etc... and typical new oil has xyz longevity in certain conditions) to derive various calculated "life left" values.

Of course, all of above is my own "guestimates" as I could not find any reference to how Honda Maintenance Minder works internally.

In short, what does it all mean? I consider MM to be trustworthy as long as all the engine components are working within the spec. However, if you are skeptical of the MM calculation, validate via other means - such as engine oil analysis, and checking transmission fluid, etc. But most of all, if your common sense tells you something is a miss or if you feel uncomfortable following MM schedule, you should follow your "minder"

 

Haha you are correct. There is no diagnostic testing laboratory built into the Fit nor its maintenance minder system.

 

you're pretty much on target with everything. It doesn't analyze the oil, it does do mass numbers of calculations based upon algorithms, and it does require oil to be put in when the MM is reset. Oil isn't really a variable since 5w20 or 0w20 is based upon standards. it has specific properties and specific reactions to environmental variables.

The beauty of this is that they got it right. There are a number of individuals on this forum who have sent off oil samples to Blackstone labs with the MM at 15% or lower and if I remember correctly, they've all come back that they could have gone much further on the oil in the car.

~SB

 

Neither do I. So I trust MM's calculations over my own.

 

The crux of your concern is you *feel* that somehow there are a ton of different variables that will end up affecting the lifespan of oil and lifespan will vary drastically.

But in reality, oil life is really not that complex.
Even though MMs (honda GM and others) actually measures a bunch of different variables, you could actually achieve pretty much a very good correlation to oil life just by measuring just 1-2 variables such as fuel consumption and temperature.

All the other variables that go into the calculation much less significantly, so just error on the side of caution and turn on the light that much sooner.
Nobody needs an exact measurement anyway.

The fact that it measures more variables gives some fine tuning, but even if they had the "worst" value possible, it probably won't even skew the result that much.

 

You know, I was a bit skeptical of the MM at first -- it was setting me up for over 10kmi oil changes. I could have ignored it and went with a 3000 mi or 5000 mi interval, but I decided to test it. I sent samples of oil to Blackstone (1st and 2nd changes), and the results were good -- my 2nd sample was at 11,000 miles on the oil, 5% on the MM, and Blackstone said I could go longer. That was enough proof for me that the MM was fine to follow.

For the amount I drive, I end up changing the oil once every 9-12 months -- I use synthetic oil for the peace of mind and it's not a huge amount of added cost.