I have a Canadian base model Fit and I just hit 3,000km (that's 1,864 miles) and my oil life reached 0%! What a frickin joke. It's now counting the km backwards and flashing ALL the time. It is so annoying. It's overkill.

The thing is, I drive really carefully, taking off from lights and stop signs reasonably (I actually try to beat my fuel efficiency rating after each fill). I read the posts in this thread and people say they've driven much more than I have and are only at like 50%. I mean, it wants an oil change after 3000km? In my Civic I did them every 8,000 km (~5,000 miles). What's up with this?

Should I reset that stupid oil life meter? I don't want it blinking and the giant orange wrench lit up for the next 5,000 km!

 

i just hit 60% with 2884 on the clock right now

 

that's weird. sounds like a bug. i'd ask the dealership. You would have to mash your car all the time to get it to read that low so quickly.

 

If you guys did the oil analysis, it would end the debate. Here are two examples from the fit of why you should change the break in oil early:

The first car was at 50% at 5500 miles



And another:

 

I suspect the purpose of leaving the break-in oil in place is to do just that; break things in with mild abrasion. Now the point where that becomes waaaaay too much of a good thing is another question altogether.
Moon

 

70% at 2100 miles.

 

I got my first oil change today...at the dealer (1/2 price for the first one).
My gauge said 50% at 5200 miles.

I really don't care if I'm doing it twice as often as the car seems to think it needs. Cheap peace of mind for me.

Every 5K for me please...

 

ditto same here all the way

 

I'm at 90% with about 2100 miles. I'm not driving it hard because I am trying to conserve gas. I will still change the first oil within 5000 miles and likely use the meter after that because I will be going to full synthetic. 20% seems to be the number to change at from what I have read.

 

Hard acceleration is only one factor. One of the hardest things on an engine, and its oil, is short trips. When the engine doesn't get hot enough to "boil off" some of the contaminants in the oil, the oil suffers.

 

I will post here when the % will reach 15% since the dealer told me to come back (2 free oil changes) once I reach 15%.

Now, if something goes wrong because one follows the recommendations, it is Honda's fault, isn't it?

I am also old school and I do not care much of all these electronic gadgets that are just asking for more trouble.

I already have my TMPS light on and I got this 5 miles when I left the dealership.

I agree also that a temperature gauge would be much helpful than the oil change sensor.

Now, I have a question though. DO YOU GET BETTER MILEAGE WITH SYNTHETIC?

Right now, I am getting 39-40 mpg on the state road driving 55-65 mph. The computer says 45-47 mpg though. Another unreliable sensor!
I am keeping a log book with mileage and how much gas I put in the car.
I will publish these later.
I am driving 2000 miles a month, so this is easy to monitor.


Serge

 

Does anyone have a notion of what logic the Hondameter uses? They sure as hell don't have little lab rats running around under the hood analyzing the oil.
Moon

 

I don't know that you get better miliage with synthentic, but it is better for the engine. It is a preventive maintenance type of thing. I used it for the life of my last car. The car broke down a lot because it was poorly designed. But the problems were never the engine or oil related. Mostly fuel pumps and lots of alternators.

Take the car back to the dealer for the TPMS light. They did not calbrate the tire sensors during dealer prep. It takes about 10-15mins to fix. They have to let the air out of each tire rapidly and then re-inflate. Wierd process, I know.

 

It calculates oil life based on how hard you drive the car (RPMs) and how many miles driven. If you jam on it all the time, the percentage of life goes down faster. Drive like an old blue hair, it goes down slower.

 

I'd bet length of engine burn/number of startups are also factored in.
Then again, maybe they just guess.
Moon

 

My TPMS was on all winter due to no sensors in the winter rims.
Went out within half a block with the summers.
Is it the actual letters 'TPMS' that are lit, or the slice-of-tire with the exclamation point?
Moon

 

As you would expect, higher rpm's 'grind' up the oil faster so the viscosity drops faster.
We see pretty much a correlation between higher rpm and faster % oil life drop. In summer, our % drops probably 25% faster tan in winter.
Incidently, if Honda is truly measuring viscosity drop as predictor of oil life (and it is) they could measure pressure drop across a known section and convert to viscosity/oil life.

 

Does used oil in fact become less viscous, or just dirty; in extreme cases, sludge?
Moon

 

The oil itself becomes less viscous, meaning the chemical 'chains' that are the composition of opils get shorter. Heat and pressure breaks down those chains into shorter lengths.
Sludge is another matter. As it circulates thruogh the engine the oil picks up dirt, metal particles, and other chemicals (mostly oxidized lubricants and combustion products) that are then carrried in suspension by the oil, like fine glass beads in water. The suspensioned particulates are called sludge and is primarily what the oil filter removes from the oil stream. Some of them can, and do, settle out on the bottom of your oil pan if left long enough. If left in the engine the metakl parts will wear very quickly.
As the oil viscosity reduces, there comes a time that the oil no longer has the strength to thin out & keep metals apart and thats why it must be replaced. The oil filter gets replaced because it 'fills up' with the sludge it takes out of the oil.
If you want an experiment, try a home-made method of detrermining 'viscosity. A can with a very small hole drilled in the middle of the bottom is all you need. Viscosity is measured by the time it takes for a known quanity of fluid to drain through the hole. Stopwatch the time to drin the can always filled to the same level and the thinner the fluid the less viscous, meaning the thinner fluid drains quicker than thicker or more viscous fluid.
Be sure to filter out any 'sludge' from used oil and compare to fresh oil. Its a good classroom science experiment.
You can weigh oil filters. too. One used 50 miles will weigh a lot less than one used 4000 miles.

 

FWIW - the "customer education" person at my Honda dealer (the one who goes over the car with you, before you drive away) said to do the first oil change at 3,500 miles, not 3,000 as the manual says (though I haven't looked at that part of the book yet).

She also said not to use the cruise control for 3K miles (now that's confusing!).

My BSM went to 90% the other night, and the car has less than 1K miles on it. But then again, I like to save my brakes by downshifting more often than most drivers...