The manual has no table of service vs. mileage!

toxcrusadr

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I bought a 2015 Honda Civic last month. I've always done my own oil changes and I keep a little notebook in the glove compartment with all the service info - mileage, date and work done - so it's easy to look up when I had something done or whether I need to change the oil soon.

Manuals for every car I've owned had a chart telling you when to do everything from changing the electrons in the radio to replacing the timing belt.

My new car does not.

It has a dashboard indicator that is supposed to show a number, and you look in the book and find out what the number is telling you to do. That's fine for people who don't have a clue, and it probably helps with maintenance. Or maybe it just helps the customer bring the car back to the dealer and hand them the keys and their wallet, I don't know.

But you would think it's fair to at least include in the owner's manual how often you should change the oil. That's not asking too much, is it?
 
I bought a 2015 Honda Civic last month. I've always done my own oil changes and I keep a little notebook in the glove compartment with all the service info - mileage, date and work done - so it's easy to look up when I had something done or whether I need to change the oil soon.

Unfortunately, it is all "idiot" lights now. It seems they do not want you to do your own maintenance....even the easy stuff. How dare you want to save money and know the job is done right!!
 
If you make lot's of short trips or drive in the winter you should change it at 3000 miles or less depending if you see sludge under the valve cover oil fill cap or dipstick etc.

A good Synthetic oil is much less likely to sludge up and may be okay with 7500 miles if you change the filter half way through. When I used to do a lot of highway driving with a

small car I found 6000 miles (even with the best synthetics) was the limit as you could tell by the way it ran it was time for a change. I even changed the filter every 3000 miles.

Anyway that engine was still like new at 120K miles shown by a leak down test.

I know a fellow who followed the oil reminder on his $30K brand new 2008 Accord 4 cyl and his engine even with all highway driving was a oil burner at about 90,000 miles. He never used synthetic oil which for sure would have helped.

The dealer said 600 miles on a litre or quart was normal so vowed to never buy another Honda! He drove it changing the oil more often and it seized up at 160,000 miles.

They never would replace the noisy heater fan motor either while it was under warranty!
 
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Based on my own little fleet tracking, I am convinced that oil change interval is not the primary determinant whether any given vehicle uses oil.
 
I bought a 2015 Honda Civic last month. I've always done my own oil changes and I keep a little notebook in the glove compartment with all the service info - mileage, date and work done - so it's easy to look up when I had something done or whether I need to change the oil soon.

Manuals for every car I've owned had a chart telling you when to do everything from changing the electrons in the radio to replacing the timing belt.

My new car does not.

It has a dashboard indicator that is supposed to show a number, and you look in the book and find out what the number is telling you to do. That's fine for people who don't have a clue, and it probably helps with maintenance. Or maybe it just helps the customer bring the car back to the dealer and hand them the keys and their wallet, I don't know.

But you would think it's fair to at least include in the owner's manual how often you should change the oil. That's not asking too much, is it?

My experience, coming from direct experience with a vehicle OEM, is that you are better with a reminder in front of someone rather than relying on them to actually dig out and read the manual.
 
Read on. There's a table for service at 15,000 miles that includes an oil change...So that appears to be the recommended interval.
I'm so poor, I can't PAY attention.

The full synthetic oil from Walmart is only good for about 4,500 miles. (Supertech brand).
 
Same experience here, carmakers are recommanding longer and longer oil change interval but if you want to keep the car for a long time its not good at all. What they really aim is lower maintenance costs for fleet managers or renters, and sell you a new car every 4 or 5 years. Mazda here recommands 20m kms between oil change, I do it every 10k with Castrol synthetic oil and filter change every time, its probably too long already because the oil is already badly burnt after that.
Funny stuff is modern diesel semi trucks the recommanded oil change is a whopping 100k kilometers (Volvo), and they do not seem to suffer any leaks after 300-400k kilometers on the odometer, just they are better build quality and rarely runs on cold engine
 
Being in Missouri (harsher conditions), your oil change should be every 5K. In addition to the owners manual the Honda should have came with a Maintenance booklet. BTW your Civic doesn't have a timing belt (just in case you were wondering). All Honda 4 bangers after 2011-ish switched to chains.
 
