OIL, filter, maintance minder questions
Honda Fit Forums Moderator
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 287
From: Elkins Park, PA
I just got my oil changed at my dealer's at about 5100 miles, and the Maintenance Minder read -80. My dealer gives the first oil change for free, but they normally charge about $35 for it. I have no idea what kind of oil they put in, but I'd hope it was whatever Honda recommends. They also top off fluids, check tire pressure, and check a bunch of other things, but it seems kind of a high price to pay. Do I need to go to a dealer to have my oil changed, or can I go anywhere? From other posts I've read on here, most people don't have a high opinion of Jiffy-Lube and other similar places, but how about my mechanic I've been using for years and trust? Will that affect my warranty in any way?
Last edited by LizardKing; Sep 7, 2007 at 01:50 PM.
Member
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 524
From: Dallas, TX
You don't have to go to a/the dealer for oil changes. Keep some sort of log (as simple as a memo pad in the glovebox) to keep track of date, mileage, and what was done. Keep your receipts for the work as well. Those two things would prove you had the maintenance done if there was ever a warranty-related question.
Member
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 22
From: honolulu, hawaii
minder?
i work for acura and the systems wrok the same. oil life is determined by driving styles and use. if you drive the car hard the system will alert you to go in earlier. driving like a granny well you know. there are also messages e.g. "B1." this means oil change and tire rotation due. there are many considerations that the pcm makes before telling you what maintenance item you need.
here are the only items that can be listed:
"A" or "B". followed by numbers 1-6
here are the only items that can be listed:
"A" or "B". followed by numbers 1-6
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,704
From: Second house on the left
Early MM reset
EG, the first Fit message is A1, meaning to change the oil and rotate the tires. If the oil were changed at 50% life and the MM reset, would the "1" come up the next oil change? Or would the "1" not display until the cycle came around again? Or, would the "1" come up by itself? (I don't think the last scenario happens)
Inquiring minds want to know!
Member
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 22
From: honolulu, hawaii
If you change oil early and reset the Maintenace Minder, do the "messages" also reset?
EG, the first Fit message is A1, meaning to change the oil and rotate the tires. If the oil were changed at 50% life and the MM reset, would the "1" come up the next oil change? Or would the "1" not display until the cycle came around again? Or, would the "1" come up by itself? (I don't think the last scenario happens)
Inquiring minds want to know!
EG, the first Fit message is A1, meaning to change the oil and rotate the tires. If the oil were changed at 50% life and the MM reset, would the "1" come up the next oil change? Or would the "1" not display until the cycle came around again? Or, would the "1" come up by itself? (I don't think the last scenario happens)
Inquiring minds want to know!
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,704
From: Second house on the left
Conversely, If I switch to Synthetic oil and extend my OCIs (Oil Change Intervals) I'll either have to learn to ignore the Wrench icon, or reset it after doing the non-oil related services.
And keep track of my oil changes with pencil and paper! <--- How Nostalgic.
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,704
From: Second house on the left
Here's the answer I got on another Forum from a Honda tech:
The oil life is stored (and calculated) by the PCM *_based on engine operating parameters_*. All of the other maintenance items are stored (and calculated) by the gauge control module *_based on mileage_*.
The Gauge control module will move maintenance items up or down a few thousand miles based on oil life, so keeping in mind that, while tire rotations are generally recommended every 7500 miles, if the oil life showed that an oil change was needed at 6000 miles, the sub-code for a tire rotation would come up also, or if the oil life was good to 9000 miles, that's when the rotate subcode would come up.
If you change your oil sooner, like say 40%, when you go through the reset procedure, the sub-codes that *_would_* have been displayed at the next oil change will flash to show what maintenance items would have been recommended at that time, and these sub-items will reset with the indicator.
If you decide to replace the coolant, air / cabin filters, transmission or differential fluids sooner than the recommended interval (meaning that these sub-codes are not displayed when the oil life is reset) then you would need to either have the gauge module updated with the Honda HDS scan tool, or accept that these sub-codes will not necessarily be relevant when they are displayed at a later mileage.
The minder is a convenience feature, but is not carved in stone. It will not account for noisy valves or transmission fluid that should be changed at 30,000 miles because of severe service, or vehicles that are driven in very dusty conditions. While the oil life is, for the most part, actually representative of how your vehicle is being operated, the other maintenance items are still going to come up as a mileage based recommendation, so if you want a clue as to what is going to be recommended at a given future mileage, just refer to an older model's (pre-maint. minder) NORMAL recommended service schedule. You'll find that the maintenance sub-items are going to pretty much follow the same schedule.
