I hate to ask the obvious but why is the Owners Manual so insistent on me not changing the oil early? I think i'm going to have to listen to it even though my gut tells me different.

 

just do it whenever you want. there are so many mixed feeling here its
unreal. i have a little over 10K on mine and i have changed my oil
4 times already.
the oil life meter just told me to change my oil at 10k. ha i don't think so.
to me it's just peace of mind. and to each his or her own.
just my 2 cents.

 

Although the manual has it's recommendation on oil changes....absolutely do what you want. I'm following the 15% rule (change when meter is at 15%), but I only drive on highways, so I have very little stop and go.

If you follow the manual, and something happens, it should be covered under your warranty. I know a lot of folks that do everything by the manual, to include having the dealer change their oil, and once the warranty has expired - then they do their own thing.

I follow the service recommendations, but I don't have the dealer change my oil.

 

If you read Dilbert in the comics you'll know that marketing is not the most trustworthy department in any organization. They are selling and the purpose is to appear to have the most maintance free vehicle so the unwashed will buy it.
Lying is allowed legally under terms of 'puffery'.
Regardless of marketing hype, if you don't have a viscometer handy the best rule is to change oil AND FILTER at 3000 miles if you're using 'conventional oils and 6000 miles for synthetics like Mobil 1.
Conventional oils will go more than 3000 miles but the filter capacity may not - note they are small so startup oil pressures reaches minimum as quickly as possible for longer engine life - and synthetics have the same limitation, just longer than conventional oils because they don't enerate as much burned up oil as conventional oils. Heat and pressure do that to any lubricant..

 

I was pretty much told flat out by the service mgr at my local dealer to go strictly by the maintenance minder. I was a little surprised. I used to change my oil in my WRX RELIGIOUSLY at 3k miles with full synthetic.

 

You brought out a very good point that needs more coverage: turbocharged engines put a lot more wear and tear on oil than the usual engines and the WRX is certainly one. Changing synthetics and filter at 3000 to 4000 miles is the standard that should be followed on tubo and supercharged engines.

The harder you work your engine or the less you use it the more you need synthetics and the more often you need to change oil and filter.

 

Very good post. Oil is CHEAP and so are filters. It only takes about 20 minutes (at a leisurely pace) to do an oil and filter change, and the required tools cost less than $20.

I've had my Sport MT since October 10th/'08 and have now racked up nearly 30,000 kms. (Over 20,000 miles) due to LOTS of highway driving and a few trips in excess of 1000--- and even 3000--- kms each way. At first I let the oil life meter take me all the way up to 9500kms (almost 6000 miles). At this point the meter read 60% oil life remaining. I know highway miles and frequent use allow oil condition to remain safe longer than short trips and long parking periods do but this seemed ridiculous, especially considering the very dark-brown/black color of the oil.

I changed the oil and filter (and switched to synthetic) and now change the oil every 5000 miles (8000 kms) regardless of what the meter reads. I'm guessing that either a) As you mentioned, Honda wants the world to believe their cars are cleaner than everyone elses' or b) Honda wants to sell a few more cars in the future, when these neglected ones die at 300,000 kms rather than the usual 350,000 kms. (the latter of course would be retarded because if the cars don't last as long fewer people will want them).

One more point: AVOID CHEAP OIL FILTERS. Seriously. Fram (and otherwise-labeled filters made by them and sold just about everywhere) are the worst, with cheap, glued-on elements that occasionally rupture during warm-up on cold days (due to the thicker cold oil). This puts bits of filter element into the system, where it can clog oil passages and then oil-starve bearings and such. Goodbye engine.

And guess what? If this happens Honda won't replace your engine under warranty because it's Fram's fault, and Fram will make you take them to court rather than cave and pay up. The cost, inconvenience, time and stress isn't worth the bother even if you do win--- a daunting task since proving that the fibers clogging your engine's oil passages came from the filter is a difficult task at best.

Buying your filters only from the dealer? Beware---- while some dealer networks sell only decent-quality filters (and always at a steep price) others sell cheap Fram filters painted blue or some other color and with the auto manufacturer's name stamped on the outside. Oh, and these sheep in wolves' clothing filters are sold at double the price you'd pay at a parts store. For example, Mazda in the US sells decent filters, but the filters they sold in Canada as recently as one year ago (and maybe still do) are five-dollar Fram filters painted blue and marked up to $10. (yes, I did cut one open to confirm).

Fram DOES make one filter that's acceptable, but its steep price usually eclipses that of everyone else's best filters, which are at least as good and often better than Fram's "best." I use Napa Select filters (also known as Napa Silver). They are made by Wix, the best filter manufacturer on the continent, bar none. The price of these filters are in line with that of Fram's cheapest ones and available everywhere---- because Napa is everywhere in North America. And these aren't even Napa's top-of-the-line filters--- the Napa Gold filter is better, but twice the price and therefore not necessary considering the excellent quality and efficiency of the Silver (Select) filter. Maybe spring for the Gold if you're using you car for proffessional endurance-type racing, but otherwise...

Oh, and change the filter at EVERY oil change, not just every other change as sometimes recommended by manufacturers. Filters are CHEAP. It's worth the extra five bucks and five minutes of your time to change them with every oil change.

(steps down from soap box)

 

Interesting. Having breen thru Fram and purolator factories, and having torn down dozens of those plus Wix filters to measure not just filtering capability but also pressure drop, we can't say there's enough difference between the Fram, Purolator, and Wix to say one's better. The overlap between weight filtered from standard mix,and the pressure drop isn't significant.
The one difference that is possible is the dependence of pressure drop on the area of the filter media. Pressure drop is very important to engine protection and performance (better be showing 10 psi thousand rpm; at least up to 7000 rpm. we'd like to go further to simulate some motorcycle and really high tech vehicle engines but haven't had time.).
fram does make racing filters as does Wix but they aren't your typical aftermarket filter. Very good filtration at very high rpm with low pressure drop. All our race cars use those filters for the same reason NASCAR engine builders do.

 

Yep. I know that one of Honda's goals was to make the 09 Fit more appealing to women. As such the maintenance minder is really good because then they don't have to rely on memory to get their car serviced. Women are historically terrible about taking care of their cars so I think the maintenance minder helps with the goal of making the car female friendly.

Also, the bottom line is engines and engine oil are designed these days to go much farther between oil changes. It was Jiffy Lube who started the whole 3,000 mile oil change, and if you don't think they were doing that soley for business means then you're quite naive. I would not think about changing my oil before 5,000 miles at a minimum, and if it's synthetic I would double that number. Any sooner and it's a waste of money and the enviornment.

 

Filtering capability and pressure drop are of course important, and if those were the only issues the filter chosen would be of little consequence. The problem is with those filters that are of questionable construction. Oil filters experience extreme abuse when the engine is started at say, -30C when the oil (specifically dinosaur oil as opposed to synthetics) has the consistency of molasses.

If the filter element is weak and the end caps are cardboard rather than stronger materials the likelihood of said materials being ruptured and then having bits of material clog oil passages becomes a very relevant concern. I'm sure nine out of ten cheap Fram filters can tolerate these extreme conditions. It's the one in ten that can't that keeps me from ever using them. I've heard too many horror stories to change my tune on this issue.