If I follow maintenance minder I usually don't require an oil change for 7500 or 8000 miles. I've been getting my oil changed at about 40%-30% oil life since I got my car (2009 Accord Coupe V6 3.5L EXL) in september of 2009.

Why does all maintenance seem to be tied to oil changes? I've never had maintenance minder remind me to do anything because I always change the oil before it hits 15%. Am I screwing myself? I just hit 3 years of ownership and I took it to the dealership and had them refresh most of the fluids (AT, power steering, brake) and I changed the engine and cabin air filters. I feel like I waited way too long to do most of these things (42K miles).

I've seen a lot of posts around here where people are saying they change their oil at 3000-3500 miles, and everywhere I take it gives a sticker with a mileage of current+3500. If we're supposed to change the oil every 3500 miles, why doesn't maintenance minder hit 15% at that mileage? I guess I just don't get maintenance minder. It seems worthless if you're going to change your oil before 15%.

Any words of wisdom for me? I'm probably going to start changing my engine air filter every 20K miles because it's pretty cheap and easy. The AT drain and fill is crazy expensive at the dealership, so I don't plan on doing that for another 3 years. Is that bad? I might do it sooner if I learn to do it myself, but $250 seems steep. I'm thinking I really didn't need to drain and fill the power steering fluid yet. Was I too soon on it? The manual recommended brake fluid replacement at 3 years, so I don't feel bad about having that done. Is there anything I missed doing that I should have done?

tl;dr:
2009 Accord Coupe V6 3.5L EXL with 42K miles
-Is maintenance minder worthless if you change your oil before 15% life?
-I just got my AT, brake and power steering fluid replaced at ~3 years and 42K miles, did I wait too long on any/all of those? Or did I do any too soon?
-Did I really need to get my power steering fluid replaced then?
-Changing the engine air filter is cheap and easy, but is it really necessary to change every 15K? I'm thinking 20K and I used one for 42K with hopefully no long term damage.
-With my maintenance history for ~3 years of ownership, did I miss anything?

Thank you very much if you took the time to process all this. Sorry if this has been mentioned many times. I saw a bunch of threads on maintenance minder, but I hope my questions are specific enough to be unique.

-Steven

 

My daughters have Civics, and the maintenance minder has been good as far as oil life goes. I use Castrol GTX and have had the used oil analyzed a couple times. The lab said that I could have gone somewhat longer.

If you really want to change your oil every 3500, I think you're wasting money doing it too often. But it's your money, not mine, so I won't stop you. It certainly doesn't HURT to change it too often. (Might hurt the environment, but doesn't hurt the car.)

Normally, you can't reset your maintenance minder until it gets down to 15% and the warning lamp comes on. When that happens, it shows a letter and some combination of numbers. Say "A-1-2" or something like that. The letter is the oil change, and the number(s) are the other maintenance items. Look in your maintenance booklet for all the things that go along with #1, #2, #3, etc. Even if you ignore the oil timing, you can still use the maintenance monitor to schedule the other stuff.

Did you miss anything? I don't know. Each time the maintenance-minder came on, did you make note of the number(s) that show up? If so, then you can check the maintenance list to see whether you missed anything. I don't own an Accord right now, and the maint.list for a Civic probably isn't exactly the same.

AT fluid - was it dirty? You really want to drain/fill that fluid before it gets dirty. That is one fluid that I'd be happy to replace more often than the schedule calls for.

Brake fluid - was it dark/muddy? Probably 3 years is an OK interval. That stuff absorbs moisture from the air & that makes it get a bit corrosive.

Power steering - you probably replaced that a bit early, but no worries.

Engine air filter - Probably too early, but if you drive in dusty area maybe it was needed. That schedule is a bit strange, because the maintenance-minder can't tell whether the filter is real dirty or not. But it's easy to open up & look for yourself. When that filter gets dirty, you can see that it's dirty. Did you change the 42k airfilter yourself? Was it dirty?

 

Thanks for the reply. I've been changing the oil about every 5000-6000 miles, but before maintenance minder has come on, so I haven't seen any messages from maintenance minder (It has been letting me reset it before it hits 15%).

