Can you change the oil yourself?

 

I dont have a jack/stands.. oil pan thing to drain it...

 

I always try to do any maintanence for the new car with the dealership. They normally do a multi-point inspection while it is there and they remind me when something is due to be done. I have a coupon for a free first time oil change so I am definitely going back to the dealership. They seem to do better at service because your vehicle is new and they tend to be more on top of things. Just my personal experience though. Plus if you can't wait they will drive you to work and pick you up - Jiffy Lube will not do that for ya! LOL!

Cat :x

 

let your dealer do it, I bought my Nighthawk Fit in Jacksonville Fl at a dealer on the southside of town. But since they screwed up washing my car? I take my Fit to the Westside of town for any labor to be done to it. My oil change cost me $26.00 dollars plus tax and Honda parts were used I got there first thing 7:00am and was out 30 minutes later. Good Luck

 

Definitely don't take it to a Jiffy Lube or any other place like that. Take it to the dealership if you can't do it yourself. Some dealerships are open on the weekend.

 

I too vote for taking it to the dealer since I don't have the proper tools and equipments to do it on my own. Most other major dealers also do services on different makes.

I try to avoid taking my cars to any local shops for service and/or repairs unless there is some sort of life-threatening mechanical failures while I'm on the road when there is no dealers in the area. Or unless I have it towed to the nearest dealer if convenient.

 

Hi,
which oil brand would you recommend to substitute my Jazz 1.2 MTF fluid?
Weird enough, Honda isn't selling the MTF bottles in Italy and I have to look for something different (or buy abroad).
I've read interesting info on Red Line MT oil. Any advice?

Stefano

P.S.: Do you know the size of the oil plug? Infact I need to buy a decent kit of keys (would be worth a torque kit investment?)

 

I'm currently at 4700+ miles, and my oil life is at 40%; Should I go ahead and change to synthetic now at the suggested 5000 mile limit, or wait for the percentage to drop lower, regardless of the mileage? Thanx for your assistance!

 

You can change to Amsoil Full Synthetic oil at any mileage at all. There is no minimum mileage required.

 

For those already using the Synthetic blend Conoco/TropArtic/FoMoCo-Motorcraft 5W-20 oil in your Fit, this may be of interest.....

Modern Tire Dealer - ConocoPhillips introduces new synthetic 5W-20 motor oil

 

What's up Everyone,

Does any of you have ever try this oil before and how's the performance of it ?

Hopefully post would be on the right track


Appreciate your Opinions

 

Use only the oil rating recommended by the Honda manual. whether it be 5w-20 or 30. not sure what they are on the Jazz.

Oils do not give more performance. They just lubricate. Synthetics do a better job and are more resistant to break down.

 

I disagree, you should use 10 w 40 Petroleum Car Oil for 1,500 miles of street driving. After that switch to whatever brand Full Syn oil you like. I prefer Amsoil or Mobil 1. Then use Full syn for the remainder of the cars life. 80% of the piston rings sealing takes place in the 1st hour of the motor being ran. Then the last 20% takes a longer time. On the street, its not a controlled environment, so most of the miles may not be in the "ring loading mode". Synthetic oil is extremely slippery and it can actually arrest the break in process before the rings can seal completely.

 

The Amsoil techs disagree with you. Following your reasoning, the new Corvettes that come off the assembly line with synthetic oil in the engines would never get the rings seated, and would always burn oil. They don't.

 

True the corvette, viper and other high performance vehicles come with full synthetic oil from the factory. But those motors are run through hot tests and ran through the full rpm band many times before the motor is even dropped into the car.

Here is a link I found for amsoil, since that is what were discussing.

Converting to AMSOIL Synthetic Motor Oil

Also, I never said my reasoning is the correct one. It's just based on my own testing. I had tested this process on 2 bikes. Yamaha R6's. One was my track bike that was broken in on the dyno, while the other was used on the street and broken in per the manuals way. After tearing apart both motors, you can see the difference in the colors of the pistons.

 

achapman,

Good link! As an Amsoil dealer myself, I called Amsoil to talk with a tech to be sure that I was not changing to synthetic oil prematurely. At eight months of age and with only 5000 miles on my Fit engine, I was concerned about the old petroleum factory oil continuing to deteriorate, and my oil life indicator showing 60% life. So on the tech's advice, I switched to Amsoil Full Synthetic 0W20. This was in February, and in the last few months there has been no oil loss, no smoke, or any other indications that the rings had not seated. My challenge to you was not meant to say that Fit owners should change to synthetic oil right away. The 5000 miles that I put on my engine obviously did the break-in job that it was meant to do.
My statement that "there is no minimum mileage required" before changing to synthetic was too broad- the engine should be fully broken in with rings seated. How soon that occurs will obviously vary by driver and conditions.
And I agree that high performance cars with factory filled synthetic oil were bench tested much more fully than regular production engines.

Years ago people were claiming that you should not change to synthetic oil with less than 10K miles on an engine and it was that exaggerated warning that I had in the back of my mind when I challenged you. I would urge our members who DO have fully broken-in engines to switch to synthetic oil, and I'm not going to argue which brand is best. They all use the same poly-alpha-olephin base stock, the difference between brands is the additives. My own opinion is that since Amsoil was the first manufacturer to use the lubrication technology of jet aircraft engines for automotive applications back in the '70's, they have more expertise and a longer track record than any of the modern "copy cats".

 

Gotcha! We are on the same page. I guess you could say I am somewhat "anal" about motors.

I always run them extremely hard for the 1st 20 miles. varrying rpm's and engine braking. So hard acceleration followed by hard decel. I then change the oil at 20 miles. Then I continue to vary the rpm's till the 1500 mile mark. I change the oil again at 150, 300, 600 then finally the switch to syn at 1500. Plus its cheaper on my wallet to use dino oils

 

Wow!
Anal is right! It's a good thing for you that changing oil in the Fit is so easy to do, and if I were so obsessed, I would use dyno oils for all of the preliminary changes before the switch to synthetic too. No offense intended in my comments- obsessive GOOD care is better than laziness, and relying on a computer timer to tell you when to change your oil. As far as I'm concerned, when the mileage minder says 60% oil life, and the dyno factory fill has been there for six months, it's time to change the oil.

 

I do things completely opposite of the synthetic ,,,,,,,
I just put good old mineral based oil in every 3000 miles. I think new oil and filter more often is the way to go for long service life. JMHO and I got over 160,000 on my Eco and just turned it over to my daughter for her first car. Expect to get many more miles out of it. No smoking and getting 38 to 40 mpg's

 

I am going to be using Motul 8100 Eco-tech Synthetic with the HAMP filter starting with my first oil change. That combination should stretch my oil changing interval's to 5000 miles.