***************
So, it appears that the FIRST thing you should do when intending to change the oil, is to RESET THE MAINTENANCE MINDER. If any other items flash during the reset, DO THEM AS WELL.
And, keep a record of items done, and compare it to an older maintenance schedule (especially if you feel you should follow the Severe schedule, as 90% of us should do). That way you won't miss any services.
The oil life is stored (and calculated) by the PCM *_based on engine operating parameters_*. All of the other maintenance items are stored (and calculated) by the gauge control module *_based on mileage_*.
The Gauge control module will move maintenance items up or down a few thousand miles based on oil life, so keeping in mind that, while tire rotations are generally recommended every 7500 miles, if the oil life showed that an oil change was needed at 6000 miles, the sub-code for a tire rotation would come up also, or if the oil life was good to 9000 miles, that's when the rotate subcode would come up.
If you change your oil sooner, like say 40%, when you go through the reset procedure, the sub-codes that *_would_* have been displayed at the next oil change will flash to show what maintenance items would have been recommended at that time, and these sub-items will reset with the indicator.
If you decide to replace the coolant, air / cabin filters, transmission or differential fluids sooner than the recommended interval (meaning that these sub-codes are not displayed when the oil life is reset) then you would need to either have the gauge module updated with the Honda HDS scan tool, or accept that these sub-codes will not necessarily be relevant when they are displayed at a later mileage.
The minder is a convenience feature, but is not carved in stone. It will not account for noisy valves or transmission fluid that should be changed at 30,000 miles because of severe service, or vehicles that are driven in very dusty conditions. While the oil life is, for the most part, actually representative of how your vehicle is being operated, the other maintenance items are still going to come up as a mileage based recommendation, so if you want a clue as to what is going to be recommended at a given future mileage, just refer to an older model's (pre-maint. minder) NORMAL recommended service schedule. You'll find that the maintenance sub-items are going to pretty much follow the same schedule.
***************
So, it appears that the FIRST thing you should do when intending to change the oil, is to RESET THE MAINTENANCE MINDER. If any other items flash during the reset, DO THEM AS WELL.
And, keep a record of items done, and compare it to an older maintenance schedule (especially if you feel you should follow the Severe schedule, as 90% of us should do). That way you won't miss any services.
went this weekend to dealership with 4000 miles on mobil 1 synthetic oil and my minder was at 50% and was told by the service "tech" that dont change the oil til the minder reaches 15% or lower cuz that is what it is there for and using synthetic is a waste of money and use regular oil...
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,704
From: Second house on the left
went this weekend to dealership with 4000 miles on mobil 1 synthetic oil and my minder was at 50% and was told by the service "tech" that dont change the oil til the minder reaches 15% or lower cuz that is what it is there for and using synthetic is a waste of money and use regular oil...
If you are nervous about going farther before changing oil, spend the oil change money ($20) on a Used Oil Analysis (UOA) to convince yourself you are doing the right thing!
+++++++++++
We put Synthetic Oil in our '07 Fit two weeks ago. We intend to change it at -50% on the MM (actually I'll reset the MM at 50% then actually change the oil when it goes back down to 15%).
Tire rotation reminders will be disregarded, now that we have a mounted set of snow tires for the winter.
Last edited by Carbuff2; Jan 7, 2008 at 07:31 PM.
Castrol-Synthetic 5w-50 for Fit
Hey, I have my Honda Fit for about 5 months. When I had about 6,000 miles indicated and at 5% of oil life I went to my Honda serwice foir oil hange. I of course offered my help for oil hange and what i have seen was discusting. In service they drain oil with succking maschine which is not good becouse this machines does not drain oil completly. They also put the 5w-20 MINERAL oil which is not good. After this incident I desided to change oil by myself. I bought 6 Honda Fit oil filters and I colled my fathers friend, who is a mechanic in serwice that prepares cars for rally, for his opinion what kind of oil he would recomend for Fit. He told me that he would put Castrol-Synthetic 5w-50 for Fit becouse it is the one of the best oils available and has the best lubrication quality in cold and very worm environment. He mentioned that the synthetic 5w-20 would be enought but if you press hard on your fit the 5w-50 will be much more safer for the engine. He also explaind to me how to change the oil for synthetic.
step
1:
drain oil and put synthetic, replace oil filter. Do about 20-30 miles.
2:
drain oil and again put new synthetic, replace oil filter. Do about 200 miles and replace oil filter.
