My 2015 FIT just hit 65K miles.
The maintenance minder (MM) just came on indicating an Oil Change is due (15%).
The MM has never coded yet that it's time for a Radiator Fluid Flush/Change. ( I have had the car since new.)

Questions for the group:

At what Mileage did You do your Radiator service?
Is 65K miles too soon?
At what mileage did your MM tell you to do the Radiator service?
Should I wait until the MM says it's needed or do it now at 65K?

And for those that did the Radiator service: Did you flush it clean? or just drain the old fluid and add new?

Thanks in advance for the input.

 

The manual should state the intervals. Honda coolant is about 100,000mi. Safe to just drain the radiator and empty the reservoir and refill. Can't hurt to do it early.

 

I replaced what was in the radiator at 40K miles, but did not syphon out the coolant in the overflow tank. It's good enough for me. Poor Fit, gets no respect. And, it is not demanding like some of my other cars.

 

On previous cars I've owned I've always taken the overflow tank out and thoroughly cleaned it. I found that as a car gets older some sediment and crud ends up settling on the bottom of the overflow tank and it would bother me to leave it there.

I was going to wait for the 5 year mark before changing the rad fluid (drain and refill) but I had a serious coolant leak and had to take my car into Honda last week (3 years old, 18000 km. The leak incidentally I don't think was Honda's fault, and it wasn't my fault, but probably was caused by a third party which did some work on the car as part of an insurance claim.). The dealer did a flush on it after fixing the leak, a hose issue. Anyway, good for 5 years now before I have to change it again.

 

Nothing in my FIT manual about what mileage to service the Radiator--just says when the Maintenance Minder codes it, do it and mine has not coded yet at 65K.
It may be 100K as you state?

Seems like from the responses thus far that everyone is doing something different with their FIT Radiator.

As I look at the quality of the original fluid that is still in there--seems like it's still clean but somewhat low in the Reservoir.
Wonder if Radiator Fluid effectiveness breaks down after a period of time/use?

 

Coolant ages. Time is a better gauge than milage. I like to drain and replace at least every three years. And, as woof said, drain, clean and replace for the reservoir. (If you are seeing crud in the reservoir, don't you think there is similar crud in the radiator itself?)

Just my 2 cents. I am not an expert or a professional coolant servicer.

 

I don't go by the maintenance minder system. I change oil and filter every 3k! Air filters usually every 3-6 months. It's easy and cheap to keep an engine and transmission clean. But I work on mostly diesels for a living, and have mechanical empathy. Say what you will, I am obsessed with maintenance on our daily drivers.
Honda fluids/parts have typical intervals, 110k on iridium plugs, 100k then 60k on the coolant, can't hurt to do the transmission every 30k regardless of what's advised. Of course there's a time interval as well. Gotta keep all the fluids and filters fresh! Had 212k on an '03 CR-V when I traded it still running strong with zero problems.

Don't forget the blinker fluid.

 

Looking at this from a different angle, if you look at a jug of genuine Honda coolant, on the back in the fine print it says "This coolant will provide complete protection for 5 years or 100,000 km** ". Since at some future date Honda could change the formulation of the coolant so that it's good for 10 years, or perhaps only good for 2 years, what's written on the jug is the bible in my opinion. Your maintenance minder or owner's manual can never be changed to accommodate coolant formula changes and therefore what's written on the jug has to be the bible which you should follow in doing fluid changes.

**This is a Canadian jug, so I imagine something like 62,000(?) miles on an American jug.