Question about first oil change

Opinions vary. I bought a filter when I bought the car and did my my first oil change at 200 miles. Can't hurt to get the break in shit out early. At 5000 miles? Yeah, I'd do it for sure. As an aside, the longer you wait, the worse the splash guard bolts are going to corrode to the subframe nuts...

I did mine at 11 months/4500km(2100mi) I think the oil life was at 30%

Most people are going to have a different answer. A lot of people will tell you to wait and do an oil change after 500-1000 miles since Hondas have break in oil and thats usually when its broken in. I waited until about 2000 miles before I changed the oil. I feel like as long as its after the "break in period" you should be fine to change it. I did have to change it myself because Honda will not do the free maintenance unless it is down to a certain percentage of oil life left.

The first change I did was at 2,000ish miles. Then I did every 3,000 changes after that. I have since changed the oil from the Honda oem GF-5 to Mobil 1 EP high mileage a GF-6A oil of the same weight with additional additive package for gaskets. Did an oil analysis liked what it showed. So now I'm at 5,000 mile changes with a new filter each change.

I stuck with the OEM filter as its set at 13 PSI bypass setting. That's kind of hard to match from the aftermarket filters that are available. Most of them are set to a lower or higher PSI for bypass.

It seems like the engineers that work for the company that produces the most IC engines in the world know what they’re doing when they instruct consumers to follow the maintenance minder.

Certainly Honda has analyzed the oil (and the engine internals) in testing these engines far more than any of the “it’s a turbo engine, I wouldn’t go more than 5K between changes” people ever will.

Oil/filters are cheap enough. IMHO 5K is a good interval, but as mentioned the Maintenance Minder calculates driving habits and will determine an appropriate OCI, however I will not be waiting to change my oil/filer every 7.5K or 10K that's for sure.

The first change on my Si was at 500 miles, using Mobil 1 0W20 and Mobil M1-110A filter. I'm probably going to change it every 3,000 miles from now on.

Just do what you want but understand that it doesn't really matter as long as you adhere to the Honda recommended service intervals. 98% of everyone here will sell their Si's long before the engines fail so it's a matter of how much you want to spend servicing your car during ownership. People put far too much emphasis on engine oil when engine failure is so far down the list of likely failures on modern cars.

Got my first one done at 7,500 when the minder went off. I'd probably aim for 5k personally. Too early can be worse than waiting because of the needed break in additives.

I think a better question for a Honda engineer is what do they have you focusing on?

In place of if they know what they're doing or not?

I'm sure they're skilled or they wouldn't work for Honda. Since I can't ask a Honda engineer that. It leaves me to make some assumptions.

They are likely tied into a contract as well limiting the answers they can give. Especially in regards to the press depending on nature of the question being asked.

Depending on what you do for a living. This is more common than you might think 😬.

Looking at this vehicle the way it was engineered. I'd say their focus is on reliability during warranty but not solely. With a huge emphasis on reducing emissions increasing fuel economy. Selling the fact that maintenance cost will be lower. Touting major advancements in engine manufacturing or oil fluids so on.

Kind of like was done with electric vehicle batteries. That didn't work out so hot in the last Chicago deep freeze.

If there were any major workable advancements in batteries they failed.

Batteries don't like it when it's cold or super hot they have an operating range always have.

Some examples of how I came to that conclusion on their focus. Using the 11th gen Civic as an example below.

Low pressure nozzles and small windshield washer reservoir. Well that reduces volatile organic compounds released drastically. It's not like they have a choice. They must earn that carbon credit with compliance or buy it from Tesla.

Let's see here auto idle start stop reduces tailpipe emissions. Can't create no emissions if there's nothing coming out of there. It's also said to increase fuel economy🤔. Seems like a lot of failure points introduced there extra wear way over complicated.

As long as it doesn't break down during the warranty I guess 🤷. After that who cares especially when your business is selling new automobiles and parts. I could see the incentive for wanting any issues to be out of warranty.

Let's see what other engineering marvels are in here. Oh yes rev hang who can forget about rev hang.😅 It reduces hydrocarbon emissions by a very fractional amount. Who cares if it's harder on the transmission and components. If the RPMs drop much much slower. Increasing the likelihood for a miss shift or a rough shift. Wears out the throttle plate motor quicker.

As long as it doesn't break down during warranty I guess 🤷‍♂️. After that well that sounds like a pretty good deal. At least it's not on our dime will sell you the parts to fix it or a new automobile.

It'll be just like the old one maybe with a tad more rev hanging. As long as it doesn't break down during warranty on our dime. After all we're in the business of selling new cars new parts.

Now that sure makes the manufacturer look greedy. It's just a short list it goes on and on much further than that. It's far from Hondas founders motto which happens to be my signature.

Truth be told though they don't have much of a choice. They must remain competitive that is the market today. If they don't earn those credits they have to buy them from Tesla and it's not cheap. Not to mention Tesla gets more support from Big Brother through incentives than any auto manufacturer out there.

They've had to buy these in the past fairly recently. They are not alone most of the manufacturers are beholden to this.

Looking at the mechanics of all this. Looking at how the automobiles are engineered today. I think it becomes pretty clear their focus. I'd say I'm probably not far off from what the engineers are instructed to focus on. If they were to refuse they'd be out of a job.

It won't matter anyways in a few short years. We're all going to be buying Chinese electric vehicles. Whether we want to or not that will be the only option. Kind of like you have now with rev hang on new automobiles.

The Glory Days of if you build a superior product people will buy it. They are long gone unfortunately. Anybody practicing that business model today wouldn't be able to stay in business.

Look around at some of these cars new ones. They all seem to have features in common maintenance minders auto start stop smaller windshield washer reservoirs rev hang.

Lifetime fluids and longer intervals well that's good for the environment. It means you're complying earning the credit instead of paying a war price to obtain it stay in business.

The Government will sort it out eventually I'm sure but can't blame the manufacturer for trying to stay afloat till then. I still remember a time when Honda didn't suffer from rev hang. Oh Lord how I long for those days where you got what you paid for. Where a return on an investment was expected.

Exceeding their recommendation for oil change interval. Think of it like a part that exceeds the OEM spec it won't void your warranty. I don't see any downsides to it except for making this thing last longer. That's my logic for not using the idle start- stop feature also.

Lastly Moly lube that's what they assemble the engines with that's the additive. It's nothing new it's been used for years. About 3,000 MI you want to get it out of there that didn't change until recently.

I think it's obvious why used oil is not good for the environment. Thankfully it's still just a recommendation they haven't made oil a lifetime fluid.

Holy is that an AI-assisted undergraduate essay? Because you spent a whole afternoon writing that. I didn't read it but I appreciate your passion.

Lol my 2nd oil change will be Monday since I got the alert today and it's at 10% and looked pretty dirty. At 9800km. First time driving it today in 3 months since I broke my ankle and tore up some ligaments from hockey.

TGIF now I get to do something fun make videos for you guys and work on my own stuff. 🙂 We're going to cover sticky steering TSB. We're also going to cover the recall with its associated TSB. We're going to do a full vehicle multi-point inspection. Test the brake fluid the radiator fluid check the drive belt. Measure the tire tread rotate the tires check the brake pad wear. This ought to be fun and we're going to service the CVT. Chit I got to do an oil change too we're going to cover it all though.🤠

Honda engines run at the manufacturing site for a few hours while they run compliance testing. They then change the oil, so the engine is already somewhat broken in. No need to change until recommended.

Honda engines run at the manufacturing site for a few hours while they run compliance testing. They then change the oil, so the engine is already somewhat broken in. No need to change until recommended.