oil % meter in 06 Civic - is it reliable?

[sasilverbullet]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum - but it's about oil...

I just recently purchased a 06 Civic and it has a oil % meter. The oil was just recently changed and when bought it read 100%. I've driven about 250 miles and now it's at 90%.

I've never had a car with one of these - what exactly is it measuring? Quantity, foreign matter? How reliable are they? If they are reliable, what percentage should I change the oil? It has some kind of dino oil in it right now, and I'm going to change it to the Honda synthetic at the next oil change.

 

[CharBaby]

Others will chime in with better explanations than I but, I'll be the first to comment with the little that I know about the OLM. From my understanding, they're quite reliable. The OLM measures engine run time, number of start ups and lots of thing like that. But it doesn't measure contaminents per/say.

From my vewing of the UOA section, the OLM % seems consistant with the Used Oil Analysis. I don't know if I said that correctly or if it's clear to you what I meant. GM's and Honda's OLM seem to work correctly but, only for the amount of time the engine is being used and may even measure the amount of times the engine ran up to higher RPM, IDK! But, they don't know the differenct between dino oil and synthetic. That would be up to the owner for example, if your using syn oil, you may want to push the % of oil life remaining, a but further

 

[NateDN10]

AFAIK - this may have changed - Honda oil life monitors are just based on mileage. GM's, for example, uses a more complex (and hopefully accurate) algorithm like Char Baby mentioned.

 

[ottotheclown]

I always use the fact that this is not my first car I have owned. So since except for a few like Mercedes the actual oil is not taken into play re. a sensor etc. If you feel the olm is needed go for it, as they seem to be on the mark. I have one in a 09 Honda but I drive in conditions that make me use my experience rather than olm. This Civic seems as weird as it seems to react start wise to the oil. In the beginning it starts with a half a turn 2k later alittle more time and at 3k alittle more. Go figure so olm vs butt dyno the butt wins.

 

[Hokiefyd]

The Honda meters are not based on mileage alone. A friend of mine who owns two of them, and tracks the Maintenance Minder along with his fuel use, sees a correlation with fuel used an the MM recommended oil change intervals. For example, the MM drops at a faster rate during the winter, when he's also using more fuel per distance driven.

I'm surprised that the MM changed to 90% after only 250 miles. The way the one in my CR-V works, it'll read 100% for any value of 91-100%. And it'll read 90% for any value of 81-90%. So for it to be reading 90% already, that does surprise me. Maybe the one in the Civic is set up a little different.

 

[chubbs1]

My uncle has an '06 4cyl Accord VP (value package), it was a no frills offering from Honda to sell some more cars. Anyhoo, I have been changing the oil forever on it and personally feel that the OLM is very "generous" to the oil. In other words I use a 'syn' like QSUD, PP, PU, M1 5w20 and at 30% the oil has been thrashed IMO. So I can only imagine what oil they were testing and it being set up for conventional oil. I would change out at 50% for Conventional (see how it looks, get UOA, go from there) or 30% "syn" get a UOA and go from there. This is just an observation of the '06 Accord OLM but the same year Civic may prove to be close to this observation.

 

[sasilverbullet]

My friend who's a Honda mechanic says to change the oil at 50%. And that it senses a number of things that he's not sure of...

Anyone know for sure?

 

[Dave Sherman]

It doesn't do any direct measurements of the oil. My owner's manual described that it measures things such as engine RPM, mileage, temperatures, and driving conditions and predicts oil life based on those parameters. I used to drive around 90 miles a day, all highway, but it rolled up 10,040 miles before it finally hit 15%. Now that it's mostly city, it only goes 8000-9000 miles before it hits 15%.

 

[bepperb]

It doesn't know if there's water or honey in the crankcase, it measures other things.

Mine always hits 0 at 7500 miles. I'm not sure if in a manual tranny Honda if it's just a mileage counter, or if I drive enough highway that I hit "that's as long as you can go" miles.

It's normal that people think the mileage counter is too aggressive. It's strange to me that they then take this feeling and post it online to others without any scientific analysis. A five minute search of R18 and K24 UOA's would make you feel quite silly. If anything these engines can go past 0%. Changing at 50% is fine, but a waste of time money and resources that won't make your engine last any longer.

 

[ahoier]

Just another dummy meter added to the dash board.

Bottom line, I wouldn't fret at it going down 10% in 250 miles....now if this is "consistently" occuring, perhaps you may want to look at how and where you're driving.

It's my understanding that the oil life meter takes into considering how the engine is ran. So if you take the car to the track and are running high revs, it's going to deplete the oil a lot faster.....


And yea, from what I've heard they have been "calibrated" with conventional motor oil......sooo.....if you intend to use synthetic motor oil, I'm willing to bet you can take the OLM out a tad further

 

[bepperb]

Here's a few to get you started. Changing the oil at 50% for me would be 3750 miles which is insane.

This one is 12,000 miles on an 05 Accord, Iron 6ppm, Blackstone says to run it 3000 more miles (15,00 total):

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/posts/2171186/

10,000 miles (also perfect)

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/posts/2171186/

11,2000 miles, perfect:

http://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthre...rue#Post2129673

This is one of my favorites. So weird:

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/posts/2171186/

If someone can find one bad UOA, well then maybe I could see these recommendations that the MM system is too aggressive. But I have never, ever seen one on either the R18 or K24. If anything doing some research will reveal that it's on the conservative side.

Also worth mention, there are plenty of questionable UOA's on the GM DI 2.4 and 3.6. I think the GM system is probably better than the Honda system, but it does go to show that a little research might change one's opinion on MM systems... but not on the vehicles in question here.

 

[ottotheclown]

Having traveled in those areas re. uoa, Alabama , S Maine, Wisc, and even Fla except for Miami, they all were atleast then, a piece of cake. Now take someone who drives on the 410 in LA when it is open, now thats a test on how accurate these things are. But either way for me 410 in LA at anytime, is 50% all the time!! As they say either you pay me now or you pay me later.

 

[ottotheclown]

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/valvoline-5w30-sn-gf-5-4628-miles-2008-avalanche.155589/

 

[jackkpts]

Hey, one of these is my car! Yes, the OLM measures more than just distance. Before I went to annual OCI with Amsoil, my car would hit 0% at about 7,800 miles in the spring/summer months (ave 29-30 MPG) and at about 6,900-7,100 in the late fall/winter months (ave 24-26 MPG) in Wisconsin. Please note that all of the UOA listed in this post are Amsoil users. I never did UOA on a dyno oil in my Accord.

 

[sasilverbullet]

PhoneJack - so you wait till it's 0%?

I'm going to put in the Honda Synthetic 5w-20.