Oil Change Intervals - Low Mile Drives

[ctechauto]

Factory OICs, MM reminders, etc are all general guidelines. This is what I tell all our customers and also follow this for our own personal cars.

The real answer is it completely depends. Since it depends, the best course of action is to do UOA at places like Blackstone and go from there. All the variables of climate, drive time (short/long drives, highway vs local roads), type of oil, any additives, driving style (granny, WOT all the time, any track driving etc) all goes into it.

As cliche as the red pill oil thread is, it has a lot of good info. You can see our 100k mile FK8 with very little wear compared to their averages with our oil combo and OIC.

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[AspecR]

For synthetic oil, most manufacture

The maintenance minder also takes time into consideration. My car only has 3600 miles and it's been a bit over 10 months since I bought it with a 03/25 production date. The MM just dinged at me this morning at 15%. This really pisses me off because I was at the dealer for some warranty work last week and the MM indicated 20% oil life and they would NOT do the complementary schedule A service for me They said Honda would not pay them for the service if it was performed early.

The maintenance minder uses an algorithm that takes into account multiple factors to determine the OCI, so yes time is taken into account. It's Most will tell you they can't do the oil change til the maintence minder is at 15% but I did all the Honda Service pass oil changes on my car at 50% which worked out 4500 miles of driving.

The dealership I worked for will do them as long as it's been requested by the customer. I know of 2 other dealerships thatb did them before the Maintenance minder went off.

 

[Nothing]

The maintenance minder uses an algorithm that takes into account multiple factors to determine the OCI, so yes time is taken into account. It's Most will tell you they can't do the oil change til the maintence minder is at 15% but I did all the Honda Service pass oil changes on my car at 50% which worked out 4500 miles of driving.

The dealership I worked for will do them as long as it's been requested by the customer. I know of 2 other dealerships thatb did them before the Maintenance minder went off.

I had my dealer do every 6 months for the 2 years, even though MM was at 70%. I hated going and waiting, but work was super busy then and I had some things I could do waiting in the lobby. I did opt out of the tire rotation after they scratched it (matte wheels are the worst though). Apparently they hated it too, bc they left a rag in my intake. They offered another oil change, but I'm not sure if I'll ever take them up on that.

 

[Xmetal]

I had my dealer do every 6 months for the 2 years, even though MM was at 70%. I hated going and waiting, but work was super busy then and I had some things I could do waiting in the lobby. I did opt out of the tire rotation after they scratched it (matte wheels are the worst though). Apparently they hated it too, bc they left a rag in my intake. They offered another oil change, but I'm not sure if I'll ever take them up on that.

Unfortunately, my dealer is following it by the book and won't do it for me until it reached 15%. This is why I'm going to just take their one and only free oil change and won't be buying any of their prepaid services. Good idea on the tire rotation - I'm going to opt out of the tire rotation as well when I go back for the oil change this week.

 

[Clark_Kent]

Change your oil, once a year, every 5k miles or when Maintenance Minder gets to 50% which ever comes first. Why 50% because if you leave it up to the maintenace minder your oil change intervals will be around every 9-11k miles, which is too long to go between oil changes, especially with how little your car gets driven.

That has not been my experience. Just over 3 years, 1,600 miles and three oil changes all prompted by the Maintenance Minder. I just got the A7 as well right around the 3 year mark. This 'when should I change my oil' nonsense is overbaked. The only time it makes sense to adopt your own program is under extreme circumstances which represents a infinitesimal tranche of the population. But look, if folks want to change their oil 3 times per year because racecar, it's their money, their car - go for it!

 

[AspecR]

That has not been my experience. Just over 3 years, 1,600 miles and three oil changes all prompted by the Maintenance Minder. I just got the A7 as well right around the 3 year mark. This 'when should I change my oil' nonsense is overbaked. The only time it makes sense to adopt your own program is under extreme circumstances which represents a infinitesimal tranche of the population. But look, if folks want to change their oil 3 times per year because racecar, it's their money, their car - go for it!