I changed the engine air filter myself and it was very dirty. The cabin air filter didn't look too bad, but it had been 3 years so I went ahead and replaced it. Were you saying that changing the engine air filter at 42K miles was early? Seems very late to me. I was thinking if I started doing it every 20K miles that would still be a bit of a stretch.

When you reset maintenance minder does it assume you've completed all the maintenance up to that point? I'm wondering if I let it go to 15% if I will even get all the messages I'm supposed to because I feel like I've already missed them.

 

I meant 15k for the engine air filter is probably early. Don't sweat that air filter, because you can see whether it's dirty or clean. Dirt packed on the filter acts pretty much like extra filter media; it still filters but it's more restrictive.

With modern engine controls, a dirty air filter is EXACTLY the same as if you don't press the gas pedal as hard. The warnings about dirty air filter causing poor MPG really apply to carburators.

So it allowed you to reset before displaying the numbers... Yes, it assumes you have done each of the items that would have come due. It really doesn't "know" whether you actually have done them or not. So you'll want to review the list in the maintenance book for anything else you might have missed.

- Anti-freeze. Book probably says 10 years? so you're probably OK. If you have ever added anti-freeze, be aware that mixing types will result in something with a much shorter lifespan.

- Timing belt. Probably scheduled for 100k miles or 7 years, so you haven't missed that one yet.

- There's a whole bunch of inspections for stuff that doesn't have a predictable lifespan. Like brake pads wearing out; or torn rubber boots on the driveshaft CV joints; balljoints.

- Suspension alignment? That one depends very much on how many holes are in your roads. I don't think the maintenance-minder covers that one anyway.

 

Thanks for the info. I already had to change the rear break pads at around 30K miles. When I took it in for all the fluids they did a 27 point inspection, so hopefully they checked most if not all of the extra things you mentioned. Either way I'll probably be doing some research on how to check as many things as I can myself so I don't get screwed over. Thanks again.

 

Whenever I change oil, I also rotate the tires. Then as long as I'm taking the tires off, I'm staring right at the suspension & brakes.

- Look at the brake pads for wearing thin.

- Look at the drive axles for torn rubber boots. Inboard and outboard so 2 on each axle.

- Both control arms have a balljoint where each attaches to the steering knuckle. Are they torn?

- Steering tie-rod has a big bellows at the rack, & a balljoint where it attaches to the knuckle. Torn?

- Other bits & pieces of suspension, front and rear. Look for suspicious loose stuff or torn rubber bits.

 

The best thing for your car is buy a repair manual if your not too familiar with accords or cars. They tell you every maintenance schedule and how to check everything and even how to replace if needed. Buying the 25$ book will save you a ton of money in the long run. I recommend a Haynes brand manual but everyone has their own preference

 

I change my oil 3000 - 3500 miles usually.

Had worked with engineer whose prior job had been at Chevron Oil Research Center. Bottom line from him was oil degradation is not the issue in avoiding wear,
it's the fines of atmospheric dust that pass through the engine air filter. His statement, memory paraphrased:
'No oil quality can counteract suspended dust, which is silica (fine sand).
Oil filters only filter the larger particles [>20 - 30 microns, I believe]; the fine stuff stays in the oil.'

Since then I've forgotten about long oil change intervals.
Oil threads are problematic. Sorry for contributing to one, I guess. On to the next hot topic.

 

No worries, he is kinda right, kinda not.

When I had my used oil analyzed, there was very little silica in there. If the silica had been high, that would have been an indication of dust getting past the air filter. In that case, my first thought would be to fix the problem with the air filter, then try again. If I couldn't fix it, then short oil changes would be a kind of temporary solution until I figured out how to stop the dust from getting in there.

Or maybe I'm lucky to live where there isn't as much fine silica in the air to start with? If that's the case, it's a good reason to test your oil, don't just take my test & pretend it applies to everyone.

 

Wherever your getting ur service at is ripping u off and not advising proper maintenance. Even if u have ur oil change early, when u reset ur maintenance light to 100% u get a reminder for what other service is needed before it resets. It will read a code a1, b12345 etc. Indicating what other service is needed.