Folks,

In close to 2 years, we've driven our '09 Fit Sport Auto about 7k miles. Got the first oil change at just before the 1 year mark (at 20%, about 3600 mi). We're now coming up on the two year mark, and are still at 30%.

The manual says change the oil every year or at 15% whichever comes first, and we do that.

My wife drives the car, mostly city driving / commuting.

Is there anything we should do besides the oil change? Tire rotation perhaps? Air Filters? What else?

Thanks.

 

Wow. With your ridiculously low mileage driving (or wifey), Every maintenance item for your car should be addressed based on time rather than mileage.

your doing the right thing with regards to changing your oil at 15% or 1 yr (which ever come 1st). I'd say go ahead and rotate your tires evry time you go for an oil change as you are only doing it yearly anyway, so it shouldn't put a hole in your wallet. Besides, if I'm not mistaken, your supposed to be doing tire rotations anyway everytime you go for an oil change according to the on board oil change computer.

As with your airfilter, the computer should be able to tell you also when to change it based on driving habits/conditions but, since you are not able to reach the 15% mark and resetting the computer earlier than when it tells you to do maintenance, I'm not really sure if it remembers your car's previous run. I say this because the computer bases its recommendations on algorithms (don't now the right spelling) gathered through various sensors and if my memory serves me correct, all of these can get thrown out of balance if they are reset earlier that 15%. But take this with a grain of salt as I am not totally sure about this.

But for now though, I would say the only thing you need to do is an oil change and tire rotation.

Airfilter can wait as you have too low of a mileage to be changing them. Even (assuming) if you are at the heart of the city with lots of soot in the air which tends to be harder on your airfilter, your mileage is still quite low IMO.

 

I don't think the maintenance minder's algorithms model depletion of other items than oil. If it does, it's just a function of mileage.

Things like transmission fluid and coolant are mileage related.

Air-filter should be good for 30 thousand miles. With the few miles being put on this car I'd probably change it at 15K.

Spark plugs are 100K.

Cabin air-filter may get stinky before too long depending on local climate. Mine started smelling like a locker room when I ran the A/C on recirculate. Changing the filter brought it back to a new car (almost) smell. I've decided to replace mine twice a year (metro Atlanta; lots of pollen).

Both the engine and cabin air-filters are owner maintenance friendly. Local honda wants $111 to change the cabin filter that cost $20 from college hills honda online and it was easier to change than the house's A/C filters.

At the rate he's going I think it'll need painting before it needs a new engine air-filter.

edit: ooo oooo! wiper blade refills! Guy's in Oregon. Biblical rain. Get the refills from honda. They're about $5 and fit the factory wiper blades perfectly. Don't replace the entire blade assembly unless you really want to spend more than you need to.

Here's the invoice from college hills for items that took me 20 minutes to do myself:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
76622-TK6-A01 Driver's Rubber Insert (700mm) 1 $4.19 $4.19
76632-SMA-004 Passenger Rubber Insert (350mm) 1 $3.86 $3.86
76632-S2K-004 Rear Wiper Insert 1 $3.86 $3.86
17220-RB0-000 Engine Air Filter 1 $18.97 $18.97
80292-TF0-G01 Cabin Air Filter 1 $21.58 $21.58
Shipping:UPS Ground: $12.46
Sales Tax: $0.00
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: $64.92

 

Just make sure all the checks are done per the manual and nothing is low, you don't need to replace anything else.

Oh, and since your maintenance requirements are so infrequent, you can think about using high quality full synthetic oil. The general argument is that syn is not needed over conv and a waste of money, but what's an extra $5-$10 upcharge over the 1-2years you will be using that oil.

For tire rotations, you don't need to rotate them that frequently.
Think about what is the purpose of tire rotation? It's to produce even wear on all tires, it's not a required thing to do.
If you have sports cars with differing tire sizes, or corner specific tires, there's no rotation.
You could just leave them as is, sure there is more wear, but with such low mileage the tire might rot before the tread wears off anyway. If you don't like the OEM tires in the first place, theres no point in trying to preserve them either.

You can just wait until you can measure at least a mm or 2 of difference in the wear (front will wear more than rear), then just rotate at that point.

 

oil degrades no matter what, and with regular dino oil this is definitely true. Once a year at the minimum.

 

Its been summed up above pretty well but i would not depend on the maintenance minder and just stick to changing the oil and rotating the tires every 5k miles no matter what. Also as said above the Air filter and cabin filter are generally changed at or near 30k. Between now and then there isnt really much as far as maintenance goes. Good luck!

 

I would go entirely by the owner's manual which mandates using the maintenance minder as it's dynamic and keyed to your driving pattern, or one year, whichever comes first, as Honda recommends.

This gentleman's car was telling him he was at 20% at 3600 miles after 12 months of use. At 15% (if the trend continued) when the minder starts nagging you to get the oil changed, the car would have logged 3,825 miles and almost 13 months. At 0% he would have had 4,500 miles on the car, still less than 5,000.

If he had waited until 5,000 miles he would have been at about 17 months and his minder would have been at -9%. Honda would have thought poorly of him if he had pulled in at this point for service. Not to mention if he had any oil related warranty issues then or down the road.

Go by the owner's manual and change your oil according to the maintenance minder or 1 year, whichever comes first.

I know it's not intuitive, but his wife's driving patterns constitute the worst of severe driving. Putting synthetic would be a waste of money as its claim to fame is avoiding breakdown over long periods at high temperatures. It would perform as badly as any other oil under this Fit's circumstances, and would still need changing at 12months (not longer as someone suggested) to adhere to warranty requirements. This is due to the engine not heating up enough to boil off water contaminants from the oil.

Sheesh, I never thought I'd be spanking someone for suggesting a longer oil change period than 3,000 miles.

 

Or, you could just loan the car to me, and I'll rack up some miles for you.

 

I've been driving my new 2010 FIT four months now and have the same mileage as you and the MM says 40% oil life. Not sure when it will hit the magical 15%. With all my other cars I would be feeling the pressures of hell for neglecting to change the oil like this on a brand new engine.

But this is a new Honda. I'm a believer in their engines and their recommendations on maintaining it. All the above posts have provided all the info you need to know - who would have guessed it would be this simple? Sound like it should be wrong, doesn't it. Simply go by the book.

I would rotate the tires if I were in your position.

K_C_

 

Just an update -- waited until 368 days after the last oil change. Got it changed at a local Honda dealer, so I could talk to their service people about suggestions.

The maintenance minder was still blank (and the oil life indicator was still at 30%).

When I asked, they had no suggestions. It was a perfect opportunity for them to sell me on more maintenance, so maybe we're good.

After reading over what they checked, there was apparently a slight difference in tread wear between front and back tires. So I think a rotation is in order. And I may look at the filters in about 1000 miles (which should be a few months....)

As strange as it sounds, even the wiper blades are still good here in rainy Oregon.

I appreciate all the comments!

 

As I'm reading through the thread... here I am sitting with a 40% oil life @ 2.14K miles