Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

Hi- hoping someone can help b/c I'm totally confused. I recently purchased a new '07 Civic and I'm confused about the oil maintenance percentage gauge. I talked to the dealership and they said to get my oil changed every 3750 miles or 3 months (which ever comes first) but then I did some research online and read that the oil maintenance monitor is supposed to take the place of the inaccurate 3750 miles/3 months rule of thumb.

Some articles said to wait until the oil maintenance reads 15% before I get my oil changed, which would be approximately 7000 miles for me. Andsome said that dealers are definitely going to say to get my oil checked at 3750/3 because it benefits them if I go in twice as often.

I'm at about 2600 miles after a little over 3 months and showing 60% on the oil maintenance gauge and not sure if I should get my oil changed. I checked my manual and couldn't find anything about routine maintenance and when to get my oil changed, etc.

Can anyone help!?!

Thanks!

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

Personnaly, I don't give a **** about the computer and just change the computer every 5000KM wich is about 3000 something miles.

After all, even if the car can take 7000 miles with only one oil change, it can't do it any bad to have 1 oil change every 4000? (**** the 250 Miles) Wtf 3750, it makes it a little complicated after 2 or 3 oil change..

But talking about the computer, a friend of mine has a newer car and a lights comes on when the car thinks it's time for an oil change, (he doesn't give a **** he change it every 5000Km or so) and he told me that he believe the computer evaluates his driving habits to know when to change the oil... It's possibly true, but... why take a chance?

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

Just be safe and do it every 3000 - 3500 miles... that way you know you are in the clear IMO

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

Hi - thank you both! Definitely makes sense to play it safe and change every 3000-4000 miles rather than try to penny-pinch and potentially cause a problem in the long run.

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

If I were you, I'd put synthetic oil in it and change it every 6000 miles. You'll be just fine.

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

I agree. I don't trust the oil life monitors, one of my friends has a 2004 chevy colorado and he let it go 15k before changing it, the truck never said it needed changing, I changed his oil in exchange for borrowing it to move some crap, and it looked terrible, he hasn't followed the oil life meter since then and has been on a 5k interval now running full synthetic... I always go between 3000 to 3500, or like mentioned in the last post you could go with synthetic oil and double that, in your case that is what I would do. you have a new car, and that would probably be the best thing for it, if you stay with the synthetic. it just costs so much more though, but i guess it makes it up by not having to be changed as often.

My 93 Civic has 238k miles on it, and I run Castrol GTX High Mileage in it, like i said 3k change intervals. It runs great. Always use a quality filter such as Purolator or Wix as well, I always try to stay away from the cheap ones like the fram's...

Just wanted to edit and add that I run 5w30 in my 238k mile 14year old car and I don't lose a drop of oil between oil changes, that's a real tribute to honda's durability if it's properly cared for. and that's the reason i bought one, and don't plan to get rid of it until it quits. I expect to see well over 300k out of it without a major problem...

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

change to full synthetic and change every 4-5k miles. my dealership always uses the little stickers that go up on the corner of ur windshield so u knowwhento change. seems like most ppl that come thru go by the sticker than the percentage.

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

well you can never change your oil to often ;) when it comes to a new car.... changing the oil can mean a VERY LONG LIFE FOR IT!!!!!
my dads 86blazer has 200K miles on it and we tore down the motor and thier was hardly ANY wear on the motor! cause the oil was changed every 5K miles but it was mostly highway miles...

if you do mostly highway miles you can get away with waiting.... BUT if you do mostly city driving... then change it every 3K miles.... or thier 3750 number.LOL thats how they have thier warente setup for the worst city driving..

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

The factory-fill is supposed to be special break-in oil with special additives for a fresh engine. Don't be in TOO much of a hurry to get rid of it.

The oil-life monitor counts up all the things that contribute to your oil wearing out. So instead of just counting miles, it counts revolutions of the engine, how many times you start it up, how many of those starts were very cold, how many times you ran the RPM up high, all kinds of good stuff. It's a really cool feature that I'm planning to use in the new Civic.

Having said all that, you can still decide to change the oil when it gets to 20% or 30%. You don't have to wait until it getsbelow 10%.

RE: Oil Maintenance % ?? - HELP!
 

I use the good old mobil one syntehtic and change every 5k miles. I say dont let your car pass 4k miles for its first oil change and go synthetic once you do.