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The almighty Sig Forum! My wife drives a 2016 Honda Accord EX with sensing. She has been using fully synthetic and I believe she is only getting around 5k-6k miles before her car tells her to get an oil change (for the life of me she cant get me an exact number). Now I was there at the dealership when the salesman said that the car magically tests the oil and determines the oil life based on your driving habits, or something along those lines. My question is, does she REALLY need an oil change every 5k miles with synthetic? Is it really testing the oil? Or is this just a fancy way to give people a heads up on their oil change by saying 30% oil life, 20%, 5%, etc., but really just calculating that off a specific set of miles versus what is really going on with the oil. THANK YOU! | ||
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Shorted to Atmosphere |
The oil is not being tested. There are algorithms for how the car is driven. Short trips will have you changing the oil sooner than if you spent more time on the highway. I change my oil between 5-7k miles. On my wife's car I change every 5k miles. Both get Mobil 1. My wife makes a lot of short trips. | |||
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Member |
Time, mileage, and driving style all factor into it, as said above. Lots of short trips accelerates the oil life meter. The Enemy's gate is down. | |||
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I own the same car and had mine changed today. The tech told me he has some go 8000 miles without the 15 percent signal, and others 4000. Has to do with highway miles, versus short trips and myriad of other things. | |||
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Member |
Same as said above. I have a 2011 Pilot (Touring 4WD-V6) and it specifically says in the owners manual to let the vehicle computers tell you when any maintenance is due. Its all based on how each individual vehicle is driven. Honda uses a alpha numeric system to tell you when and what needs attention. So far for the past 3.5 yrs we have owned the vehicle, it has been around just over 5K miles on oil changes. The dealer automatically puts the reminder sticker at 5K intervals but the onboard Honda system goes past that. I ask dealer what to follow and was told to follow the onboard computer. That the reminder sticker is generic for them. I just do what the computer says and so far no issues. Using Honda filters and synthetic at dealer. Which has been less expensive then doing the oil changes myself. I will say that when it said to check brakes the brakes actually needed replacement, which I did myself. Again its been pretty accurate on telling what needs attention. Some things are mileage related only though, like the timing belt, brake fluid, trans fluid, diff fluid and transfer case. Timing belt is mileage/age...105K/7yrs and the brake fluid is every 3yrs regardless of mileage. The other drivetrain fluids are every 30K. If you have a timing belt make sure you do at mileage/age interval. Honda engines are interference engines and damage to valves/pistons can occur if the belt brakes. " like i said,....i didn't build it, i didn't buy it, and i didn't break it." | |||
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| His diet consists of black coffee, and sarcasm.  |
The first part is bogus - nothing actually chemically analyzes the oil - but there is some truth to the second part. An algorithm measures mileage, number of stops and starts, engine temperature, vehicle speed and other factors and calculates service intervals. | |||
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Sigforum K9 handler |
Oil is cheap........ | |||
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| Member |
Only the V6 Accord has the timing belt. My 2006 Accord V6, 6sp had a timing belt. ********* "Some people are alive today because it's against the law to kill them". | |||
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| Raised Hands Surround Us Three Nails To Protect Us  |
This, this, and this! 5k is the max I go between oil changes. I have one of those nifty sensors on my Expedition I was at 30% according to the computer. ———————————————— The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad. If we got each other, and that's all we have. I will be your brother, and I'll hold your hand. You should know I'll be there for you! | |||
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I can vouch for this...in my 2010 I notice that the light comes on a lot sooner in the summer and if I am doing a lot of city driving and in cooler months or if I am on highway a lot more it lasts longer. | |||
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| If you see me running try to keep up |
The only way to know for sure is to send a sample for analysis and go from there. If you plan on keeping the car until it wears out then changing the oil every 5k will reap rewards long term. I would guess that the oil would be fine at 7500 but oil is cheap insurance and the only downside to changing early is $$$$. | |||
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| Member |
Thanks for the feedback! She absolutely makes shorts trips almost exclusively. She does in home health and drives from patient to patient. I was assuming it just forced a change at 5k miles, it is nice to know it is a little more involved than that. I won’t recommend holding off since that is the case  I do 7500 in my 4-runner and use mobile 1, but my car isn’t fancy enough to tell me percentage, I just get a light at 5k miles. Thanks again, I figured you guys would know. They didn’t have intervals in her manual which I thought was odd. | |||
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| Member |
I looked at the manual online and it says it uses engine monitoring data to determine oil life. So it's prob on the conservative side but still a good indicator. It may also be based on conventional oil vs synthetic in which case it would be really conservative since you're using synthetic. Next time it tells you it's time I'd change it and send a sample to Blackstone for analysis. But as others have said simply changing it when prompted is pretty cheap insurance. Mongo only pawn in game of life... | |||
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I'm with jljones. not a chance I would run those kind of mileage between changes. “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” | |||
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goodheart |
We went through this with wife’s ‘06 Odyssey. I know it means nothing, but having the wrench light come on, having the warnings get increasingly annoying, you finally give in even though the oil is golden honey colored and at the top of the dipstick. My ‘18 Accord has the same system; the dealer says the manual calls for full synthetic anyway; of course he wants me to change every 4000 miles or something wayyyy below the manufacturer’s and oil company’s recommendations, because that’s how they make the money. _________________________ “ What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.”— Lord Melbourne | |||
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| Purveyor of Death and Destruction  |
They moved to a timing chain in 07 or 08. | |||
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Until I changed over to synthetic , I used to run conventional oil to 5 and 6 thousand mile intervals . NEVER had an oil related issue with any vehicle , ever . Now I go 7500 or even 8k on Pennzoil Platinum and I sleep really good at night . I don't subscribe to the " oil is cheap " theory . If that's the case why not change it at 3k for even better insurance ? Where's the break over point for those people ? Oil companies brainwashed people decades ago with the 4k oil change interval and it was one of the best marketing strategies ever . Everything still hovers around that mark in a lot of people's minds . Some shops even advocate 3k . Madness .This message has been edited. Last edited by: selogic, | |||
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BMW used to give me free oil changes every 15k or once per calendar year. All synthetic. I didn't trust it so at 7.5k or 6 months, I would do a change myself. I bought the oil filter and synthetic oil on sale so it only cost me $45. With my current car, I just change it every 6k miles with regular oil. | |||
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That's not true. Decades ago oil had to be changed at 3k miles due to many reasons. Metal design, coatings, and clearances weren't nearly as good back then in regards to piston and ring technology. Engines didn't burn nearly as clean as they do now. Engine computers have advanced greatly and keep a lot tighter control on timing and fuel delivery to keep the combustion cleaner. Oil additives have improved greatly as well. Bottom line is back then the oil did get dirty with contaminants by 3,000 miles and needed to be changed. On a lot of 80's and 90's cars, the oil would be black by 3,000 miles. It was incredibly common to take valve covers off of an engine in the 80s and 90's with 60k-100k miles and there would be all kinds of crap in the cylinder head and it's passages, even with routine oil changes. Now you take valve covers off of a late model motor with that mileage and the head is crystal clean. The factory computer does a really good job at figuring out when the oil needs to be changed, so I go by that. | |||
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I can't comment on Honda. But I own way too many cars/trucks from 3 specific brands. Each has some form of monitoring. BUT all of them say no matter what mileage or monitoring says change the oil at 6 months for warranty coverage. And so that's what I do. “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” | |||
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