Oil condition sensing on new Hondas

My daughter's new FIT seems to "sense" oil condition, rather than depend
on miles driven. That's clever, if it's true. Is it?

 

The oil condition is not sensed directly. The engine computer monitors
total revolutions, temperatures and other factors to arrive at an aging
curve for the oil. It is much more sophisticated then the old xxx
miles/yyy months way of doing things.

GM of all companies has been a leader in this kind of technology, but
many of the Germans and now Honda are also taking up this methodology.

Assuming that Honda's engineers did their homework correctly it should
work out well. If you want a little extra safety factor you could do
the oil change early, say at 20-30% of indicated oil life remaining
instead of going until the car insists that it is time.

The new way is much improved over the old rules-of-thumb.

John

 

haven't aircraft engines been done like this forever?

it occurs to me that hybrid cars might need to do this, too, since the
internal combustion engine might not even be going, for some
significant number of miles / hours.

J.

 

basically the new hondas have a thing called the "maintainence minder" which
does calculation based on engine temp and revolutions of the engine to
determine the oil life (pretty much, if you drive hard it wil lower nquick,
if you drive easy it will go down slower) My accord was first changed at
about 5000 miles (the computer said 10% oil life left) I currently have 8000
miles on her and it says I have 40% left.

 

How do you reset the sensor when you change the oil?

 

It's in the manual. I just changed the oil on my sons 2006 EX-V6, and it
was simple, though I don't have the manual handy now.

G-Man

 

From Page 170-171 in your Owner's Manual:
1) Turn the ignition switch to the ON (II) position.
2) Press the Select/Reset knob repeatedly until the engine oil life
is displayed.
3) Press the Select/Reset knob for about 10 seconds. The engine oil
life and the maintenance item code(s) will blink.
4) Press the Select/Reset knob for another 5 seconds. The maintenance item
code(s) will disappear, and the engine oil life will reset to "100".

I know the manual isn't exactly the latest Michael Crichton novel, but it's
still worth reading.

 

Has anyone had the used oil tested to see how consistent the oil change
indicator is?

 

you could use a basic dielectric tester - that's what some of the "field
analysis" tools do. winter science project.

 

There have been a few postings on the www.bobistheoilguy.com used oil
analysis forums where people have gone the distance and had an analysis
done. Not many though as most obsessive compulsive oil gear heads are
not able to wait that long!

John

 

Thanks, I guess I should have read the manual instead of the quick
guide. It says the dealer resets it when servicing. I changed my
daughter's 05 civic oil twice and never reset the meter. Should I wait
till it blinks to change?(any thoughts welcome) I am old school oil
and filter 2000-3000 miles. My wife has a 06 pilot with the oil life
indicator, no problem yet only 2500 on it.
Carl