I have a two year old Honda and I'm tired of paying $100+ every season to have the shop service. I am reasonably mechanically adept so decided to try it myself. Here's the deal in case you're in the same situation.
There are four tasks to complete. Fortunately, Honda supplies a very good owner's manual for you to follow. Very few tools are needed: a torque wrench (a must!); socket set, a spark plug socket, spark plug gap tool, low profile pan and a block of wood.
1. Oil change: couldn't be more straightforward. Simply tip the mower on its right side and dump the old oil out the fill hole. You will need a low profile pan that holds at least a pint (16ozs). I've done this about three times now and every time the Oil looks really beat up compared to used oil you get out of an automobile engine. Remember, there is no cooling system and no filter, so frequent oil changes are a must. Since this is BITOG, I also decided to beef up the oil over spec so have been using M1 0W-40 which has a beefed up additive package. YMMV. Also, on the oil, pay attention to the manual's instruction on checking the oil level. You do not screw in the cap to check the level. This means if you screw the cap in to check it, you won't have enough oil in it-not a good thing.
2. Air filter: couldn't be simpler. Plug and play. Just pay attention to the orientation of the old one and install the new one identically. Save this filter. You can probably blow it out and re-use it.
3. Spark plug: purchase the specified plug. Check the gap before installing (mine needed a small adjustment). Torque to specified value. Pretty simple.
4. Blades: this was the biggie for me. I do not own a proper power grinder to sharpen them. Maybe someone can school us on the proper file and technique to do by hand but it won't be me. My solution? Buy an extra set of blades and have the shop sharpen them. They are not expensive and the shop charges $7.50/blade to put a knife edge on them so for now, I'm going to give the shop $15/ yr for that. There are two bolts holding the two blades on (they are stacked). This is where the block of wood comes in, placing it so that the blades won't turn while you are torquing he bolts. Pay attention to how they are stacked together so that you get this right when replacing. I discovered that my large blade had a large chunk of metal missing where I'd run over a solid object so I ended up replacing it as well.
So, that's it. I spent about $50 this time around, $30 of which went for the extra set of blades (optional). I will change the oil at mid season and next winter, do 1,2 &4 above, changing the plug only every other season. I will spend $5 on oil, blow out the air filter, and swap out the blade pair. I will have reduced by annual maintenance expense from $110 to about $20, an 82% reduction.
There are four tasks to complete. Fortunately, Honda supplies a very good owner's manual for you to follow. Very few tools are needed: a torque wrench (a must!); socket set, a spark plug socket, spark plug gap tool, low profile pan and a block of wood.
1. Oil change: couldn't be more straightforward. Simply tip the mower on its right side and dump the old oil out the fill hole. You will need a low profile pan that holds at least a pint (16ozs). I've done this about three times now and every time the Oil looks really beat up compared to used oil you get out of an automobile engine. Remember, there is no cooling system and no filter, so frequent oil changes are a must. Since this is BITOG, I also decided to beef up the oil over spec so have been using M1 0W-40 which has a beefed up additive package. YMMV. Also, on the oil, pay attention to the manual's instruction on checking the oil level. You do not screw in the cap to check the level. This means if you screw the cap in to check it, you won't have enough oil in it-not a good thing.
2. Air filter: couldn't be simpler. Plug and play. Just pay attention to the orientation of the old one and install the new one identically. Save this filter. You can probably blow it out and re-use it.
3. Spark plug: purchase the specified plug. Check the gap before installing (mine needed a small adjustment). Torque to specified value. Pretty simple.
4. Blades: this was the biggie for me. I do not own a proper power grinder to sharpen them. Maybe someone can school us on the proper file and technique to do by hand but it won't be me. My solution? Buy an extra set of blades and have the shop sharpen them. They are not expensive and the shop charges $7.50/blade to put a knife edge on them so for now, I'm going to give the shop $15/ yr for that. There are two bolts holding the two blades on (they are stacked). This is where the block of wood comes in, placing it so that the blades won't turn while you are torquing he bolts. Pay attention to how they are stacked together so that you get this right when replacing. I discovered that my large blade had a large chunk of metal missing where I'd run over a solid object so I ended up replacing it as well.
So, that's it. I spent about $50 this time around, $30 of which went for the extra set of blades (optional). I will change the oil at mid season and next winter, do 1,2 &4 above, changing the plug only every other season. I will spend $5 on oil, blow out the air filter, and swap out the blade pair. I will have reduced by annual maintenance expense from $110 to about $20, an 82% reduction.
