Peoples1234...Sent a foul mouthed private email to me. Peoples: Spare me the Al Gore save the world garbage. He was last seen floating out to sea on an iceberg. If you really cared about "Oil wastage", you would have bought an Insight, or better yet, a Nissan Leaf.

 

Do you remember what your MM oil life percent was? At 4,062- my guess is you're ok. If you drive normally your percentage should have been around 40 to 50%. Is it a catostrophic mistake to change then? I doubt it. I'm now at 20% with the break in oil, at 6,600 miles. When it hits 15%, I'm getting it changed. It may be just my imagination, but my Fit is running like it's close to needing it now. It's ever so less smooth, to me. Could be all in my head though. Regardless, 15% is long enough for me.

Kind of off topic to this-

How many go to the dealer for this? I won't be, but I'll be requesting my mechanic use Honda oil and filter. And if they have to order it, then what- higher price than I can get it? I gotta supply this shit to save bucks? But somehow I feel my mechanic may miss some of the usual tweaks the dealer may make at such time, unless I request it to be done. You know, all those maintanence sub categories. Unless a mechanic is up on Honda specific stuff, wouldn't a dealer know better? Know the tweaks and shit to do as time rolls along? On one hand I'd rather not go to the dealer. On the other, at least they're familiar with the Fit and all that needs tweaking.

A puzzlement!

Dan

 

I sent you a private email?

I guess I wasn't in the room when you typed it.

 

Shockwave..I usually try to go to a dealer for repairs and adjustments. Oil changes I usually do myself. I would be willing to have a dealer do the changes if: Their prices were anywhere near what it costs me to do it, and if I did not have to leave the car all day for it, which our dealers here want you to do. You are right, a trained Honda tech would most likely do a better job and catch small things before getting bigger.

 

I'm right there with ya. I'm on my3rd tank of gas, just over 1000 mi., and my minders reading 60%. I suspect that I'll be changing the oil before it gets down to 15% though as my service history book shows that my Fits pre-delivery inspection was conducted 11/17/08. This means the break-in oil has been in over a year, so I need to call the dealer to see what they think about getting the oil changed early.

 

To answer the ORIGINAL question - it is unlikely anything bad will come of changing the oil too frequently. The rest of the MM vs. Mileage debate is pointless.


The manual describes what all the MM codes mean (and thus the routine maintenance), so just let the mechanic know what you need done...any mechanic worth using should be able to do any of these items.

I have been going to my dealer for a long time...the price for routine maintenance is on par with other area mechanic prices and over the last 8 years/2 cars, they have proven very trustworthy...I have never had them try and sell me unnecessary repairs or maintenance tasks.

Speaking of which, basic maintenance stuff is a good way to "test drive" repair shops and see how they treat you, how clean the shop is, etc.

 

so true so true. i agree with all of this.
MM is just BS.

 

oh and another way to know for the people who
praise the MM.
when you change your oil at 10k+ send a sample
in and give us an analysis. especially for the ones
running regular oil. those results have got to be
interesting.

 

Interesting as to how much oil life is still left...I agree.

 

geez alot of people are so hostile around here. but... it gets the message thru... i like qbmurderer13 and i really like the way his car looks.. but peoples1234 is right here.. without proof you just have dogma basically.. and who will know these engines more then the manufacture.

for the first oil change try and keep it in as long as possible because it has that pre-manufacture fill which gives it that moly coat that Honda likes to brag so much about.

but after you take the first fill out, change it as often as you like. The first one is important because when honda designed these new engines they made it to get a good coat of moly for extra protection (which you may or may not ever need)

heres a video about it, its prety cool:
YouTube - i-VTEC Technology


and hey.. if you changed too early.. dont even worry about it. honda sells moly based oil in their motorcycle department, if i accidentally changed mine out too early, i might be putting some of that motorcycle oil in.

i mean.. i agree with qbmurderer13 as well.. but only after the first oil change. Peoples1234 is right in this situation by having manufacture evidence... and he has negative rep right now.. WTF (it seems like many people on this forum with the most logical proof of evidence reply's have a huge Negative Rep thing going on)

 

this thread is like beating a dead horse.