You’re an outlier, 1600 miles in 3 years means your experience with the maintenance minder does not represent the vast majority of Honda owners. I did say either once a year, every 5k miles or when the MM gets to 50%, whichever comes first. The one year mark would beat the other requirements in your case

 

[TypeRD]

For synthetic oil, most manufacture

The maintenance minder also takes time into consideration. My car only has 3600 miles and it's been a bit over 10 months since I bought it with a 03/25 production date. The MM just dinged at me this morning at 15%. This really pisses me off because I was at the dealer for some warranty work last week and the MM indicated 20% oil life and they would NOT do the complementary schedule A service for me They said Honda would not pay them for the service if it was performed early.

That’s LAME and stupid. My dealership took care of me in that same situation. They said “it was close enough.” Honda Corp. doesn’t know if your car’s MM was actually at 15%, unless maybe you have the HondaLink app and everything tracked there.

 

[Xmetal]

That’s LAME and stupid. My dealership took care of me in that same situation. They said “it was close enough.” Honda Corp. doesn’t know if your car’s MM was actually at 15%, unless maybe you have the HondaLink app and everything tracked there.

I know. The dealers and Honda Corp are just playing us by pointing fingers at each other. The dealer told me that they don't get paid if the MM was above 15% and Honda Corp can track it through the vehicle. I was so infuriated that I filed complaint case with Honda Corp about this strict 15% rule and they actually replied back today (left me a voicemail) saying that their service contract is with the dealer and each dealership is independently operated and there's nothing they can do, which is BS because they are the one who set the contract with the dealerships themself! Both parties basically said that their hands are tied. The thing is that since this is the only "free" service that I will get (being a 2025 model), what difference does it make when I decide to get the service done since I'll have to pay for all subsequent services myself anyway - it doesn't make any sense to piss off your customer with the silliest rule!

When I purchased the service plan for my wife's S3, Audi didn't care the time or mileage when I brought the car in for service. I just told them I want the 20K, 30K, etc. service done, they go look up what services that I had already claimed and went to perform the service per my request.

 

[Nothing]

I know. The dealers and Honda Corp are just playing us by pointing fingers at each other. The dealer told me that they don't get paid if the MM was above 15% and Honda Corp can track it through the vehicle. I was so infuriated that I filed complaint case with Honda Corp about this strict 15% rule and they actually replied back today (left me a voicemail) saying that their service contract is with the dealer and each dealership is independently operated and there's nothing they can do, which is BS because they are the one who set the contract with the dealerships themself! Both parties basically said that their hands are tied. The thing is that since this is the only "free" service that I will get (being a 2025 model), what difference does it make when I decide to get the service done since I'll have to pay for all subsequent services myself anyway - it doesn't make any sense to piss off your customer with the silliest rule!

When I purchased the service plan for my wife's S3, Audi didn't care the time or mileage when I brought the car in for service. I just told them I want the 20K, 30K, etc. service done, they go look up what services that I had already claimed and went to perform the service per my request.

If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure I paid more markup in 2023 than you did, so probably fair trade. It's a dealer oil change, you aren't missing out on much.

 

[TypeRD]

I know. The dealers and Honda Corp are just playing us by pointing fingers at each other. The dealer told me that they don't get paid if the MM was above 15% and Honda Corp can track it through the vehicle. I was so infuriated that I filed complaint case with Honda Corp about this strict 15% rule and they actually replied back today (left me a voicemail) saying that their service contract is with the dealer and each dealership is independently operated and there's nothing they can do, which is BS because they are the one who set the contract with the dealerships themself! Both parties basically said that their hands are tied. The thing is that since this is the only "free" service that I will get (being a 2025 model), what difference does it make when I decide to get the service done since I'll have to pay for all subsequent services myself anyway - it doesn't make any sense to piss off your customer with the silliest rule!

Agree! It’s really up to the dealership to take care of the customer first. They’re independently owned. Yes, Honda Corp sets the rules, but clearly the dealerships have the final say in how they wish to operate. Here’s the real ass kicker : Think about how little an oil change must cost the dealership. For them to value the corporate rule above taking care of a customer (while knowing that you’ll have to come back in maybe a week!), in order for them to save just a few bucks is brain dead. Inconveniencing you with a dumb rule is worth more to them than simply doing the right thing!

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