I just wanted to share this with the forum, in the event it might pursuade others from "over maintaining" their cars.
I bought a 2006 Honda Odyssey used from the original owner back in 2013 with 50k miles on it.
The car was in Mint condition. I decided I wanted to pamper the car. I went to the Honda dealer for everything.
Well there you go, it gets expensive, quick, to have a shop do everything, especially if someone is OCD about maintenance, or an *easily suggestable* person who would have whatever work done, that a dealer svc dept suggests (depending on honesty of service advisor of course).
I did every possible preventative maintenance on it. Periodic brake fluid changes. Periodic power steering fluid changes.
Without knowing the period, it might have been overkill, but it's not like you should run the same fluid forever, either. I don't subscribe to the idea that a vehicle needs brake fluid changed every couple years, and have had no problems extending that period much longer, but do accept that certain vehicles and certain driving environments may benefit from more frequent changes. Power steering fluid, meh, I'll check the level and if it looks nasty on a paper towel that I wipe the dipstick with, I'll siphon out the reservoir, run that a while, then repeat. It's also good to know if the specific vehicle is known to be prone to steering rack failure, not so much the pump unless it is difficult to access for replacement.
I changed the transmission fluid every 15,000 miles. I changed the oil every 4,000 miles with premium full synthetic (mainly Pennzoil Ultra Platinum), and either Honda OEM or Fram Ultra filters. About 2 years ago I transitioned to lower priced full synthetic oil and filters.
I only used the expensive OEM Honda replacement parts for everything.
It's a Honda so frequent transmission fluid changes are a good idea, but yeah, 15K mi might be on the short end of necessary, except being a van, we don't know how much weight you were hauling. The OCI was more reasonable even if modern oils don't need one that short for "average" use, but let's suppose you had extended it to 5K mi instead of 4K, then that isn't that many more oil changes and cost in the grand scheme of how much TCO there is for a vehicle, including depreciation if it isn't already old enough to not be a consideration.
OEM Honda parts, depends on which part. If the part didn't have a lot of years on it, then in my mind, that supposed superior quality of OEM parts might be an illusion, but that doesn't mean I'd get generics, and if paying shop labor anyway, that's often more of the cost difference than the OEM part, again depending on which parts.
I spent so much money on maintenance and repairs.
The remorse I am feeling now is that I sold the vehicle last month with 185k miles on it. I no longer own the van.
All the money I wasted on all that over maintenance is gone forever.
Except maybe not, because if you are paying premium shop labor and parts prices too, then if your maintenance extended the service life of a significant component, then you saved having to pay for the repair of that/those items. Plus, good service records tend to increase resale value, except for the wacky market that covid brought.
If I could go back and do it over again, I would just do adequate but sufficient maintenance with low cost fluid's, filters, parts.
For all those who over maintain their vehicles (like I did), you may want to think about how you will feel on the day you eventually sell that vehicle.
Fair enough, I would only religiously maintain a vehicle that I planned to keep a long time, and as it got older if not already, do more and more maintenance and repairs DIY. Are you a member of the most popular owner's forum for that vehicle? That is a wealth of info, like how to DIY and which parts are good/bad/worth-saving-on. Granted the older a vehicle gets, the more you'll find fellow owners with the same faults and experience DIY fixing them, as well as youtube videos for popular vehicles.
I feel like there is a middle ground (besides the DIY option) and while your maintenance might have been overkill, you can't really think in terms of the total cost of it all, rather than only the cost of the overkill portion because some of that, at a certain interval, was prudent to do anyway, and a little extra maintenance is better than not enough, especially if it helps you sleep at night.
