The oil pan and filter are under a cover. It tells you how to change it right in your owners manual, page 366.

 

Not true but keep googling.

 

Why do you believe this isn't true?

 

For the same reason that adding an intake won't give you more power.

The ECU is looking for specific things. Letting air get in more easily won't change your tune. Pouring in gasoline that has more resistance to early combustion won't give you more power unless the car already requires high test and is knocking with the stuff you're putting in already.

 

It may not have been clear, but I was actually asking the guy why he believed that higher octane WOULD improve things in some way for a car that isn't designed for it. Someone had written that "higher octane will not improve gas mileage or power", and the follow-up poster said "not true" to which I asked why he thought this.... so I'm actually one who goes with the consensus that in order to benefit from higher octane, your car needs to have been designed or tuned for it. Otherwise it's just a complete waste of money. But I was curious why the previous poster thinks that there is value in it for a car that isn't designed for it.

 

There are alot of other threads on this site that deal with the high-octane discussion. The argument goes both ways as people with ultra gauges, scan gauges have reported back that timing increases with premium fuel which would result in slightly more power and others say it's just a waste of money. Obviously you're not going to get 10 to 20 horsepower out of a little 1.5 liter but just the general feel of things is better. For me high-octane seems to make my car respond better and I do get slightly better fuel mileage driving the same roads in the same style. Obviously I have never had my car on any sort of dyno or any other horse power measuring device its just basically by feel. If you don't believe me run 5 tanks of premium fuel through your car and then run the last tank down to at least your gas light turning on and then refill it with regular 87 octane. You will feel a difference.

 

I wasn't second guessing; I was asking.

Maybe I posted my question in the wrong place though... I thought this was the forum where people were complaining about SMALL GAPS IN THEIR STEERING WHEELS! Maybe it's no place for a question about basic and critical engine maintenance like oil changes. Silly me.

 

I notice a big difference in my car when using premium fuel. It was a ford ranger manual, not fast by any means, but man, huge difference. Noticeable. And I definitely got better mileage.

 

If you can feel the difference in a 1.5 liter econobox that was designed for regular gas you have a more sensitive posterior than I!

Fuel economy differences require more than a few tanks to figure out. I've kept close tabs on fuel economy throughout the life (160K, so far) of my present car and if I were to take any five tankfuls together I would still see variances of 5-10% between data sets. Sometimes I can point to conditions that contributed to high or low mileage, sometimes I cannot.

As far as early oil changes go, the "debris in the engine argument" is negated by the presence of the oil filter. Back in the olde dayes we'd build an engine, spin it with the starter to see oil pressure, then fire it up. After running it for a few seconds we'd stop it and dump the oil. The second change was after 100-300 miles and after that it was 2000-3000.

On a new car, the engine assembly process is much cleaner so the initial dump isn't needed. When you do the first change is up to you, but with the filter catching any grunge that happens to be present there isn't much point to doing it early. I don't think that anybody is using a special "break-in" oil these days.

 

There are many threads about this. Most of my post count is about premium. Just as a matter of fact the engine is designed to use 91 r/m to achieve MBT which is the most efficient. This has been proved over and over and don't want to rehash it again. Regular is the lowest octane and 102 ron is the highest. Any thing higher wont have any benefits.

I do like the new Fit numbers but is still lower than what I am getting in my car. I would look around the site and see what info is available which is tons.

 

BREAK IN OIL IS REAL!

Factory fill usually has less detergents and sometimes dyes in it (Makes it look green).

By changing the oil early with your super-duper oil, your loading it up with detergents and antiwear addatives which hinder break in.

 

Interestingly, in the case of Honda, there is some truth to this. I found this on the Edmunds site:

 

I stand corrected. I did not know about the knock sensor and its effect on timing. This isn't true of a lot of cars (and none that I've owned), so I've been caught in a state of ignorance here.

I still am skeptical whether the incremental performance and fuel economy are sufficient to offset the higher cost, and for me the answer is probably "no", but I'd guess that's a personal matter.

 

I think what people are saying is that if you use synthetic oil and higher octane gas, the gap in your steering wheel will go away.....but I could be wrong!

 

Unfortunately, your argument is false. There can be significant increases in the energy of high yest vs regular gas; gasoline is a mixture of chemicals that are refined fromcrude oil and the recipe for high test changes from regular because some components are needed for antiknock properties and often they have higher heats of combustion as well. Its not unusual for high test to have 5% higher Btu per lb than regular.
If however your vehicle doesn't have high enough compression there may not be any use in high test. Most current engines, including honda Fit do (>8.75:1) so there may be a slight increase in power and mpg. Alas, is it worth the extra cost of high test? Nope, not worthwhile. A good example is toluene which has both higher antiknock property but also higher energy. Many showroom stock racers debiberately added 5% toluenr for significant power improvement: racing.
As for as reducing the pressure dropfor sucking air into the combustion chamber, note that the engine has to work to pull the air in and reduced resistance to sucking the air in will increase power because the ecu masures the intake and adds fuel to match. Unforunately though the usefulness doesn't really begin til the rpm exceeds 5000. But if you are racing ...

 

Gaps in steering wheels. must be those people cutting off the lower half of stering wheels for knee clearance like a lot of high cost super cars. I can see it for those of elderly waists and thick wallets.They need the knee clearance but Fit owners?

 

i am still baffled/nervous about using the maintenance minder. i too, have followed the "first oil change at 1000, then every 3-4k oil changes afterword" mantra for the past 25 years. i put a bucket load of miles on my cars, and following the "too much maintenance" has worked excellent for me all these years.

usually i do not go to dealers, i just do maintenance myself. according to the selling dealer, i have 4 free oil changes. so, does that mean they will only do the oil changes every 10k?

snce there is no maintenace guide, i guess i will start doing things like air filter & trans fluid every 30k.

 

No! No! It's the other way around! Honda specifically says not to change the oil until the maintenance minder tells you to. Therefore a cautious person would do as the manufacturer instucts. If you change it early, you are throwing caution to the wind.

 

No. With me, having a few free oil changes the sales rep gave me, when I arrived at the service station, I was first told that I in no need for an oil change, but I wanted one anyway and they did so each and everytime until my free coupons ran out.

 

Honda specifies waiting for the first oil change because there are specific detergents and additives that assist with proper engine break in

changing it early is foolish IF you knew this before hand. Any dealership that changed it earlier will go by a certain mileage before they actually are supposed to do it. your driving style will effect how much mileage on each interval. At a minimum you should be putting at least 3k miles on that first oil


Also, there was a mention of the car computer not doing anything for stuff like intakes or higher octane. FALSE. If an intake is removing restrictions, it is allowing the engine to breathe more easily. that means more air is able to get into the cylinder, even if its only like 0.01%. It still means the computer will squirt more fuel into the cylinder. The computer doesnt care what you do, it is looking to maintain specific AFR's.

higher octane means the computer will see less knock events and will advance ignition timing. This turns into more torque due to the longer burn, as the higher the octane, the HARDER it is to burn. This is also why the AFRs will get slightly richer, as the computer will see it is burning too lean from the long hot burn time, and squirt more fuel.


end result is more power. Is there a threshhold? yes. The car will run best with 91 or 93 US octane levels. I put in 110 octane and didnt get any faster at the dragstrip. Even after running through 6 gallons of fuel. I was able to hit the glorious 55degrees advancement of ignition much more often, but there is a limit with stock tuning