Well put - having a float charger is good in that it will indicate whether or not the battery can hold a sufficient charge and may preempt you from being stranded. I've been fitty-fitty on knowing ahead of time whether my battery needed replaced before it failed. 3-4 years is my luck with auto batteries and I replace in Year 4 whther it needs it or not (I don't like being stranded). 3 years on the motorcycles becuase they are used less often.

BTW - batteries lose 1% of their charge every day at 25 °C (higher in warmer climates) they sit without a drain so after 60-90 days - you'll be hard pressed to be able to start any car.

 

My 2015 Fit original battery died 2 weeks ago. Almost made 5 years. Did not like battery size (too small ) but it did last a while. I replaced it with an Autozone Duralast gold larger 51R battery. Had to cut battery tray to let it fit but i like the new battery. Will see how long this big Autozone battery lasts.

James

 

That is a great idea. I will use it for my moto as well.

Perhaps, it is. I just swapped out my battery for a 51r ($80 from Costco) thanks to helpful beta on FitFreak, so that should help, plus I like my Fit so much that I often try and come up with excuses to drive it.

I am going to start using synthetic oil which should also help.

Do you think it would be better for the engine if I added an engine block heater? Morning lows here average 12 to 30 in Nov. till March.

 

Not really to the engine block heater so long as you're running 0W oil and preferrably 0W20 for that temp range. 0W means a light weight oil for Winter conditions that has low "blockiness" for smooth starts. Start the car, let it idle for 10-20 seconds and begin driving with low acceleration until the blue temp light goes off. The same treatment for any car if you'd like to keep it a while.

My Mazdaspeed has a 3-zone rev limiter on it to prevent you from over revving the car until the car reaches the next zone's temperature range.

 

The block heater was essential for starting cars back in the day when carburetors were common and cars were hard to start in extremely cold weather. Even with a block heater running some cars just wouldn't start (usually weak battery) and my company had a couple giant batteries strapped to a cart with booster cables which could be wheeled out at quitting time to boost cars which couldn't turn over fast enough at say -30 C. With computerized ignitions, direct injection, thinner oil and other advances this is rarely a problem anymore with a modern car.

I have a block heater on my Fit, I think it's mandatory on new cars here, but I've never used it. Never needed it for starting. Of course I could always use it to warm up the engine before starting to reduce the wear and tear from cold weather starting but that has to be balanced against my forgetfulness in unplugging the power cord and ripping it out of the wall as I back up. I've gone to work more than once dragging an electrical cord behind my car. Used to be a common sight here but not so much any more with fewer people bothering to plug in.

 

Start? 0W-20 full synth is what Honda recommends. If you're running semi synth or conventional oil, two issues come into play - potentially not getting oil to all parts of the engine, and less heat stability. Both could significantly increase wear and decrease engine life.

I don't know if warranty issues arise if you run anything other than full synth at any point. Does anyone know?

 

To maintain the Honda Fit warranty you are required to use 0W20 (or maybe 0W16) which is only available in full synthetic.

Some newer engines from various manufacturers now are specifying 0W16 as mandatory (Camry ??)

Mid 2020 the new generation GF-6 improved oil (API SP) will be out and will pretty much replace everything over time. Designed specifically for turbo engines it apparently has a lot of improvements over existing generation of oils.

 

The synthetic is really needed for the oil change intervals that Honda's Maintenance Minder calculates. 10000 mil OCIs require a better stability oil; hence full synthetic. YMMV but use oil analyses (like Blackstone Labs) to determine what works best for you.

My money is on more frequent oil changes - like every 5K miles using synthetic. 10000 mile OCIs might meet the viscosity - it's the crap that builds up in the oil that I want out sooner.

 

"Start," as in the oil had been changed when I bought the vehicle with 3000 mi on it and I have now just reached 6500 and my maintenance minder states 50% for oil.

My manual says to use:
Premium-grade 0W-16 or 0W-20 detergent oil with an API Certifcation Seal on the container -- OR --
You may also use synthetic motor oil if it is labeled with the API Certifcation Seal and is of the specified viscosity grade.

I have no way of know what came in the car and what was used when it was changed before I bought it.

 

I was going to use 5K intervals myself, using either Amazon Full Synthetic or Mobile 1 w/ NAPA filter. I am on high maintenance program due to my short commute of just 1.6 miles (2x daily, 3.5 days per week).

 

My manual makes no mention of 0W-16, only of 0W-20. With that low mileage, it's likely to have the same oil as what came from the factory.

 

When someone says, yeah, I'm going to start running synthetic oil, the implication is that something different was run before. We had no idea where you were in your vehicle's oil change cycle.

 

The previous owner changed the oil and reset the guage.

 

My presumption is that it came from the factory with regular oil and that regular oil was used when it was changed, so I said "start", but I cannot be certain what type of oil has been used to date..

 

It comes from the factory with synthetic oil and if any oil changes are done at a Honda dealer synthetic oil will be used. Actually, if the oil is changed by any outlet and they put in the specified 0W20 oil then it will be synthetic because 0W20 is only available as a synthetic oil.

 

Overall trend today is free-revving engines running on relatively thin full synthetic oil. If Honda recommends 0W20, they don't preload with something heavier. That would negate the purpose of the full synthetic oil and lead to drastic run-in wear.

 

excellent- we're dv8ing from the thread subject.

No but Honda likely uses a conventional oil for the new car's break in period since has been the practice for many small engine and car manufacturers that stopped doing a short, required oil change break-in period of 50-500 miles. I don't have the data but oil analysis on the Mazda and BMW fan sites claim that the oil was conventional 5Wxx oil in the factory fills. I've called several dealers and they all told me to hold off on that first fill oil change until 5000 mi or 15% oil life.

 

India Jazz owners manual recommends only 0W20 as the lowest oil (but has 10W30 for temperatures above -20 °C. Jazz Japan only states 0W20 - which is odd because 0W8 and 0W16 are the approved oils there.

5W30 would be my favorite once the engine warranty was up.

 

What other car companies use in their engines is irrelevant. There is absolutely nothing anywhere to indicate that Honda uses anything other than 0W20 from the factory and there is nothing anywhere that I've seen to indicate that there is any break in oil required on this engine.

As far as the India Jazz, that's a different Honda engine ( 1.2 liter to begin with) in a climate quite different from North America. If you think you can use their engine requirement to justify going against Honda's requirement here then hey yes, go for it. It's your car, believe whatever you want, do whatever you want.

 

I am sorry that I had not done more research into what oil originally came in the car and was used on the subsequent oil change previously along with what types of oils are available in the manual recommended viscosity prior to using the word "start." It was not my intention to derail the thread topic. Please forgive this incomprehensible oversight.