2013 Accord initial change

[JOD]

Yeah, you pretty much hit my point, which is that the dealers have a financial incentive to recommend a filter change. Honda's engineers really don't have any incentive (as far as I can tell) to recommend leaving the FF.

I always find these "factory fill" threads funny. If one really wants to change a lubricant early, why isn't the discussion on the transmission fluid vs. engine oil? Obviously you can change both, but I'd be way more concerned about the transmission, given that most of the contaminants of its life occur during the first 5-10K--plus, the filtration is minimal.

Yeah, I'd change the FF oil right now, but just because it "feels better". I seriously doubt the service life or performance will be affected much one way or another.

 

[Sayjac]

But my point was a direct response to a statement saying that some posters were ignoring an owners manual "recommendation" to which I said, much as Honda dealers regularly ignore another OM/MM "recommendation". Reasons were irrelevant to me.

And it should be made clear that ignoring either the FF recommendation or the oil filter recommendation doesn't void the warranty. And as far as I can tell neither has resulted in shorter engine life, at least I've seen no published studies that indicate that.

 

[idtx2]

Thanks for the feedback. I called the local dealership just to get their opinion and they said wait until 15%. Do most people take their's to the dealership until out of warranty just to avoid any potential hassle should they have an issue? I change my own in my other vehicles, but they are both 2002 models so any warranty coverage ended long ago.

My commute is 40 miles one way and I do drive it pretty easy. 36 mpg is the lowest I have gotten on a tank of gas and I'm right at 40 mpg on my current tank. I have the 4 cylinder with the CVT transmission.

I've been using the Pennzoil/Purolator combo on my 2002 miata and 2002 F-150 with good results, figured if it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

[JOD]

I did all my own changes under warranty. I tore off the top of the filter box and wrote the date of the oil change, then tossed them in one big folder along with receipts for oil that I purchased. Ford also has an online maintenance deal which I manually filled in.

I never had a warranty claim, but my local dealer said this would be more than sufficient if I ever had a problem. It's your car, if you want to do the maintenance you should do it. Unrelated, that seems like pretty good fuel economy for a pretty large sedan!

 

[OriginHacker21]

Hey idtx2!

I just bought a 2013 Honda Civic in June 2013. I have a 3 mile commute to work and parents are 90 miles away on the weekends. But I took a 5,000 mile round trip to Iowa and back. When I had 7,000 miles on my ODO the % left was 40%. Being an OCD BITOG member who changed GC 0w30 in his Sunfire every 3,000 miles it was very difficult to leave that factory fill in. Yes, factory fill has tons of Moly in it and you want to leave it in for at least 5k (dealer tech told me this).

My dealership gave me 1 free oil change with purchase of car. So I used that early at 7,045 miles. Yes, the MM tells you to change the oil filter every other OCI but the dealership said they don't do that and they change the oil filter every oil change. So I got Honda 0w20 Full Synthetic with an oil filter for free. Originally they were going to charge me the difference (since first free = semisynthetic) but they gave the full synthetic to me for free anyway.

My understanding is that the MM calculates cold starts, throttle %, highway miles vs city driving, and tries to guestimate on oil life based on a semi-synthetic Honda 0w20.

For me, 12,000+ on the factory fill was too much so I changed the factory fill early. I'm planning on running the Honda 0w20 full synthetic the full MM to 15% (I hit 90% at 1,200 miles into my next oci). For my factory fill - at 6,000 miles the oil started turning golden enough to where I could see it. At 7,000 miles it was a light brown. Being in 120F high desert heat, I figured I'd switch to full synthetic right away.

Edit: I'm debating whether to change my own oil and do my own maintenance or have the dealer do it for warranty purposes so I'm still on the fence with that one. Looks like the B1 (second oil change) service can cost up to $260!!! I got my Sunfire to 246,000 miles changing all its fluids (Brake, power steering, transmission, oil) by myself. But I got my Sunfire used for a quarter of the cost of my Honda.

 

[gofast182]

If one takes the time to go through the UOAs on Hondas in the UOA forum one will find that their OLI/Maintenance Minder is right on the money. One will also find that Honda factory fill is particularly good. So wait until the recommended 15% and then schedule the change (the dealer says 15% not because they know more than engineers but so you have ample time to be scheduled in and get it done before it hits 0%).

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

Originally Posted By: gofast182
If one takes the time to go through the UOAs on Hondas in the UOA forum one will find that their OLI/Maintenance Minder is right on the money. One will also find that Honda factory fill is particularly good. So wait until the recommended 15% and then schedule the change (the dealer says 15% not because they know more than engineers but so you have ample time to be scheduled in and get it done before it hits 0%).


^^^^^^^^^ What gofast182 said. Anything beyond what's outlined by the OLM or the owner's manual is just money dumped down the drain.

 

[fdcg27]

I need to post the UOA of the FF from my '12 Accord.
It hit 15% MM at 8700, and the UOA is not real pretty, although not too horrible for FF.
I'd be inclined to listen to Honda, although 9K should be enough for those normal wear patterns Honda mentions in the OM to have occured.

 

[Hermann]

What fdcg27 said. 9K Is plenty for the FF to do its "Magic"

 

[idtx2]

Originally Posted By: JOD
Unrelated, that seems like pretty good fuel economy for a pretty large sedan!


Yes, i have been very impressed. Absolutely no complaints about the car.

 

[SilverGGA]

Honda tells you run the factory fill until the OLM tells you to change. 5% is "change now" and 15% is "change soon". So Honda tells you to wait until 5%. Why not just wait until 5% and then do the first change? If you are paranoid, run the 2nd fill until the OLM shows 60%, do an extra change, but do not reset the OLM for an extra flush.

I left the factory fill in my 2011 Pilot until 5%. Doesn't burn a drop over ~9k mile interval and have 48k now.

 

[Hounds]

jfi, Honda recently updated and greatly expanded its official Honda owners website. See, e.g., http://owners.honda.com/help/faqs which discusses this very subject -- i.e., why Honda recommends not changing the FF before the MM indicates it's necessary -- and a host of other common sense maintenance-related issues.

 

[pbm]

Here's a quote from http://owners.honda.com/help/faqs:


"Your Honda engine was delivered with an oil that is specially formulated for new engines that have not yet developed their "natural" wear patterns and may contain minute particles from the manufacturing process.

American Honda strongly recommends this special oil be left in the engine long enough for these wear patterns to develop, usually until the first maintenance interval specified in your Owner's Manual, based on your specific driving conditions."


I think that 9000 miles is 'long enough for these wear patters to develop'......I changed the FF at 2k on my new Accord (in direct conflict with the OM recommendation) and I never had an oil related problem. I probably could have left it in much longer but I wanted piece of mind...

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

You used the terms "I think" and "I wanted," so it appears you do recognize that this is all just your imagination, and nothing related to sound logic or educated reasoning. As long as that's true, do whatever you want. It doesn't make one lick of sense at all, but if your imagination makes you feel good about it, then do it. After all, the engineers designed the engine based on their gut feelings too, so why not make other decisions based on the same thing?

 

[SteveSRT8]

despite the snarky tone the above poster is absolutely correct. Changing the FF early is a 'feel good' thing, along with bigger oil filters and 3000 mile intervals