3:
for a new car with a low milage replace another filter after about 2.000 miles and you can do easly 10,000 to 12,000 miles before another oil change. (for the cars with milage about 50,000 or 60,000 miles repet the step 2 after driving about 2,000 miles)
He said thet there is no way to go from minetal oil directly to synthetic. Minear has a lot of dust from the engine compartments and this dust stays in the engin oil system even we drain the oil. If you put synthetic to the engine that was used with mineral oil, synthetic has a thiner particles and will clear all the dust that was left from mineral oil. Thats why you need to replace filter after driving some miles and them replace synthetic oil again to privent damage to internal engine campartments becouse of dust that synthetic has washed. He told me that I can easly do 10,000 miles on this oil or even 12,000 with no worry about engine with this synthetic oil.
I plan to do my oil change today, but I'm worring about the oil change indicator. Does enyone of You know how to reset oil indicator in honda fit? I just recived Honda Fit manual for 76$ but it says:
Does anyone of you know how to reset this oil remainder with out HDS ?
And I would be happy to hear Your opinions and recomendations.
step
1:
drain oil and put synthetic, replace oil filter. Do about 20-30 miles.
2:
drain oil and again put new synthetic, replace oil filter. Do about 200 miles and replace oil filter.
3:
for a new car with a low milage replace another filter after about 2.000 miles and you can do easly 10,000 to 12,000 miles before another oil change. (for the cars with milage about 50,000 or 60,000 miles repet the step 2 after driving about 2,000 miles)
He said thet there is no way to go from minetal oil directly to synthetic. Minear has a lot of dust from the engine compartments and this dust stays in the engin oil system even we drain the oil. If you put synthetic to the engine that was used with mineral oil, synthetic has a thiner particles and will clear all the dust that was left from mineral oil. Thats why you need to replace filter after driving some miles and them replace synthetic oil again to privent damage to internal engine campartments becouse of dust that synthetic has washed. He told me that I can easly do 10,000 miles on this oil or even 12,000 with no worry about engine with this synthetic oil.
I plan to do my oil change today, but I'm worring about the oil change indicator. Does enyone of You know how to reset oil indicator in honda fit? I just recived Honda Fit manual for 76$ but it says:
Does anyone of you know how to reset this oil remainder with out HDS ?
And I would be happy to hear Your opinions and recomendations.
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,704
From: Second house on the left
For the USA it is here
https://techinfo.honda.com/rjanisis/...707O00166A.pdf
Pages 170 and 171...the same as the page you pictured. That is the procedure, you only need the HDS to reset INDIVIDUAL operations without affecting the other items.
Last edited by Carbuff2; Jan 11, 2008 at 08:48 PM.
New Member
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 11
From: Middletown, PA, USA
Here's the answer I got on another Forum from a Honda tech:
The oil life is stored (and calculated) by the PCM *_based on engine operating parameters_*. All of the other maintenance items are stored (and calculated) by the gauge control module *_based on mileage_*.
The Gauge control module will move maintenance items up or down a few thousand miles based on oil life, so keeping in mind that, while tire rotations are generally recommended every 7500 miles, if the oil life showed that an oil change was needed at 6000 miles, the sub-code for a tire rotation would come up also, or if the oil life was good to 9000 miles, that's when the rotate subcode would come up.
If you change your oil sooner, like say 40%, when you go through the reset procedure, the sub-codes that *_would_* have been displayed at the next oil change will flash to show what maintenance items would have been recommended at that time, and these sub-items will reset with the indicator.
If you decide to replace the coolant, air / cabin filters, transmission or differential fluids sooner than the recommended interval (meaning that these sub-codes are not displayed when the oil life is reset) then you would need to either have the gauge module updated with the Honda HDS scan tool, or accept that these sub-codes will not necessarily be relevant when they are displayed at a later mileage.
The minder is a convenience feature, but is not carved in stone. It will not account for noisy valves or transmission fluid that should be changed at 30,000 miles because of severe service, or vehicles that are driven in very dusty conditions. While the oil life is, for the most part, actually representative of how your vehicle is being operated, the other maintenance items are still going to come up as a mileage based recommendation, so if you want a clue as to what is going to be recommended at a given future mileage, just refer to an older model's (pre-maint. minder) NORMAL recommended service schedule. You'll find that the maintenance sub-items are going to pretty much follow the same schedule.
The oil life is stored (and calculated) by the PCM *_based on engine operating parameters_*. All of the other maintenance items are stored (and calculated) by the gauge control module *_based on mileage_*.
