Honda Car Forum

Hi, just leased an Odyssey EX - love it so far. Question regarding the
'maintenance minder' system on the car. I've always been a strict 3k
dino/5k synthetic oil changer and am wondering whether others are
following the MM or sticking to the tried-and-true method...? Also,
what are others using in this engine, dino or synthetic oil?

Thx,
Dan D
Central NJ USA

In article <1165267418.206195.278020@79g2000cws.googlegroups. com>,
"Dano58" <dan.dibiase@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, just leased an Odyssey EX - love it so far. Question regarding the
> 'maintenance minder' system on the car. I've always been a strict 3k
> dino/5k synthetic oil changer and am wondering whether others are
> following the MM or sticking to the tried-and-true method...?

Yeah, just go ahead and ignore the Honda engineers. What do they know.

As for the type of oil, etc.--hey, you're leasing the car. You're going
to spend thousands more on extra maintenance, pricey supplies, and no
doubt expensive waxes and polishes? For a leased vehicle you're going
to turn in in 3 years?

Dano58 wrote:
> Hi, just leased an Odyssey EX - love it so far. Question regarding the
> 'maintenance minder' system on the car. I've always been a strict 3k
> dino/5k synthetic oil changer and am wondering whether others are
> following the MM or sticking to the tried-and-true method...? Also,
> what are others using in this engine, dino or synthetic oil?
>

In theory the maintenance minder is calibrated for SM level conventional
oil. You will probably see it tell you to change the oil somewhere
between 4-8k miles depending on your driving conditions.

If you want to have a little extra safety margin then you could go with
the maintenance minder's indication of when to change and then use
synthetic oil.

On my '06 Acura I did the first change at 50% indicated remaining oil
life and used conventional oil. Likewise I changed again at about 50%
indicated remaining oil life using a good synthetic oil. Going forward
I plan to use synthetic and change when it gets down to 10% indicated
remaining oil life. In my use it looks like this will happen at around
7k miles per oil change. I figure that if Honda's engineering team says
a dino oil should still be good at that point then I have plenty of
margin with a synthetic.

The only modern Honda which requires synthetic oil is the new
turbocharged Acura RDX. Even so, I do my own oil changes and am willing
to spend a few extra dollars per oil change for synthetic oil for the
extra margin of protection. Doing so increases my costs about
$20-$30/year compared to conventional oil. Sometimes I do even better
than that by working the available deals.

John

Elmo, not sure where you got this info regarding polishes and waxes, I
never mentioned anything about that. And lease or not, I do like to
take care of my car.

John - thanks for your response.... So the MM will give me some sort of
indication as to percent remaining of oil life... Versus just telling
me when an oil change is due. (I know I could read the manual but I
never seem to think of this when the car is home......!). That's
helpful.

Dan D
'07 Odyssey EX
Central NJ USA

Dano58 wrote:

>
> John - thanks for your response.... So the MM will give me some sort of
> indication as to percent remaining of oil life... Versus just telling
> me when an oil change is due. (I know I could read the manual but I
> never seem to think of this when the car is home......!). That's
> helpful.
>


I'm not certain about the Odyssey as the Honda product I have with the
MM is an Acura TSX, but typically Honda uses just about the same stuff
across the product line. Heck, in England my "Acura" is simply an Accord.

John