I've looked in the owner's manual and cannot find an exact mileage for the oil change. Just mentions going with the "oil life" indicator in the dash. Currently the indicator reads at 50% and the current mileage on the car is 5657 miles.

The previous vehicles I have owned were sports cars and I am used to changing my oil every 3000-4000 miles, so I am a bit confused on when I should actually change the oil on the Fit.

I am wondering when I should do the first oil change? I know Honda doesn't run synthetic oil in their vehicles, and I am a bit paranoid about the conventional oil being able to accommodate the engines lubrication needs for this many miles. I mean if I wait till the oil indicator drops down to 20% it will have roughly 8000 miles.

 

Oil change every 8000miles/5000km nowadays is safe rule of thumb unless otherwise stated.

 

Go by the manual. Many here have changed at 8K-10K miles I'm at 40% and 7700 miles.

oh.. and before you get jumped all over by others on the forum... use the search to see the number of times this has been discussed. There's alot of useful info there including Oil analysis that prove 10K on an oil change is fine.

Shouldn't that be the reverse? 8000 miles is about 12,000Km.

Welcome to the Forum.

~SB

 

yeah just hit 3500 miles on mine, and i had nothing but sports cars as well in the past where i changed it at 3k perfectly, its so odd waiting so long before actually changing the oil...

but yeah iam going to wait untill indicator hits 15% or 10k miles whichever comes first.

 

At the risk of making you schizo, the manual warns against changing the oil early the first time:

 

I change at 30% I'd rather be safe than sorry

 

I picked up my Fit Thursday. It has a sticker on the inside of the windshield (where a normal oil change sticker would be) and says something like:

"Congadulations on your new purchase, first servcie at 5,000 miles."

My plan is to have it serviced at 5K, then follow the oil life indicated after that.

 

haha thanks but I've already read that part too.

Ya I have that also, it says first oil change and tire rotation at 5000 miles. It's from the dealership I bought the car from. However, I do all the work on my vehicles myself as I have all the equipment needed to do such tasks, and for the most part I only take a car in for alignment and tire mounting. I would like to avoid the dealership at all costs.

 

I changed the factory oil at 2400 miles. Of course it's all a matter of opinion. I thought it's a cheap insurance. My brother works as a honda tech at a delership and he never heard of the special break in oil. It's most likely regular mineral penzoil.

I don't see how it can hurt to drain the original oil erlier (it probably does have increased metal content). No big deal either way but I feel better knowing it's fresh oil that's mixing there at high rpm.

 

I'm at 50% and just hitting 4k. At about 8k, I should be ready. The gauge seems to be right on the money, so I have increased confidence that following it and not getting antsy is the way to go. The gauge also seems to be accurately reflecting driving habits too.

And really, I'm in the camp that searching on a topic before posting is a must. There is a wealth of info here already. Just the title of this thread is enough to make ones blood boil. There's just too much here on this over- worked topic.

Dan

 

For whatever it's worth, my dealer-placed sticker says "First service due at 7500 miles". When I got to 7500 miles, I called another Honda dealer that has some great reviews online for their service dept, and the guy told me that I didn't need to bring it in until the maintenance minder lights came on.

 

Search oil analysis, first oil change, maintenance minder and read the ensuing chaos.

Then, IMO, Read your owners manual and follow it.

The factory oil contains additives (molybdenum, boron and a few others IIRC) that should remain in the engine as long as possible.

I feel that after break in (25k miles or so on newer Hondas), change your oil as often as you like; there is data, however, that shows that cars with oil changed more frequently than needed have higher catastrophic failure rates in the long run (fleet studies). Why, I would have no idea. If you change your engine oil more frequently than the Maintenance Minder tells you to I would not reset the oil life until the codes display the recommendations at 15%. The codes mean things and should be done at least as often as they are recommended.

Honda's philosophy of ownership involves low cost of ownership and reduced environmental impact. Changing one's oil more frequently than needed counteracts both goals.

b

 

Don't waste money and oil, change it when the Maintenance Minder tells you to, which is at 15%.

 

He's too modest to mention it, but rhyneba works at a Honda dealer, so one may assume that he knows what he is talking about. From an earlier post:

Having grown up in the 3 months or 3000 miles days, it makes me extremely uncomfortable to do this (currently showing 30% at 7229 miles) but I'm going to do what he says. Most people seem to hit 15% between 8000 and 10,000 miles, although there are outliers. However, even if it adds to the cost, I'm going to insist on a new filter at first oil change, which I will have done by a dealer. After that, they're all mine, using my choice of oil.

 

Not with the amount of moly that is shown of some of the analysis's I have seen posted here....Pennz has nowhere near that amount of moly in their oils


BG

 

Engine assembly lube.

I've posted this before and I'll do it again. Engine oil get better with age.

 

I have read excerpts from this study but have never read the whole thing. I will buy it if nobody here has access to it. ++REPS on the link.

 

Honda's big on moly. Using a fairly high moly oil might not be a bad idea for the obsessive. Take a look at bitog to see which oils are higher in moly. Most any conventional or synth has at least a bit of moly and boron in it to take the place of falling zddp levels. I did my first couple of changes at about 7 or 8k miles. This last time I tossed in M1 0W20 and refuse to change before MM tells me to. Good oil + easy on oil engine + 99% steady-state highway miles = no worries.

 

Changed my original oil at 3k, and I'll be waiting till 10k to change it again to make it even intervals. The oil that came out at 3k was very good looking for break in oil. Running Mobil 1 5W20 ESP formula with a Mobil 1 filter.

 

I, too, bit my nails and obsessed about running the car for so long with the break-in oil in it. I flies in the face of everything I've been told all my life. In the end, I figured that the designers and builder of the car MIGHT know a bit more about this than I do. I finally broke down and changed my oil the first time at 10,300 miles (20% left). I changed the filter, too, but then, I'm a firm believer in changing the filter every oil change.

I now have almost 18,000 miles on the car, and the engine runs smooth and strong and doesn't burn a drop of oil.