basic maintenance for >1000 mile road trip
 

Hello

I am moving from California to New Mexico for school and plan on taking my car.

I drive a 2006 Honda Accord, 2.4L 4 cylinder engine. Mileage is ~141000.

The road trip is ~1115 miles, and the Honda has no history of engine problems, accidents, or other issues.

I plan on changing out the oil, the oil filters, and both air filters, and rotating the tires.

However, I am concerned whether this is enough because my knowledge of cars is limited and I don't know where else to get guidance.

Unfortunately, as much as I want to bring the Honda to a dealership to have it checked, I don't have the money for it at this time :(

The last time I changed the ATF was when the car reached 130000 miles.

I replaced the spark plugs at 100000 miles.

If there is already an answer to this in a different forum, can someone point me in the right direction?

Thank you very much!

Billy

Unless your oil is nearing the time for a change, I wouldn't do a single thing, just drive the car and perform the maintenance on schedule. As for your trip, this is the easiest 1,000 miles your car will ever do.

Check the tires and air pressure. Make sure the coolant and all fluids are where they need to be. Look at the belts for cracks and wear. A few days before a long vacation I found a nail in the minivans tire. It still had the recommended pressure. So just do a good visual inspection of the car.

Last year we took two 2520+ mile road trips (Michigan to Texas and back to Michigan) in my wife's 2000 Accord sedan with AT and with over 230K on it (currently has 237K) without any problems other than my wife hitting a ratchet strap which cut a tire about 100 miles from home. Stopped at Discount tire, and they replaced it under the Road hazard warranty. We got home about 3 hours later than planned.

If the car is used as a daily driver, then you should already know how it drives, where the needles sit after it's been running a while, if it has any issues that might make you nervous, things like that. If everything is good to go, check the tire pressures and maybe even do a tire rotation (if it's due),. Same thing applies to an oil and filter change, change them IF they're due, or will be, otherwise wait until you get where you're going. A thousand miles is nothing to these cars, especially when they only have about 140K on them.

My daughter in law and my son took her 07 Pilot to Ohio for the weekend (left this morning). I think this is the 4th or 5th trip they've taken to Ohio in it since last summer when they took it to North Carolina last August. They're going again next month too (to North Carolina). She drives about 60 miles a day in it, so they know if it needs anything, it gets it.

Thank you so much!

I actually took the Honda to Big O tires and performed a coolant and brake fluid fill/flush.

Tires were also rotated.

No issues were found.

I'm going to change the motor oil and filters for the oil and air either today or tomorrow.

Thank you so much!