Not a car guy. 2020 purchased new. 5600 miles. Desert southwest if that is relevant.

A1/B1 was $44.95 with coupon so that was a good deal I thought.

I know that dealership prices are high and I should look elsewhere if and when I need to get these services done. Not a home mechanic. Predominantly around town driving. What I would like to know are these recommendations necessary at this time considering my low mileage.

Transmission fluid exchange - $150

Brake Fluid exchange - $150

Balance Tires - $70

Alignment $130

Thanks.

 

Pretty much no except for brake fluid:

Trans fluid recommended when the car's computer tells you to.
Brake fluid every 3 years regardless of mileage.
Balancing tires and wheel alignment are only needed when they're needed. If the car doesn't shake at high speed your wheels are balanced (sometimes a wheel weight falls off and a tire needs balancing but it's not that common). Alignment- only if your car pulls to one side or a tire is wearing unevenly.

 

>Pretty much no except for brake fluid:

Copy that. Thanks.

 

I can't wait for my wife to get home tonight so that I can present her with a $150 bill for flushing and bleeding the brake fluid in her car a few weeks ago.

 

Don't forget that you need to get your oil changed at least once a year, regardless of mile.

You should also get your tires rotated every 5k miles, and you can get them done at America's or Discount Tire for free.

 

You are ready to sleep on the couch? Or worst, camp out in your backyard?

 

Learn where your engine air filter and cabin air filters are because the dealer will try to hose you on those sooner or later. "Sir, while we were polishing your muffler we just happened to notice that your air filters are very dirty. Would you like us to replace them?"

 

>Don't forget that you need to get your oil changed at least once a year, regardless of mile.

I thought that I implied that when I wrote that the A1/B1 at under $50 was a good deal. That's what I went if for today (including tire rotation) and I left with them telling me about all the other stuff that I needed.

 

>Learn where your engine air filter and cabin air filters are because the dealer will try to hose you on those sooner or later.

Thanks. I am aware where the cabin filter is but as of yet I do not know where the engine air filter is.

 

I always go to the Honda Dealer where I bought my new 2015 Fit EX.

 

I hope you can correct me and say that you had at least an oil change every 12 months since you bought your car. Looking at the mileage on the car, I would assume this is the first time the oil change minder comes on and this is your first time changing the oil for the car. If so, then you have missed a couple oil changes since. As there was supposed to be an oil change done back in 2021, then another in 2022.

 

"2020 purchased new. 5600 miles."
Wow, I think I've met my match! 2019 purchased new. 7000 miles.
I do everything myself, so that's different.

Other than very early initial fluid swaps (oil + MT transmission fluid) changes at 500 miles or so and another set past 3000,
I've been doing annual oil changes, and brake fluid every 2 years.
I swap between summer/not-summer tire+wheel sets, so I rotate twice a year, despite the ridiculously low miles driven (laugh).
I'm planning to do partial coolant swap at 5 years. Partial because, not really flushing everything out.

One crazy thing I do (that I've never heard anyone else do) is to park all the way, close to the wall after coming home, and then moving it 1-2 inches toward the garage door every morning, to prevent it from sitting on the same tire spot all week. Easy to do with manual transmission car, but it might be way more annoying with CVT. The fact that the car is so short really helps with this. (EDIT: No I DO NOT turn the car ON for this)

 

SaveMT - How often are you driving? If your car gets driven every week or two I wouldn't worry about the tires. I certainly wouldn't take the time to roll the car slightly each day, especially if you're parked in a garage where you're taking UV and weather out of the equation. There's also the (slight) risk of the car getting away from you and rolling into the wall or garage door.

Mine sometimes goes over a month (in the garage) without being driven and I don't worry about the tires. I drive more miles than you (4000-5000/yr), mostly on long trips, but even so my tires will age out before they will wear out. I don't think I've ever replaced a set of tires because of tread wear as I've never been a high mileage driver, and I've always switched between two sets of wheels and tires (regular + winter) each year, cutting down even further on tire mileage.

Basically, my mindset is that if the car is parked long enough (e.g., over the winter if I had a really nice car) that I would be worried about the tires getting a flat spot, I'm going to put it up on jack stands to remove the tires from the ground all together.

To the OP, just last week on a different thread I made a joke about the oil life indicator on my Fit, which has never dropped below 70% before I do my annual change, suggesting that I could go 3+ years between oil changes. Is that really what you did with your car? Keep that up (especially as you stated that you mostly do short drives) and we'll be seeing you on one of the "Customer States" Youtube videos I like to watch late at night when I can't sleep.

As fibrepunk advised, regardless of how few miles you drive you should be changing the oil every year. You're one of the drivers who should ignore mileage or maintenance minder recommendations and plan out your maintenance based on time alone. Both mileage and time recommendations are found in the maintenance schedule in your manual. As far as I know the maintenance minder doesn't account for time (mine certainly doesn't seem to as I've never had any recommended maintenance in almost four years and 16K miles).

 

I agree about not needing to bother moving the car everyday, since I do drive it once a week, or at minimum every 2 weeks.
But it has become a habit at this point, and I'm not worried about it, as the car stays in gear at all times. I just press the clutch down with my right foot and scoot the thing just a bit with my left foot. I certainly wouldn't do it if I didn't have an MT car.

I do keep my utility trailer on stands, for exactly that reason. I randomly spin the wheels for fun, since it's always off the ground.

 

>I hope you can correct me and say that you had at least an oil change every 12 months since you bought your car

This was my third one : )

 

To the OP, just last week on a different thread I made a joke about the oil life indicator on my Fit, which has never dropped below 70% before I do my annual change, suggesting that I could go 3+ years between oil changes. Is that really what you did with your car? Keep that up (especially as you stated that you mostly do short drives) and we'll be seeing you on one of the "Customer States" Youtube videos I like to watch late at night when I can't sleep.

>Is that really what you did with your car?

No. This was my third one in 3 years.

As fibrepunk advised, regardless of how few miles you drive you should be changing the oil every year. You're one of the drivers who should ignore mileage or maintenance minder recommendations and plan out your maintenance based on time alone. Both mileage and time recommendations are found in the maintenance schedule in your manual. As far as I know the maintenance minder doesn't account for time (mine certainly doesn't seem to as I've never had any recommended maintenance in almost four years and 16K miles).

>You're one of the drivers who should ignore mileage or maintenance minder recommendations and plan out your maintenance based on time alone

Copy that.

 

Engine air filter is easy enough to change, just make sure you orient the filter correctly. If you can't close the cover and snap the clips back in place that's probably the reason.

I'd dispute the need to rotate the tires so frequently. The point of tire rotation is so they wear evenly and then you end up replacing all four at once (which is not mandatory, it's just a little better). Which would mean rotating them once half-way through. But, you say, how do you know when half-way is? Okay, if the tires are expect to last 60,000 miles then maybe do them every 10 or 15 thousand?

One other reason to rotate them is just so somebody looks at them, in case they're wearing unevenly side-to-side (i.e. an individual tire looks wrong). but you can also just look at them once in a while.

 

I would do the oil change. That stuff will go bad driven or not driven after a year.

Everything doesn’t seem necessary.

But if you want to do it some other stuff, I would consider doing it in that order. Trans fluid change, Brake Fluid, etc

I do not think the Alignment would needed at all because it hasn’t been driven really. I figure it has been sitting there most of the time on the lot, so how could the alignment really change?