Maint Minder is making me NERVOUS!

[BrianWC]

OK, I'm sure I'm going to get plenty of "you're an idiot" comments. But I'd prefer rational discourse. If I'm an idiot, so be it.

2009 Honda Fit. Currently sporting 8,322 miles. Factory fill. Maintenance minder says oil life is 40%. I've repeatedly checked the oil level and it's fine. Oil color and consistancy is like new as well. Blotter test looks fine.

My mileage is 99% highway. At 72 mph, which is about the fastest I ever drive (since I kinda wanted to save gas) the engine rpms are about 2,500. Maybe a bit lower. Can't remember off the top of my head but certainly not over 2,500. I think all Honda cautions is to change the oil once a year if maint minder doesn't make it to 15% by that time. But this is frickin dino. I'd have never thought I would leave dino in anything, much less a new car, for over 8k miles. I realize highway driving is gentle on oil. But THIS gentle??? I've been a big proponent of "listening" to these OLM systems. But now that I have one on a personal vehicle, It makes me more anxious.

 

[Sylvatica]

You are not an idiot. But I consider "nervousness" to be reserved for things I can not control. An oil change I can most certainly control. I would never leave a factory fill for over 1,000 miles, therefore I would have nothing to be nervous about.

I do what my Honda MM tells me to do, but I don't tell it everything that I do - which is a darn sight more than it says to do. I have a higher standard of maintenance than the Honda engineers have settled upon with EPA/CARB in mind.

 

[BrianWC]

Why would I drain it at 1000 miles, when it's got a decent amount of moly floating around in it?

I used the GM OLM in my Chevy Colorado work truck and it never let me down. But when it's your own vehicle, I guess it's different. I'd been planning to run whatever 5W20 I could fine on sale when the MM hit 15%. But at this rate, I may be to nervous to run anything except maybe Mobil 1 0W20 or PP. And since I plan to keep the car a long time, why not?

 

[BuickGN]

My TL will take me to just under 10,000 miles with pure freeway driving but it looks like yours is going to take you a little further. I do one of two things, I change at 50% and at 0% or a flat rate like 5,000 miles.

Of interest, with the way it's been driven lately with a 1.5 mile trip to work and back and practically no freeway miles, it's likely not going to make it to 4,000 before signaling a change.

The smart thing to do would likely be run a good synthetic and follow the maintenence minder. That way you know you're more than safe. With Redline in mine, I may force myself to to this.

 

[BuickGN]

And since this is the factory fill, I would dump it now without a doubt. I remember the used oil analysis from a long time ago with several Honda V6s on factory fill that showed the oil was completely worn out before the first change was signaled.

 

[BrianWC]

Hmm, good to know.

 

[pbm]

I would have dumped that FF 5K ago, but that's me. I definitely would have dumped it by 5K (3K ago). I still believe that there are break in wear metals floating around in FF.

I dumped the FF in my Accord at 2K and it burns no oil today at 88K.

 

[sciphi]

We dumped the FF after ~2k miles. Our Fit has ~7800 miles on it now, the last ~6k miles on Pennzoil 5w20 conventional. OLM is about 50%. Still looked fine last I checked, and the level is right where it was when I changed it. We're planning on running it to about 25%, which will be in another few months. No worries, as Pennzoil conventional has proven to be a stout conventional oil.

 

[FZ1]

When in doubtump it out. It has more wear metal in it now than it will ever again have on an 8300 mile run.

 

[VicMatson]

What makes the MM work, how ca it tell whats up.

 

[crinkles]

i would go absolutely no further than 9300 miles / 15.000 km.

if you know how to reset the darned thing, i'd change to a synthetic now and reset and then follow the MM.

 

[cjhepburn]

I'm guessing the Honda Fit's break-in requirements are similar to the Civic's. It states in the Civic's owners manual, under 'Break-in Period'
'Do not change the oil until the scheduled maintenance time.'
With that said, I don't know how you're getting so many miles on the maintenance minder. I drive 120 miles/day to/from work 95% highway and I'm managing to go 7500 to get to 10%.
Are you sure you didn't accidentally reset it 3000 miles ago?

 

[JohnBrowning]

Bravery then I would be with factory fill. I get my factory fill out in under 100 miles! It would be interesting to see a used oil analysis of this oil with over 8000 miles on it and 40% life remaining!Your engine is as broken in as it is going to get. It only takes 10,000 for ring and pinion gears to break in completly and most engines are functionaly broke in in well under 1000 miles except for GM it seems most of their engines take 50,000 miles or more to settle down. I laughed at a friend for putting 3000 miles on his 1994 S-10 4.3V6 for what it is worth. Since you have an oil filter in place and these Honda's are simalar to Toyota's with reguard to how little wear metal they generate dureing break in I am sure you will be fine. It is not what I would recomend but I think you will be fine all the same.

