Not a car guy and too old to get under the hood so to speak.

So the book says use

(1) Genuine Honda Motor Oil • Premium-grade 0W-20 detergent oil with an API Certification Seal on the container.

(2) Oil Filter 15400-RTA-003

Dealership is in excess of $50.00 and they specifically say they it will cost more for synthetic oil. So I contacted a few Honda advertised shops around town online (Las Vegas, NV) and they all responded through Yelp. What's that about? Anyway the best response said this:

One of the responses was for $39.00 parts/ labor for the oil change including a Honda OEM oil filter. The synthetic oil was not the specific grade OW-20 but rather a generic synthetic oil. Any red flags with the generic synthetic oil? How does that deal sound?

 

I do my own with Mobil 1 Extended Performance and a Wix filter for less than $40. If you can't do it yourself, just take it to Honda; or buy the oil and filter and let a shop use your provided parts for a small fee. It's important to use a high quality oil.

 

Thanks for replying. So as mentioned the shop says they use a Honda OEM filter so in that respect I should feel comfortable with that answer. I know that all synthetic oil is not equal. I have a question into them asking what type of synthetic oil they use but have not heard back. If they answer back with a particular generic synthetic oil brand are you aware of any that I should steer clear of? Since the dealership made it clear that there price is more if I want synthetic oil (grade 0W-20) though I have yet to ask what the final cost would be it seems that it could easily be double what the Honda shop is asking at $39 all in. TIA,

 

Any major brand full synthetic 0w-20 oil will be fine.

 

Agree with JorbNorb- but note that a lot of places use oil changes as a loss-leader. A filter is $5+ and the oil is around $15 (these are retail prices- 10 quarts of Costco brand 0W20 is $30).

 

Thanks for responding. Not a Costco member but I believe it is a 5% surcharge to shop there. Walmart seems to sell it as well at 0W-20 and here

Walmart does not seem to sell Honda filters from Walmart.com and I would want it shipped store or warehouse to store to avoid 3rd party retailer shipping fees. I am still undecided on whether or not to take it to the dealer for the first oil change and pay the extra for the OW-20 synthetic just to get a base price and then afterwards comparison shop when I need the next oil change. Would you happen to have any ballpark idea what the labor might be if I were just to go into one of the Honda advertised shops around town and I brought my own filter and oil? The legwork involved might just not be enough of a motivation for me. If I was 50 years younger well that's another story : )

 

Just a clarification. The car calls for 0w-20, and 0w-20 only comes in synthetic. If you put any type if conventional oil in, it won't be the weight called for by Honda. Something to keep in mind if someone claims they can use conventional oil to keep the cost down.

 

As far as I have seen all 0W20 is high quality - it is all equally good. Even the Walmart and Costco house brand 0W20 oils (which come from the same refinery) are well thought of. The only problem that I've heard of is some of the oil change places substituting the wrong grade of oil without the customers permission. Perhaps they don't carry 0W20 and decided to just use the next grade they do have in stock - which is not acceptable. I suspect this was more of a problem years ago when 0W20 wasn't commonly stocked. It's something to watch out for and to make sure an oil change place understands they cannot sub.

Honda oil filters have to be bought direct from Honda or from places like Amazon which is what I did when I bought a case of 6. I do my own oil changes. For warranty purposes you're best to stay with the Honda filter initially.

If you want to know the cost of an oil change at Honda just phone and ask them. It's a set rate since they're constantly doing them. Dealer to dealer though can be slightly different because of different labor rates. If you do go to the dealer watch out for upsells. "The mechanic noticed that your air filter needs to be replaced and we can do that for you for $$$" nonsense is the game they play at my dealership.

 

I agree

 

And it's not like the Honda oil filter is special for the car. Considering Honda recommends changing the filter only every other oil change, and everyone replaces it every oil change, I'd think that any filter is fine.

 

I don't see anything in my 2018 manual about "every other oil change". They describe changing the filter with an oil change which seems to imply every oil change, although it's not specifically stated. The every other oil change was a common standard a long time ago from manufacturers but has pretty much disappeared and rightly so. It doesn't make any sense to leave the old filter on - filled with old dirty oil - which will immediately mix and contaminate the new oil as soon as you turn the engine over.

 

I can't speak for your owner's manual (I have a 2016) but Service A is oil change (doesn't mention filter) and Service B is oil and filter change and a bunch of other stuff.

I don't remember ever, before owning my 2010 Fit, hearing about not changing the filter with every oil change. I took auto mechanics in HS in the late seventies.

