Question about oil life

[cyirush]

Have a new Civic Type R (bought in August).

I’m at 5700 miles on the factory fill. Maintenance minder says oil life is 50%. But what does that means exactly? Is there a sensor that is measuring things like viscosity? Or is it just tracking the mileage?

Seems crazy that Honda would want a high performance engine like the K20 to go several more thousand miles on the factory fill (dealer told me the first oil change not needed until oil life is 15%). But otoh why would they risk damaging engines and incurring warranty claims?

Fwiw, I’m going to change the oil soon just for my peace of mind!

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[getRIGHT]

There are a ton of good oil threads on this forum.
Your best bet is to ignore the maintenance minder. It’s not a smart as your Honda salesman wants you to believe it is. It is simply using an algorithm based on a few driving factors.
For the best life of your engine and turbo every 3000 to 5000 tops is best for as long as you own it

 

[cyirush]

There are a ton of good oil threads on this forum.
Your best bet is to ignore the maintenance minder. It’s not a smart as your Honda salesman wants you to believe it is. It is simply using an algorithm based on a few driving factors.
For the best life of your engine and turbo every 3000 to 5000 tops is best for as long as you own it

Believe me, I’ve read lots of oil threads!
Haven’t seen one that discusses what the MM actually is detecting.

Do you know for sure it’s just an algorithm? And where do you get 3-5k miles from?

And it’s not a Honda salesman saying to follow the MM, it’s Honda engineers! Why would they want their engines to be driven for thousands of miles on worn oil?
How is that in their interest?

I am going to change the oil soon (as I said in my original post). But that because I am old enough to remember when oil changes were every
3,000 miles! But the lack of good factory info is frustrating.

 

[thatonedaveguy]

Honda knows engines more than anyone you're going to speak to on the internet.

If you're truly curious just send your oil for an analysis when it gets down to 30% or so and get an informed report of what the state of the oil is- you'll find that it's just fine.

Nobody has had an engine failure caused by the maintenance minder.

 

[cyirush]

Honda knows engines more than anyone you're going to speak to on the internet.

If you're truly curious just send your oil for an analysis when it gets down to 30% or so and get an informed report of what the state of the oil is- you'll find that it's just fine.

Nobody has had an engine failure caused by the maintenance minder.

My main question is what info the MM is using to determine the oil life.

As my second question implies, I too think that Honda wouldn’t recommend a service interval that would damage the engine.

 

[J_D]

It uses a complicated af formula made by phds in Japan, taking into account how you drive, oil pressure, coolant temp, ambient temps, etc.

It’s not stupid - but it isn’t designed for non-street use like track driving

 

[MrBBQ]

I believe the age of the oil since last fill and reset also plays a role. I was around 4k miles, and hit 15% on the anniversary of when I got the car. I didn't drive the car hard at all during this period. I have since put on 2k miles since last oil change and it's already 40%. (I know, I need to drive the car more)

 

[J_D]

Yes it account for time as well, it will go off in one year always at minimum

 

[Cueyo]

As with every oil thread that comes up. Don't listen to us, don't listen to anyone. Do whatever you want to do.

The MM is entirely proprietary tech and until someone on the inside tells us it's parameters we're all shooting in the dark.

On performance cars you wouldn't want the oil to last long anyways either. You'd want to do the changes as frequently as you could imo.

 

[Rhorn]

Have a new Civic Type R (bought in August).

I’m at 5700 miles on the factory fill. Maintenance minder says oil life is 50%. But what does that means exactly? Is there a sensor that is measuring things like viscosity? Or is it just tracking the mileage?

Seems crazy that Honda would want a high performance engine like the K20 to go several more thousand miles on the factory fill (dealer told me the first oil change not needed until oil life is 15%). But otoh why would they risk damaging engines and incurring warranty claims?

Fwiw, I’m going to change the oil soon just for my peace of mind!

This is a good video that describes about how oil life indicators work. Unsure about ours specifically but its probably similar, this should answer your questions.



As far as the oil change the factory fill has a special blend thats supposed to accommodate the engine break in process. You can change it whenever, I waited until mine said 25% before I went and got it changed.

I do agree about the confusion, its very weird that we don't even get a CTR owners manual lol. I wisj Honda would take a page out of GM and Ford and provide us with a CTR owners with all of the recommendations. I know that GM and Ford recommend 3,000 - 4,000 mile oil changes with very agressive driving. I dont drive mine that agressive so I'll change it around 6,000 if I don't track it.

 

[jcb]

I am doing a short OCI and using great oil...notice I leave off brand and numbers.... My choice is to ignore the algorithm and waste some funds perhaps - my choice. You make your own choice. I want to keep this car long term and so I am babying it.

 

[apl360]

I am doing a short OCI and using great oil...notice I leave off brand and numbers.... My choice is to ignore the algorithm and waste some funds perhaps - my choice. You make your own choice. I want to keep this car long term and so I am babying it.

This. Your car your rules. I swap every 6 months (that’s about 1200-1800 miles for me) cuz at the 8-ish month mark. My condensation build up gets bad, according to black stone.

regrettably I do a lot of short trips. I’m retired and fucking have nowhere to go

 

[cyirush]

This is a good video that describes about how oil life indicators work. Unsure about ours specifically but its probably similar, this should answer your questions.



As far as the oil change the factory fill has a special blend thats supposed to accommodate the engine break in process. You can change it whenever, I waited until mine said 25% before I went and got it changed.

I do agree about the confusion, its very weird that we don't even get a CTR owners manual lol. I wisj Honda would take a page out of GM and Ford and provide us with a CTR owners with all of the recommendations. I know that GM and Ford recommend 3,000 - 4,000 mile oil changes with very agressive driving. I dont drive mine that agressive so I'll change it around 6,000 if I don't track it.

Thanks, video was informative. He did say, though, that the maintenance minders in Toyotas and Subarus were just going on mileage. Hope the one in our Hondas is an algorithm like the GM one he talked about.

 

[apl360]

Thanks, video was informative. He did say, though, that the maintenance minders in Toyotas and Subarus were just going on mileage. Hope the one in our Hondas is an algorithm like the GM one he talked about.

Hondas definitely used engine load, temps, time and a bunch of other data to determine the oil life. Not the same algorithm as gm’s tho. It’s said that gm’s version is way more accurate. I’ve no idea if that’s true. Changing oil early and frequent is super cheap insurance

 

[AZCWTypeR]

At a minimum, with normal driving, change the oil every 5k miles or yearly, whichever comes first.

If you watch Lake Speed Jr.'s latest video on "The Motor Oil Geek" YouTube channel, he presents data saying to change oil more frequently on low mileage engines.

I highly recommend 5W-30 for Honda engines, which you'll find is totally okay per the Honda UK owners manual.

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