HI everyone , I'm pretty new to this forum and fit's in general , just bought an imported 2012 fit ,second hand with 50,000 KM on it (i'm from New Zealand) ,
I was very keen to try using the MM for doing the maintenance on my car as i have never had a car with one , however when I cycle through the dash display I
only get total KM, Average fuel / KM , Range ,trip , I cannot get the oil life indicator .and was wondering if some models do not have this feature , or has it been disabled ,
the dealer I got it from told me to do the oil every 5,000 KM and oil and filter every 10,000 KM , I intend to do all the servicing myself as i am a mechanic of sorts .
does anyone know about this problem ?

Thanks

 

I have a USA '11 Sport auto trans (in USA) and my % oil life is in the rotation when I cycle through the in-dash display.

I think you can use 0W-20 synthetic oil and I was told that my Maintenance Minder (MM) calculates % oil life according to that oil type. The MM would have me change it every 15,000 km (~9000 miles) if my conversion is correct. I think it is way too long of an interval, so I change it every ~7,000 miles (4500 km) since I do it when I see the oil life at ~15%. I live in the northeast, so snow / ice / rain play a part when I want to crawl under a car. That is way everything is approximately, which means weather dependent.

I guess I would change it more often if you use regular oil.

Welcome aboard.

 

You are not changing oil because it is worn out. You are changing oil to get rid of the pollutants in Synthetic or non-synthetic oil, it makes no difference. Just follow the maintenance minder and use the correct weight oil. It is interesting that Honda recommends filter change on every second oil change. So I opened a used one up to see how much was collected in it. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing after 9000 miles. I buy filters by the case so they are cheap. For that reason I change the filter on every oil change.

 

OK thanks but what I really wanted to know was do some models have the MM disabled and can it be re-enabled , or do some models just not come with the MM installed

I'm pretty up to spec on maintaining my car's

Thanks

 

K-Fruit:
I typed in the following 2012 honda FIT Maintenance Minder disabled into Goggle and read a thread about 2012 UK Honda Insights where the dealer was disabling the Maint Minder (MM) because customers must have been complaining about the frequency of the messages. They told customers to come back once per yr for service.

The original poster took his new Insight back to the dealer and they "activated" the MM.

Sounds like a possibility that a dealer could turn yours back on. Worth a call / visit.

 

This is the first I hear of a Fit/Jazz not having the MM.
My 2013 MT Fit (made in China for the Canadian market) included the MM, however I don't have the estimated range option, even though I reset the trip monitor after every fuel-up so that I get the average fuel mileage per tank.

Here's my experience on oil changes:

I drove my Fit 16,000 km of mixed city/hwy and mixed summer/winter weather over a period of 9 months on synthetic 0W20 oil and sent a sample to Blackstone labs after an oil change (at 20% life on the dash).
The test results were great for wear metals and remaining additives, and I received a recommendation to try up to 20,000 km next time. This matched perfectly with the Fit's oil monitor, as I had noticed it dropped 10% oil life at every 2,000 km.
I still change the oil around 15%, when the light comes on, but it's great to know that it would be safe until 0%.
And to think that many people still change their oil at 5,000 km (3,000 miles). It makes perfect financial sense for a dealer / mechanic to recommend that. But ultimately you should only trust the recommendations of the engineers that designed the car (objective source) and not the dealers & mechanics that have their own financial interests to look after (subjective source of info).

When I performed this experiment, I kept shifting gears up at 3,000 rpm almost every time.
Since then, I've started driving more "fun", shifting more often at 4,000 rpm, and revving up to redline a few times a week and I've noticed the MM drops 10% for every 1,500 km now. It's definitely variable and takes into account your driving conditions, not simply a distance tracker like the early oil life monitors.

If you use synthetic oil, I'd recommend 10,000-15,000 km or every 12 months if you don't drive much. With conventional dyno oil, I think you should be fine in the 7,500 - 10,000 km range, or every 6-9 months if you don't drive much. Dyno oil oxidizes faster, may have less additives and is likely to sludge faster.