 

My father bought his first car in 1958 and I remember when I was a teenager in the 60's it seemed to be standard practice back then - amongst owners - to change it every second time. I think that may have been to save money. I don't know what filters cost back then but good ones were probably expensive. Labor at the garage was cheap, and not much you could do about the oil which was probably cheap anyways, and that left the filter for saving a buck.

I can't believe that in this era that any manufacturer would recommend changing the filter every second time. I don't use the silly Honda service thing so I don't know or care what it says.

 

Any good quality oil filter will do but I would get an OEM Honda oil filter because it is only a dollar or 2 more than a quality non-oem filter. Occasionally oil filter manufacturers make errors when they list which of their filters are for which engine. If you get an oem filter it is easier to see if it looks like the filter you take off, or not. As far as the oil, any 0W-20 oil that meets the spec listed in the owner's manual. Just look for the "API seal" on the oil container. Just about every 0W-20 oil will meet this spec. I like Valvoline but Walmart's brand of 0W-20, Walmart calls it SuperTech, should be just fine. Absolutely no need to use Honda-branded oil, for the crankcase. The only place where I would stick to Honda branded oil, is for the CVT transmission.

In order of importance: (1) you always have at least some oil in the crankcase. Any oil is better than none. (2) you always have the correct amount of oil in the crankcase – between the 2 marks on the dip stick. With the correct amount of oil the engine may last longer. (3) you change the oil more or less according to Honda's recommended schedule.. Very old oil doesn't lubricae as well as fresher oil (4) you use the correct type and grade of oil (API, 0W-20). The correct grade will help the engine get best fuel efficiency, and last as long as possible (4) you change the filter at every other oil change. Clean oil lubricates better than oil with lots of particles in it.

Seriously, the most important thing is that there is some oil in the crankcase. You might be surprised as to how many car owners run their cars for thousands of miles with low levels of oil, with oil that has been used way longer than recommended, and is the wrong grade besides – and the car still runs for awhile.

 

Of passing interest, Honda oil filters found on the Fit:

15400-PLM-A01 Filtech filter, fairly good, no longer available. (Made in USA)
15400-PLM-A02 Fram Honeywell filter, probably currently stocked on dealers shelves. (Made in Canada I believe)
15400-RTA-003 Mahle Tennex filter supposedly the original factory filter on recent models. Might also be found on dealers shelves now replacing the Fram.

Honda jumps around to different manufactures, presumably for cost reasons. All of these are of course acceptable for warranty purposes.

 

Yeah, Honda has 2 different 0w20 oil,,, Synthetic Blend and Full Synthetic.

A few years ago I didn't have a place to change my oil so I took it to Honda for 3 consecutive oil changes. Synthetic blend was about $61 all together. If I wanted full synthetic that was something like $40-$50 more.. a little over $100 total to make them bust out the bottles.

 

@nomenclator

>Any good quality oil filter will do...

Thanks for the additional insight

 

>Honda has 2 different 0w20 oil,,, Synthetic Blend and Full Synthetic

That's interesting. So when I click on the details from the dealership regarding just an oil change up pops this caveat:

"Up to 5 qts conventional oil. Synthetic additional. Tax and more than 5 quarts of oil extra. Environmental fee and sales tax extra. Must present coupon when order is written. Cannot be combined with any other offers or previous purchase. See dealer for eligible vehicles and details. - Expires: 05/31/2021"

So do they actually have three different types of oil change prices and 3 different types of oil? Is "conventional" oil which is the default price for the "special" that can't be non-synthetic oil could it? How could they offer that if what is recommended is synthetic oil? And then there is what you refer to as synthetic blend and full synthetic. I know I can call them but still quite confusing for a non car guy. Do you suppose the conventional oil change might actually refer to the synthetic blend? TIA.

 

There's a pretty good chance that they could put conventional (non-syn) in your vehicle, regardless of what the car is specc'd for (as most Honda Fit owners are looking to pinch pennies wherever they can).

Best way to avoid that from happening is simply do the changes yourself. Then you can be certain you car is getting what is intended for it and what it runs best on.

 

This was a few years ago, I did a quick search to update and on a couple of Honda forums there were posts from a few years ago about dealers "now" only offering full synthetic 0w20 . You could call around dealers to get a quote for your car. I would think they would offer $50-$60 full synthetic oil change nevertheless but I don't know? It's a Fit 3.5qt capacity. I would think they would want people in there to upsell on others things like air filters, etc?