I would stop off at Walmart or AutoZone if they have a good deal going on and pick up some synthetic oil. With your driving style I am thinking you will be able to go quite some distance on your oil changes with that oil change indicator so you might as well use a good a synthetic that will keep that engine clean. Any of the 5W30 synthetics at Walmart in the 5 quart jugs which are often on sale will work just fine!If you want to use 5W20 that is fine too but you do not have to nothing magic in the 5W20 bottle or the 5W30 so chose your own poison !

 

[StevieC]

8300 miles is enough of the FF break-in oil. Change it out with a quality grp-III syn like Pennzoil platinum and follow your OLM till life is around 5%. The syn will give you a buffer because the OLM is calibrated for dino.

IMO 8300 miles is enough on a FF and should be changed along with the filter.

BTW: You aren't an idiot, an idiot would couldn't care less and keep driving well past the OLM.

 

[BuickGN]

Originally Posted By: JohnBrowning
Bravery then I would be with factory fill. I get my factory fill out in under 100 miles! It would be interesting to see a used oil analysis of this oil with over 8000 miles on it and 40% life remaining!Your engine is as broken in as it is going to get. It only takes 10,000 for ring and pinion gears to break in completly and most engines are functionaly broke in in well under 1000 miles except for GM it seems most of their engines take 50,000 miles or more to settle down. I laughed at a friend for putting 3000 miles on his 1994 S-10 4.3V6 for what it is worth. Since you have an oil filter in place and these Honda's are simalar to Toyota's with reguard to how little wear metal they generate dureing break in I am sure you will be fine. It is not what I would recomend but I think you will be fine all the same.

I would stop off at Walmart or AutoZone if they have a good deal going on and pick up some synthetic oil. With your driving style I am thinking you will be able to go quite some distance on your oil changes with that oil change indicator so you might as well use a good a synthetic that will keep that engine clean. Any of the 5W30 synthetics at Walmart in the 5 quart jugs which are often on sale will work just fine!If you want to use 5W20 that is fine too but you do not have to nothing magic in the 5W20 bottle or the 5W30 so chose your own poison !


X2! Very good post.

I change the oil in the GN after the 30 minute cam break-in. Oil comes out sparkly. After that it's whatever normal interval I'm following and the second change looks completely normal which goes along with the fact that most break-in occurs in the first 30 minutes rapidly falling off after that. I'm sure there is more break-in going on after the 30 minute period but not much. And I learned the hard way that if there's excessive blowby or leakdown after 1,000 miles, you're just out of luck with that engine.

 

[StevieC]

BGN, while I would agree with you for every other make this is a Honda and they seem to have a different break in procedure requiring that the FF be left in for at least a few thousand miles...

Otherwise I'm with you and I have done what you are sugguesting with my Santa Fe. It's now 200K KM (120K miles) later and no leaks/no oil consumption and the compression is dead on spec with what they call for in the tech manual.

 

[unDummy]

You should UOA this factory fill!

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: unDummy
You should used oil analysis this factory fill!
Forgot to mention in my last post...

I think a used oil analysis of this would be excellent to see, this would tell us if Honda is out to lunch or not. Get a TBN/TAN with it...

 

[rationull]

Brian:

I'm sure I already know the answer to this but you're sure it didn't accidentally get reset at some point, right? If you're not sure, you should be able to figure it out by checking what services it's going to require -- if it's a "2" service then it must've been reset.

40% at 8,xxx miles seems like a lot. On my Civic right now, for instance, I'm at 30% (should drop to 20% very soon here) at around 5700 miles. I drive consistently at higher engine speed than you though, so maybe it's just normal.

 

[BuickGN]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
BGN, while I would agree with you for every other make this is a Honda and they seem to have a different break in procedure requiring that the FF be left in for at least a few thousand miles...

Otherwise I'm with you and I have done what you are sugguesting with my Santa Fe. It's now 200K KM (120K miles) later and no leaks/no oil consumption and the compression is dead on spec with what they call for in the tech manual.

Definitely, I wasn't suggesting he change his FF out in 30 minutes lol. So far the conclusion or should I say speculation is Honda recommends leaving the FF in due to the moly content. If that could be confirmed I think it's an extremely good idea to swap the FF somewhat early, say 1,000 miles with..............Redline.

Unrelated subject but I don't have a problem switching to a syn early on in the engine's life. I don't see how it can be so "slippery" that it prevents break-in.