Although Honda says to change the filter every other oil change, I don't think it's worth while to do that, especially since filters are relatively cheap (I buy the M1 EP filter for around $15 when it goes on sale). I'd stay away from the crappy paper/cardboard ones (like classic Fram).

 

OK so I went to the Honda dealer today and asked them if there's a way to enable the MM , but they said that only certain models have it , so they said I should book in for a service with them at specified intervals , the technician didn't seem very knowledgeable about the whole thing , now i'm really wanting to know what the story is .
Is there any Kiwi Fit owners out there that have the MM working .

Thanks , will do more research

 

In my travels, I'll stop at our local dealer and ask but I'm in USA. I always wanted to ask about changing the interval. Maybe there is a higher authority at national level that knows more. Does HONDA NZ have a website versus getting / sitting on the phone?

You would think that most of a car's basics, like the computer / programming, is more or less standard since it is sold worldwide. Maybe the can dig deeper into it once you get face-to-face. Hopefully it can be programmed for you.

 

You mentioned the car is imported, but omitted the country of origin. Maybe sharing that would help the fitfreak community give you a relevant answer on whether it's possible to activate the MM or not.

Also, I get that you are looking forward to doing your own maintenance on the car and wanted to have the MM as a guide. However, in all honesty, that MM isn't anything that special, other than the fact it uses a pretty smart & accurate algorithm to estimate the oil life. All the other maintenance items that it provides are likely simply based on the overall odometer mileage, and not on any algorithm using driving parameters like the oil life.

So other than the oil changes, everything else can still be performed simply by following the owner's manual. Even with the MM you will get some letter-number code (like "B-2") that you still have to refer to the owner's manual to see what it means.

Since you will do all the maintenance yourself, I bet you know what you're doing and will likely be pro-active in maintaining all parts before they literally break apart or have "something" tell you when to do them.

For oil changes, I'd recommend looking if there's any oil labs in NZ and send them a sample after you drive 10,000 km. That would be your best bet in determining the OCI for your car, oil & driving conditions. Whatever you do, don't change it 5,000 km unless that's all you drive in 1 year.

 

First of all, let me cut to the chase and say I don't know.
In the USA, I think all Honda Fits are sold with a working and activated Maintenance Minder system. It's existence is certainly documented in the owners manual.

I've never heard of anyone NOT having one, or it disappearing or being de-activated.

I have no idea if Fit or Jazz sold elsewhere might NOT have the maintenance minder feature.

I would actually try calling Honda...they might be the only entity that could really give you a definitive answer. I don't know the number of available Honda Dealers in New Zealand, but even calling a different dealership might find you the answer.

I'd be interested now to know myself, as I've never heard of any Fits without the feature.

 

https://www.honda.co.nz/contact-us/

 

OK I have emailed Honda head office and am now waiting their reply , the car was imported from japan , I will let you all know how it all ends up ,
this could be useful to people how are in a similar situation and for people who wan't to disable their MM

Thanks

 

You probably got a JDM GE6 Honda Fit.
None of the GE6 I've seen got the Maintenance Minder.
All of the GE8 got it.

Please check which Fit you got

 

I was wondering how you ended up on this adventure.

 

I'm in South Africa...

My mother has a GE without the MM and I have a 2017 GK5 which also has no MM.

I believe my digital display is also slightly different to the US models.

 

Ok, just wondering

Isn't the internet a great thing: SA, NZ, USA

 

OK I've moved house and changed jobs so i have been real busy and forgot to post ,
It seems that my fit has no MM , I looked at the back of the fuse box and the plug which is for the mm has nothing in it (J) it was labelled
so now I just do a change every 10,000 KM now ,I live in the country so it's all open road driving now .
the dealer was totally useless .
Thanks guys .

 

With open country road driving, if you're using synthetic oil you can easily extend the OCI to 16,000 km. I've done the oil test and they said it could have lasted until 20,000km for my 50% city 50% highway driving.

Unless you're driving like you stole it and redline at every gear shift, or run dyno oil, there's really no need to change at 10,000 km.