Same experience here, carmakers are recommanding longer and longer oil change interval but if you want to keep the car for a long time its not good at all. ...

I don't agree. Cars these days often come with fairly long warranty and a bad maintenance recommendation could cost them a fortune. It is not in their best interest to have that, neither directly by the cost nor indirectly by the customer changing brand.

And, despite the opinion of some, car makers do want you to be happy with their product. Yes, they would like you to buy a new car more often, of course. A product that doesn't last certainly is a way to get you to buy another, but probably not of theirs so that is not in the Brand's interest to do it that way.
 
Oil is the life blood of your car or truck. New oil is cheaper than new parts. ;) I change my oil in everything I own at 3000 miles or less. Every year I park my 67 Belair for the winter and when spring comes the first thing it gets is fresh oil and a new filter. The car is still running it's untouched 283 with 107,000 original miles. I also have an 01 Silverado that has over 200,000 miles with no issues as the oil never gets a chance to get dirty. ;)
 
My GM vehicles have a oil sensor that shows how many miles are left till an oil change. Supposedly it can sense the driving cond and adjust how often it needs a oil change. It's usually 5K for me. I'm not changing it more often than nesissary
 
I used to have a Saab and 100 mile roundtrip commute. I would fill up at the beginning of the
5th day. I discovered that just past 2000 miles the MPG would start falling and I'd have to
stop and fill up earlier than the 5th day.

Back then there were oil specials at free to 99cents per quart. so I would change the oil at 2K -
which is about once a month. instead of getting under a car I would use an electric oil extractor
and suck it out the top. 5 minutes and no cleanup other than washing hands.

then it liked a certain brand of gas to get the best MPG.

no other car has telegraphed this behavior since but I don't miss it - it was the most
unreliable car I've had other than the 5 chevies I used to love.
 
My experience, coming from direct experience with a vehicle OEM, is that you are better with a reminder in front of someone rather than relying on them to actually dig out and read the manual.

Yes, but again, I didn't say I objected to the reminder light. I only object to the lack of comprehensive printed info in the manual.

If it came with a separate maint. schedule booklet when new, I don't have it. I plan to go bug the dealer I bought it from and insist on some kind of printed info I can refer to.

I have had pretty good luck with older engines running 10W30 and 5W20 by changing oil every 3000-5000 mi. I assume the tolerances are tighter on these newer engines if they need 0W20 just to get the oil in there. I probably won't let it go 15,000. Even 7500 or 10k is a lot more than I've gone with my older cars so it will seem like a dream come true. The '93 Mazda has been burning a quart every 500-1000 mi, so it will be nice to stop doing that. But that engine is a DOHC V6. My mechanic said to change it diligently every 3000 if I wanted to keep it a long time. I've done pretty well and it has 280,000 on it with the original rings and all. So it didn't do too bad.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts! And for the Honda maintenance link. :thumbsup:
 
Modern stuff uses the ECM to do a lot of that thinking for you. It decides when the oil is done based on driving conditions and habits. Its not necessarily a "change every X miles or Y months" deal anymore. Modern engines are also a lot tighter and cleaner than old ones so the oil doesn't get as crapped up as it used to. The oil being better also plays into that.
 
Mrs. H has a 2016 CR-V with the same deal.
I don't like it (probably for the same reason you don't). The worst thing is you kind of have to wait for it to tell you what it needs (changing oil prospectively seems like not the best idea, since when it's really & truly oil time it will also be time for other things). On the other hand, with nearly 30k miles on her car, it's just coming up for its second service next week (she bought it in July 2016).

So -- I guess it's OK.

I think the idea is it won't call for service it doesn't need. I presume there are no set intervals for anything (even -- ??? -- rotating tires).
 
Yes, but again, I didn't say I objected to the reminder light. I only object to the lack of comprehensive printed info in the manual.

Perhaps it was not written well, but my comment wasn't to infer what you should like because that aspect isn't really my concern.

"You" in my comment was in reference to the OEM and might have been better said with "they".
 
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