New Accord oil life

OK, just picked up the 07, and it has this new oil life indicator
dohickey. Talking to the salesman, he says my old 2004 with the
10,000 mile standard service claim to an oil change, might have been
too optimistic.

I'm going to guess that the algorithm for the oil life is some
combination of milage, revolutions, time, and maybe RPM (or engine
heat - or just how smart can the computer really be!?) Does anybody
know? The owner's manual appears not to say.

Nor does it suggest about what the miles will come out. So, if I just
drive this thing like a creampuff, most miles at 65mph on the freeway,
most *time* at 20mph on the same freeway (!), anybody have a guess
when the bell will ring? Does the dohickey do anything different for
the *first* oil change?

Inquiring minds want to know wtf I'm driving around now!

I guess I'll know by about next Easter ...

Thanks.

J.

 

translation:
"we hate these things - we want customers to come back much more often
so we frighten them by trying to spread fud".

service the car like it says in the owners manual. ignore the dealer.

 

On my 06 Civic Si, the first change was at around 6500 Miles. The second
one is getting close now (20%) and I am nearing 12K...

 

By all reports the system does work along those lines. GM was the
leader in this area with it's oil life indicator technology which uses a
combination of engine revolutions, start-stop cycles, temperature, etc.
to estimate how used up the oil is.

I suspect that your indicator will says time's up somewhere between
5,000 and 10,000 miles. Personally I like to do the first few oil
changes early in hopes of flushing out the high concentrations and wear
metals found in new engines. With my TSX I did the first two changes
when the oil indicator got down to 40% remaining life, which happened at
around 3500 miles each time. Now I plan to go down to 10% on the
indicator, but am using synthetic oil for a little extra safety margin.
It looks like with my driving I will be doing oil changes every 6-8k
miles.

John

 

Thanks.

It's a curious game, fun in some small, obscure way. Me, I'd prefer
to see the algorithm and a daily readout of all parameters, if that's
how it's going to work. But hey, I'm a geek.

J.

 

You think it's geekiness, or more wanting to establish trust
in the design? The latter would be my interest. Still, at
present I would be very much inclined to trust the design,
based on my understanding of it.

 

I purchased the 2006 Accord V6 in Jan 2006 and the Oil Change indicator
finally came on at 4700 miles after mostly city driving. I took it in
before the maintenance reminder came on and the dealer wouldn't touch
it. A quick drive by of the quick oil change places and they wouldn't
touch it either.

 

Sounds reasonable. The old simple minded Honda recommendation for the
V-6 was 3,750 miles for "severe" conditions and 7,500 miles for "normal"
conditions. The maintenance minder is able to do a much better job of
telling where in that range your use has been. 4,700 miles of mostly
city driving is closer to the severe schedule, which is quite reasonable
for stop and go driving.

The great thing about these new systems is that they should end up
saving people money by extending service intervals when the conditions
allow it. This also saves resources as still good engine oil isn't
being turned into low grade burning fuel oil (which is where most
recycled motor oil ends up) and it saves oil filters. On the flip side,
people who would have ignored the service intervals now will have the
car reminding them. Hopefully that will result in fewer vehicles being
trashed by insufficient maintenance.

GM deserves a lot of credit for being one of the first large automotive
companies to develop and push this technology. I'm also glad Honda has
gotten with the program.


John

 

they may have adopted it, but i don't think they developed it. bmw have
had usage-based metering for a while and real-deal spark spectroscopy
has been on F1 vehicles for a number of years.

 

I don't understand -- your Honda dealer and the other place "refused"
to change your oil, inspite of the indicator and inspite of you asking
for it to be done? What was their reason? 4700 miles is plenty for 11
months of stop and go driving. It also fits the old time and mileage
rules, so there would be no reason to suspect an inaccuracy in the
indicator. What did the dealer actually recommend?

 

You are quite right that BMW was way ahead in this kind of technology.
GM was the first large scale manufacturer to push it out across a
mainstream product line. I think of BMW as being more of a niche
manufacturer, though with their growth in recent decades I probably need
to readjust my calibration.

John