The Gauge control module will move maintenance items up or down a few thousand miles based on oil life, so keeping in mind that, while tire rotations are generally recommended every 7500 miles, if the oil life showed that an oil change was needed at 6000 miles, the sub-code for a tire rotation would come up also, or if the oil life was good to 9000 miles, that's when the rotate subcode would come up.
If you change your oil sooner, like say 40%, when you go through the reset procedure, the sub-codes that *_would_* have been displayed at the next oil change will flash to show what maintenance items would have been recommended at that time, and these sub-items will reset with the indicator.
If you decide to replace the coolant, air / cabin filters, transmission or differential fluids sooner than the recommended interval (meaning that these sub-codes are not displayed when the oil life is reset) then you would need to either have the gauge module updated with the Honda HDS scan tool, or accept that these sub-codes will not necessarily be relevant when they are displayed at a later mileage.
The minder is a convenience feature, but is not carved in stone. It will not account for noisy valves or transmission fluid that should be changed at 30,000 miles because of severe service, or vehicles that are driven in very dusty conditions. While the oil life is, for the most part, actually representative of how your vehicle is being operated, the other maintenance items are still going to come up as a mileage based recommendation, so if you want a clue as to what is going to be recommended at a given future mileage, just refer to an older model's (pre-maint. minder) NORMAL recommended service schedule. You'll find that the maintenance sub-items are going to pretty much follow the same schedule.
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,704
From: Second house on the left
Does anyone have a "recommended service schedule" for whatever "older" Honda would apply to the Fit (this is our first Honda)? I would like to get a little advanced idea on when items like valve adjustment, M/T oil replacement, etc. are due so as to better prepare ahead of time.
Owner’s Manuals
The 1.5L engine is not used in any other USA Honda, however, so you won't find a good reference for that. I'd say that if the Fit has roller cam followers, a 100,000 mile interval would be OK. (Our Acura V6 with it's roller cam followers was within a thousandth or two on all the valves at 110K miles.)
New Member
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 11
From: Middletown, PA, USA
Look at any of the owners manuals here for maintenance schedules:
Owner’s Manuals
The 1.5L engine is not used in any other USA Honda, however, so you won't find a good reference for that. I'd say that if the Fit has roller cam followers, a 100,000 mile interval would be OK. (Our Acura V6 with it's roller cam followers was within a thousandth or two on all the valves at 110K miles.)
Owner’s Manuals
The 1.5L engine is not used in any other USA Honda, however, so you won't find a good reference for that. I'd say that if the Fit has roller cam followers, a 100,000 mile interval would be OK. (Our Acura V6 with it's roller cam followers was within a thousandth or two on all the valves at 110K miles.)
Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 1,704
From: Second house on the left
Every Honda I have owned has had the locknut system.
Even on my 90 Accord which did NOT have roller rockers, the valve-lash held very steady after the first 20,000 miles. Yes, the Acura 3.2 V-6 has locknuts as well.
Even on my 90 Accord which did NOT have roller rockers, the valve-lash held very steady after the first 20,000 miles. Yes, the Acura 3.2 V-6 has locknuts as well.
Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 43
From: Canada
Does anyone have a "recommended service schedule" for whatever "older" Honda would apply to the Fit (this is our first Honda)? I would like to get a little advanced idea on when items like valve adjustment, M/T oil replacement, etc. are due so as to better prepare ahead of time.
The sequence of my first 14 maintenance minders were as follows:
Unless I made a mistake jotting in the owner's manual, so far the maintenance minder sequence has been:
A 1
B 1
A 12
B 1
A 1
B 12
A 1
B 1
A 12
B 1 3
A 1 4
B 12 5
A 1
B 1
So the valve clearance inspection (#4) came on the 11th servicing.
Changing the automatic transmission fluid (ATF) came on the 10th servicing but I would change it much sooner - because of the iron filings caught by the magnetic drain plug (comes with the Fit) on the first change.
So if you know your average miles between servicing, then you can estimate when your items will show up.
New Member
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 11
From: Middletown, PA, USA
Good info to know. I'm surprised that this valve train method did not also make it to the Honda motorcycles - most multi-cylinder bike engines use shims; those that still use locknut adjusters specify much shorter valve lash inspection cycles. Of course, the CB750 from the '90s had no-adjustment hydraulic lifters...
Member
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 61
From: UK
Looks like this 'maintenance minder' is more trouble than its worth!
Good job we dont have it over here in the UK!
Things are a lot simpler here in that its either 12000 miles or 1 year whichever comes first - nice n easy
Good job we dont have it over here in the UK!
Things are a lot simpler here in that its either 12000 miles or 1 year whichever comes first - nice n easy