Summing up 3 pages:
some of us like the mm.
some like to count miles.
you didnt hurt your fit.

have a nice day.

 

Actually I noticed that the oil meter on the car is pretty accurate. I change my oil at around 18%-20% oil life, thats roughly 5000 miles. Does anyone know how the meter calculates the oil life? Is it just by mileage?

 

Like someone posted above, you can always get the oil tested and they will suggest running the oil longer or shorter. I used to blindly follow the 3K mile oil change rule and later realized I was wasting my money.

My older car is a 1999 Subaru Outback with about 170K miles on it. After having the oil tested 3 times in a row, I found my sweet spot was about 8000 miles between changes.

Personally on the Fit I will stick with a combination of the MM and the results from a few oil tests. My fit currently only has about 2000 miles on it and I'm at 80% on the MM. I drive mainly freeway at speeds under 70mph.

 

Interesting, my dealer was exactly the opposite. MM showed "A" and "1" (oil change-- not filter, and rotate tires.) They wanted to do 10 other things as their "10,000 mile service." I said I wanted to follow the MM, and by extension the recommedations of the manufacturer. A circular argument ensued.

Incidentally, I've always subscribed to the Costanza rule on dealer service: "Yeah right, I'm gonna get my car repaired at a dealership. Why don't I just flush my money down the toilet?" However, I thought the MM might eliminate the upsell. Wrong. I'm writing a nasty missive to Honda about the experience.

 

Why in the world would you not change the filter when doing an oil change? They are not that expensive. And shame on those who still take their car to the dealerships after the hundreds of horror stories about the knucklehead technicians making minor mistakes causing catastrophic damage. Don't take my word for it? Do the research.

 

Why go through the trouble of arguing with the technicians, having to wait for hours for a simple maintenance job, worrying if the techs are taking your car on too many test drives, getting their greasy fingerprints all over the car, wondering if they used the correct oil, changed the filter and replaced the crush washer, remembered to put the oil fill cap back on, or getting their free swirl inducing car wash and screwing up your paint. I've seen all of these happen MANY times. A guy I knew took his S2000 in for an oil change and they totalled it during the test drive. Another dealer forgot to refill my moms car with oil and sent her on her way with no oil.

I don't know about you people, but I rather save myself the time, and money, and do my own work at my own leisure. This way I can ensure the work is being done properly and my car is being taken care of. The peace of mind is worth it.

 

I'm with qb on this. I change every 7,500 miles with full synthetic and a wix filter, no matter what the mm says.

 

Do what u please. I've seen people changing their oil at every 20k, filling gas with the car on, driving a brand new expensive car with cheap wheels and tires, parking a Hummer in "compact car only" section, a young asian male driving a Ford Mustang... Whatever it is, who care? It's their car not mine

 

When I hit 5K miles I had to take my '10 AT Basic Fit back to Honda to get some warranty work done on my windshield washer motor, which had frozen and cracked during this past winter due to water being in the res rather than good washer fluid.
I asked the service manager then if I should get an oil change (my first), and he replied no because with the MM saying I still had 50% oil effectiveness left it would just be a waste of my $$!

Now I'm a little over 6K, and the MM still says 40% good oil.

I have a friend who taught auto mechanics at a trade school, and he says today's cars are far more efficient in operation and generally do not require as frequent oil changes as was the old standard (from the 1950's really..) of every 3K miles.

We also have an '03 Toyota Echo and that's at about 100k miles now, and I've only changed the oil on that car the recommended 5 or 6k miles, and she still runs as sweetly and well as ever!

But hey, do what you will. YMMV of course... I drive conservatively; maybe you like to floor the pedal alla time and race around with the engine always roaring? Or maybe you live and ride in dusty or foul conditions? (Or maybe even you just like to waste oil and money?)

 

You are confused. Not one person on here mentioned changing the oil every 3,000 miles. For most people the MM recommends an oil change without replacing the filter at or about 10,000 miles. The argument I and others have been making is that this is still too long to go without an oil change and to reuse the old oil filter. This side of the argument suggests changing the oil AND oil filter somewhere around the 7,500 mile mark just to be safe and to extend the life of the motor. Please re-read the posts to get a better understanding of what the arguments are.