Hi Folks,
I'm now retired, and drive less than 3k miles in a year. How often should I change my oil. I'm assuming its synthetic so would every year be OK? Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

Does the car sit for days on end or is it making lots of one and two mile trips?

 

Sits for about 4 days out of the week. 3 days I move it around about a mile. 1 day is about 30 miles for the week.

 

I change mine when oil monitor gets to 30%.

 

Once per year is fine for many low mileage drivers, especially with a quality synthetic oil. ( I was confused when you said that you "assume" the oil is synthetic. Why don't you know?)

I change mine every September/October and average 5000-6000 miles per year. Unlike your driving, however, almost all of my trips are long. For example, almost half of my miles last year resulted from driving 2500+ miles round trip for Christmas with my family.

If I understand your typical driving correctly, 75% of your trips are very short and almost certainly do not warm the car or oil up, which is hard on the oil and hard on the engine.

If I were in your situation, I would change the oil more frequently. Not sure if you're a DIY person, but if you stock up on oil and filters when they're on sale it's not an expensive job, even doing it two or three times per year. As an example, you can get a 5 qt jug of Supertech synthetic oil and the appropriate Supertech filter at Wal-Mart for around $25.

Having said that, I would also consider the overall condition of your car. You didn't say how old your Fit is, but if it's getting a bit older and you're not diligent about keeping it clean in the Maine winters it's likely rusty, in which case there's a good chance the engine will outlive the chassis regardless of how you treat it.

 

Thanks all for the replies. I didn't know for sure, because I just bought this used in February of this year, and didn't think about it! I know now Its a Honda Fit 2015 model with about 69k miles on it. Once per week I drive it about 34 miles, then about every 6 months I travel 250 miles or so for a trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire (I'm in Maine). So @ Drew21, I guess oil does degrade over time if not used. I'm still thinking once per year should be fine. I just got a quote from Jiffy Lube for $122, i couldn't believe that price. I used to change the oil myself (i had a 2011 Prius before this), but I feel it may be too complicated for me at my age (going on 62).

 

From what I have generally heard, if mileage is low oil should still be changed once per year. My own mileage is very low, maybe 6,000 km (4,000 miles) per year now and I change it twice a year because of the extreme winter climate up here in Canada. I change it once in the late spring when the snow is gone and once in the late fall just before the snow returns. Price of oil and filters doesn't bother me since I stock up on both when on sale.

From a straight mileage point of view although manufacturers generally recommend every 10,000 miles, virtually every mechanic I've seen on YouTube disagrees with that and typically recommends 5,000 miles now. Part of their reasoning has to do with the added stress on newer engines from the use of turbo chargers and from a move to low tension rings to improve fuel mileage at the expense of the engines..

As far as Honda's Maintenance Minder is concerned I have no use for it whatsoever.

 

Sitting for a few days or weeks isn't really hard on engine oil. My Fit regularly sits in the garage for weeks at a time and the only precaution I take is to attach a trickle charger to the 12v battery. If we're ranking the activities that degrade engine oil from least to worst, I would suggest:

Sitting in the unopened bottle < sitting in your engine < long highway drives < short trips

A 34 mile drive qualifies as a "long" drive that gets the engine oil hot and drives any moisture in the oil or engine away. That's a good thing. Short trips are hard on engine oil (and the engine in general) precisely because the oil doesn't get hot.

As for DIY oil changes, if you've done it before you certainly have the knowledge to keep doing it. The Fit (at least my 2010) is a very easy oil change that takes only a few minutes of actual work (not counting the time I let the oil drain while doing something else). For the $122 quote you got, you can purchase ramps, a drain pan, a funnel, a pack of crush washers for the drain bolt and probably still have enough to buy oil and a filter. When it comes time for your second change the $122 quote will buy enough oil and filters for 4-5 additional oil changes.

A couple more suggestions since your car is relatively new to you.
1) If you do longer oil change intervals don't forget to check your oil regularly. Back when everyone did changes at 3 month intervals your motor had to be in pretty bad shape to use enough oil to cause damage between changes. If you're changing once a year, you want to make sure your engine isn't burning/leaking oil and running low.
2) Regardless of what the seller tells me about a car's maintenance history, when I get a new (to me) used car I do basic maintenance like an oil change pretty quickly. You can look at the oil and see if it's really old or relatively fresh, but it's difficult to know if it's dino vs synthetic or how long it's been in the car. If you do a change now you'll be confident in what you have and can plan future oil change intervals more confidently.

 

NEVER EVER EVER

Go to these quick oil changers.

A friend of mine took her old Honda CRV to Jiffy Lube. Jiffy Lube some how cracked the oil pan. I had to drive her to run her errands while Jiffy Lube corrected their mishap. And they did.

She has a new 2022 CRV. She goes to her local Honda Dealer for all her CRV maintenance and issues.

 

Change oil: Once a year or when maintenance minder calls for oil change.

 

That's what I do. Better sooner than later.

 

Find a local repair shop and have the oil changed right away. Since you bought it with used oil in the engine, you don't know how long it's been in there. Of course, the car will tell you what percentage of the oil is still good. I don't like going beyond 30% - synthetic. $122 is ridiculous. I pay about $5.00/qt when I buy a 5-gallon container. The oil filter is $5 - 10, depending. There is more nuisance labor involved in removing the pan under the engine, but it's not going to take someone more than two minutes.

I have a 2015 EX with 84,000 miles on it. No problems.

 

Thanks folks. Got quote from Honda Service near me for oil change for $59.95. I live in a rural area in Maine, and local places are places like Jiffy Lube, VIP and Prompto. That seems like a fair price to me, so I went ahead and scheduled it. Edit: by the way the gauge shows 10% Oil Life Remaining. I find it difficult to read the dipstick for how much oil is in there. Any suggestions?

 

Yes, that's very good, and Honda will have a record of it being done, just in case. Just be careful of, "You know, while the car is here, we should do a dozen other things, for a total of only $2,350." 😁

 

I'm 73 and I'm still changing my own oil. It is a pain with that bottom cover but I still do it, and tire changes etc.

 

I'm 80, and I still do it all.

 

Well I called the dealer who sold me the vehicle and they have a service department there, and I spoke with the service manager. He told me the oil had been changed at 67,928 miles with 0/20 synthetic and I currently have 69,588 that is a total of 1,660 miles driven since I bought this in January of this year. Makes me wonder if it even needs to be changed, because I suspect the Oil Life Remaining gauge wasn't reset. I guess I'll just keep my appointment with the Honda Dealer so I know for sure what has been done.

 

Changing the oil now would be a waste of oil and a waste of money. You could reset the Mileage Minder now, since there is such low mileage on the oil. It's odd that the dealer didn't reset the Mileage Minder, if he did change the oil.

 

That's a good point. I physically inspected the oil on my fingers. It is a discolored blackish, does not look gold in color. I'm thinking I should just get it replaced and be done with it. Also, FYI, the dealer was NOT a honda dealer but rather a used car dealership.

 

I change oil/filter when the oil indicator shows 20%-15%, which is approximately 9900 miles driven. Without the undercover getting in the way. the job takes about 15 minutes. I am able to reach both the oil pan bolt and the oil filter without lifting the front end of the car. My 2017 Fit CVT has 140K miles. My Fit has been an extremely reliable car.