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
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?
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
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
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