2004 Civic LX Oil Change Frequency

The manuel on my 2004 Civic LX says change oil every 10,000 miles and
filter every 20,000 miles. The dealer recommends changing both every
3000 miles. Is changing both every 6 months (5-6000 miles) a reasonable
compromise?

 

That's what I came up with. 5K miles is an easy number to remember.

If you'll look, your owner's manual maintenance section is split up into
two parts: "normal" usage and "severe" usage. If you read the details,
most everyone in the entire world falls under "severe" usage. (Normal
usage is something designed by the marketing department so that they can
say "look, we're cheaper to operate!" Yeah, sure--if I'm driving on
flat roads in the south in February, all highway driving.)

So make sure you're reading the "severe" maintenance schedule. What
does it say? Not 10k/20k, that's for sure.

But change them both at 5K, and you'll be great. Your engine will love
you. It's the cheapest insurance you'll ever buy for that car.

 

The dealer obviously wants you to pay them for maintenance more often.

The optimal oil change interval for you depends on your driving conditions
and perhaps what kind of oil you use. It isn't necessarily easy to tell
without sending samples of oil to an oil analysis company every few thousand
miles for one oil change interval.

 

I you do mostly city driving, every 3000 miles, mostly highway driving then
every 5000 miles.

$10 to do your own oil change, cheap insurance.

 

Honda is trying to compete with the other mfrs with unrealistic -- too
infrequent -- service intervals. The dealer just wants to get his hand in
your pocket. Since most people do a mix of "normal" and "severe" service
driving, 5K/6mos. for both oil & filter is a good compromise. there are
similar issues with other service items like transmission fluid, coolant
and brake fluid. Pick a number between the normal and severe schedules
according to your driving habits and truncate down to 60K, 30K or 15K miles
- easy to remember and if you let it slip by a few Kmiles it's not a big
deal.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

I find it easier to set a time interval rather than miles. I can then
let my computer remind me. I've been doing oil changes every six months
on my 1995 Civic LX and I just bought the new one.

 

For 2004, Honda's web site notes that the increased oil change interval is
due to the extremely clean burning engine, where less contaminants are
added to the oil. Generic advice for an older car needs to take this into
account.

 

Absolutely, I do it each 6 mo / 10000km (6200miles)

 

I'm in the same boat on my new Civic. I do fall into the "normal" 10K
service interval and intend to use the Mobil one or similar when that
point comes, but wonder if that is pushing things too long. I have
read all the "cheap insurance" threads on this group, but have not
seen a lot of evidence one way or the other, including for the "split
the difference" school of thought. My telephone call to Honda wasn't
real helpful either, so I'll follow the book unless I see something
that says the oil falls apart in the 5k to 10k mile range. I wish for
more objective evidence on this topic, or maybe I'm not looking in the
right place. I'm certainly going to chuck the filter when I do my
change at 10K, though.

 

How long is it?
The BMWs and Mercedes that have Flexible Service Systems to decide when the
oil needs to be changed seem to like 16-20,000 miles.

<http://www.mbusa.com/brand/container.jsp?/care/service/flexibleservicesystem.jsp>

"cheap insurance" is cheap advice. If 6,000 is good, 3,000 must be better.
Why not 1,000?

 

Let's do some simple math at 100,000 miles, not counting taxes:

If you do oil and filter changes every 5K, assuming $5 for a filter and $11
for a gallon of premium oil:
$16 x 20 changes = $320.
If you do it every 10K,
$16 x 10 changes = $160.
Savings: $160.

HOWEVER: If you need an engine rebuild at 100K because the schedule you
were following wasn't the right one for what you subjected the car to:
$2,000

(I'm assuming Abdul's School of Auto Repair's students will be doing this
one for cheap)

Hmmm...
$2,000 - $320 = $1,680.

That's 105 extra oil changes worth of rebuild. I change mine every 3K.

--
TeGGeR®

The Unofficial Honda FAQ
http://www3.telus.net/public/johnings/faq.html

How to find anything on the Internet or in Usenet Groups:
www.google.com
www.groups.google.com

 

If your target is 100,000 miles, I am pretty sure that you could get by
with oil changes only at 40,000 and 80,000 miles.

To say that your math indicates that you saved the entire amount of the
engine rebuild presumes that you could continue this course of action ad
infinitum. You really need to know how much you forestalled the rebuild by
changing oil at 3,000 verses 6,000 or 10,000.

 

correct! and that's why vehicles that run on c.n.g. have extended
service intervals of 3, 4 or even 5 times that of ordinary gas.

for a /real/ answer to this question, the o.p. needs to get oil analysis
done for a few changes and follow their advice on service interval - it
will suit their driving conditions.

 

Read your owner's manual again. The max for the oil filter is 10K. not
20. If you wanted to go the cheap route: oil at 5K and filter at 10K.
Use Motorcraft 5W-20. It's $1.30 at Wal-mart and it's a synthetic blend.

If you wanted to go for 10K, use 0W-20.

 

Yes, it is. The manual has a "severe" and "normal" maintenance schedule.
Follow the severe schedule and you should be in good shape. I believe that
the severe schedule for Honda 4 cylinder cars is a 5,000 mile interval.

Your dealer is just looking for extra visits from you. They probably also
recommend all kinds of additional services beyond what the manual
recommends.

The one place I do not trust Honda's recommendations is for automatic
transmission fluid changes. Considering all of the problems with Honda
automatics (the 600,000 unit recall of Odysseys and Pilots being the latest)
I would make sure to change auto tranny fluid at least every 30,000 miles.

John

 

Honda also has EGR valves and ports which, no matter how they do the
design, they just can't seem to stop them clogging up - the "clog" is a
particulate which feels very abrasive bound up with hardened gum. Clean
burn?.........blah, blah, blah! Please tell what it is that makes this
2004 engine so "clean burning" compared with 2002, 2000 or even 1996?? The
technology has not changed that much! I do what works for me and recommend
the same for others. I see the condition of the oil that comes out of my
sump - never have I thought: hmmm, I could have left that bugger for
another 5K miles.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

Specifically, what kind of "evidence" are you looking for?... and it's
*not* a "split the difference" nor is it a "school of thought". It's
simply a fact that many people who think they are in "normal" service
category just aren't - the odd trip here and there to the video store,
pizza shop etc. etc. in Winter is enough to disqualify you. It almost
sounds as though you want to reject anything that is known to work well and
work backward from "evidence" of someone else's catastrophic failure
point... until you've found *your* comfort zone. For that kind of thing
you're wasting your and *our* time - go search at Google usenet.

Your call. Start from first principles and see when it breaks. Hey are
you maybe a Civil Engineer?

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

Wrong, at least as far as the manual provided with my '03 Accord reads. I
just checked it again today.

4 cylinder engine, normal service schedule:

Change the oil every 10,000 miles
Change the oil filter every 20,000 miles.

It is right in there in black and white.

John

 

Ok. I looked under the wrong heading.

Actually, it's 20K or a year.