So maybe I'm on idiot but on my new 2012 Civic (This is the third one I've owned) if I follow the instructions in the manual to see the oil life left it doesn't do what it says it should do. Am I missing something? Turning the key to position II and pressing the sel/reset **** only shows me the odometer settings that I would normally see when pressing that button. Also because of a trip I ended up not getting an oil change until 3800 miles so I would've thought it would have hit the 15% mark to give me the oil change light but maybe not.

 

OK, so it's real simple.
When you turn on the engine, on the steering wheel you will see a button that says "menu".
Click that and go to "maintenance". Select oil. There you should see the amount of oil left in percentage form.

 

Those oil life indicators are almost always "optimistic" of the remaining life of the oil. If I were you I would always write down the mileage when you change the oil and then change it after 3000-4000 miles.

 

I've been changing mine at 5-6k intervals , but am running full synthetic oil.
Jimmy

 

Thanks, I finally got around to looking it up. It'd be nice if Honda could get it right in their manuals. I do write down my mileage and I also use full synthetic oil, even though Honda recommends against it. I was just curious if their oil life meter had any validity at all.

 

Where does Honda recommend against synthetic oil?

 

On the Menu you will see oil department click there and you will see what percentage of oil remains.

 

When I bought this Civic they had a mini training session with a whole list of stuff they went through and that was one of the bullet points.

 

My owner's manual states that synthetic oil is OK.