I have a 2007 Honda Fit, and my last oil change where I added Kendall 5w-20 Synthetic blend was 3 months and 300 miles ago. The oil life meter on my car reads 90%. Since this is the first car I've ever owned with a oil life meter on it, I'm wondering if I should go by its reading and throw the old 3 months or 3,000 miles which ever comes first rule, out the door?
Should I follow the 3 months/3,000 miles rule?
- Thread starter AustinCooper
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Follow the Oil Life Monitor and not the 3/3,0000 rule.
honda says run it till your at 15%, but they use to say under sever driving (which most people fall under) to change it at 3,750.
I guess my question is, "Why own a car?"
No, no, no, you're supposed to perform a virtual oil change. Every 3k miles or 3 months, send me the money you would've spent on an oil change and then sit back and relax for another 3k/3mo. When your oil life monitor gets down to 15%, keep the money and change your oil. Lather, rinse, repeat, for the life of the car
Follow the OLM or 1 year, whichever is first. The L15 is an easy engine on oil, from what I have heard.
My fiancee has an 09 Fit. The OLM takes the changes to 10-11k miles for our driving. The car has 23k miles on it, we've changed the oil 3 times. Once at 2k miles, next at 15% at ~12k miles, and the last at 30% at 21k miles. No burning oil that I could see.
My fiancee has an 09 Fit. The OLM takes the changes to 10-11k miles for our driving. The car has 23k miles on it, we've changed the oil 3 times. Once at 2k miles, next at 15% at ~12k miles, and the last at 30% at 21k miles. No burning oil that I could see.
Synthetic oils in general do not degrade with time any where near as much as dino-oils. You use a Synthetic. If it were me I would feel fine about running it for up to a year, / but you might also want to look at your warranty, and keep within the required OCI for it.
Other than the oil moniter being programmed for non syn oils . What makes you use syn oil?
Not with todays oils .
300 miles in 3 months!!! Wow thats not even a tank of gas! Im blown away. Seems like you could just forget oil changes and ride a bike. I thought I was crazy only putting 240 miles a month on each one of my cars.
It has been a while since I bought a new car but when I did buy my car new, in the owner's manual, it basically said that the oil should be changed every 3000 miles or 3 months under severe conditions. If you read the fine print for 'severe conditions' it applied to everybody except for travelling salesmen driving long distances on the highway in perfect weather and driving conditions.
So if it said the same thing in your owner's manual and you tried to drive 1 year or 15,000 miles on one oil change, and some sort of problem developed, you could have a problem at the new car dealership where you bought the vehicle. So for a new vehicle I think it is important to follow what is in the owner's manual.
Other than that it is up to the owner of a vehicle. From my point of view motor oil is a lot cheaper than a remanufactured engine. Although it is possible to change oil too frequently it is ALSO possible to not change oil frequently enough. Especially when it comes to conventional motor oil which you can probably buy pretty cheap (especially in a 5 quart container) frequent oil changes seem to make some sense. You can go further with synthetic oil but who really wants to drive 25,000 miles on one Mobil 1 oil change? Is it worth the bragging rights?
So if it said the same thing in your owner's manual and you tried to drive 1 year or 15,000 miles on one oil change, and some sort of problem developed, you could have a problem at the new car dealership where you bought the vehicle. So for a new vehicle I think it is important to follow what is in the owner's manual.
Other than that it is up to the owner of a vehicle. From my point of view motor oil is a lot cheaper than a remanufactured engine. Although it is possible to change oil too frequently it is ALSO possible to not change oil frequently enough. Especially when it comes to conventional motor oil which you can probably buy pretty cheap (especially in a 5 quart container) frequent oil changes seem to make some sense. You can go further with synthetic oil but who really wants to drive 25,000 miles on one Mobil 1 oil change? Is it worth the bragging rights?
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You guys misjudge him. All is not like it seems. He has a car for each day of the week.
All ribbing aside, follow your MM. If you want to stretch forth into this uncharted territory with more confidence, do a UOA at the 6 month mark.
Here oil changes and UOA can be great tranquilizers. They make you feel better.
All ribbing aside, follow your MM. If you want to stretch forth into this uncharted territory with more confidence, do a UOA at the 6 month mark.
Here oil changes and UOA can be great tranquilizers. They make you feel better.
Originally Posted By: StevieC
to BITOG!
Follow the Oil Life Monitor and not the 3/3,0000 rule.
Thank you. I like that advice. The reason I didn't put many miles on my car during the last 3 months is because my bicycle and motorcycle are my default vehicles this time of year
Follow the Oil Life Monitor and not the 3/3,0000 rule.
Thank you. I like that advice. The reason I didn't put many miles on my car during the last 3 months is because my bicycle and motorcycle are my default vehicles this time of year
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Sounds fine to me...
I didnt know that Hondas had OLMs. Thats awesome. Even their cheapest car has one, just amazing. Puts my Yaris for shame thats for sure.
Do what you feel is right. I still go by the 3 and 3. Especially when I changed it yesterday and it looked like semi gloss black paint.
3 month/3000 miles is a myth, not a rule.
My 2010 Civic with ~3700 miles is showing 60% on the OLM, which for Honda means it is somewhere between 51%-60%, but it should be clicking over to 50% within the next few miles. Basically, I'm on track for an 8k OCI, but I'll probably stick with 5k OCI's on this vehicle, just cause I get antsy about performing the service. However, from what I've read from other Honda owners, I'd have no qulams about taking it down to when the MM tells me to change it. If I stuck to the MM, I would definitely switch over to a full Syn though - not a fan of dino in excess of about 6k. Just my 2!
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