The maintenance minder was down to 5% at 9500 miles (I hate the way it nags me under 20%, BTW.) so I decided to do a change.

First, I laid down in front of the car to survey the situation. Dang, this car is lowwwww! I had to drive the front tires onto 4x12 blocks to get access.

OK, the access panel. I'd heard horror stories about "plastic screws" and decided to treat everything gently. I got a stubby Phillips and gingerly removed the six metal screws, then went after the two plastic ones. They came out easily, but the trick is that you cannot push them inward while unscrewing them. They aren't really screws, but simply push fasteners that have a thread to assist in removal. If you push on them while removing they go right back in!

Once removed, the rear edge of the panel dropped down and I disengaged the front lip. Wow, all that plastic is floppy when the panel is out!

Drain plug, 17mm, easy access. Even angled the right direction to drain while the front of the car is lifted. Oil drains neatly into the pan. I replace the drain plug gasket and snugged it back into position.

Oil filter, also easy access. The "cap" tool for my Scion fit perfectly. Unscrew filter gingerly. Oh-Oh, the filter isn't nearly as neat as the drain plug. Oil ran down all over the bottom of the sump, quite a mess to clean up, but at least access was easy.

Filter install. I used a standard Honda filter, but wonder about the quality of made-in-USA filters versus the original made-in-Japan filter. The USA filters look suspiciously like Fram filters except for the blue paint. I tightened it 3/4 turn as specified after filling the filter half-full of oil. It can't be filled all the way as it is angled while installing.

Reinstalling the access panel. This was a challenge. The two expanding fasteners were already expanded from being used the first time, so it took some doing to get them into the receiving holes in the rear shroud. I worked them in and then simply pushed the plastic "screws" into position as is supposed to be done. The expanding fasteners are probably used to make it easier to install the panel in the factory.

I installed the remaining six metal screws. A couple of the receiving plate nuts had shifted so I had to use a thin screwdriver to slide them back into place. After that, everything went together well.

I added 3-1/2 quarts of 0W20 and ran the car. This put the level just a bit below the top mark on the dipstick, but with the thin oil and hard-to-read dipstick it's not easy to tell.

I will definitely get new push fasteners for the next oil change. They aren't really meant to be reused. I might get ambitions and make the whole thing come off with Dzus fasteners, but the plastic might be too flimsy to support the fastener. It's like a soda pop bottle in thickness!

All in all, a successful day. 75% of the work was in just getting to the oil filter and drain plug. Honda definitely put their newest engineers on this access panel design!