2012 Civic - 7500 mile scheduled maintenance?

More info on this. The car is 8 months old and just turned 7500 miles, the great majority of which was highway driving. When I go into the Maintenance section in the multi-info display, it says the oil has 30% remaining. That means 21-30%, and if it's really 25%, that would put the total oil life at 10,000 miles. That seems a bit much, but maybe not for mostly highway miles.

In any case, it appears I don't really need to take it in until the Maintenance Minder says I need to. So the "7500 mile scheduled maintenance" is just the dealer's idea. Does that sound right? And the tire rotation should certainly wait a while longer.

the dealer is putting their kids through college at your expense. instead, pay attention to the sophisticated and reliable device your vehicle's manufacturer spent millions of dollars developing and which they gave you as an integral part - the maintenance minder.

not only have motor oils gotten better, but with the modern engine management systems we have today, oil is not getting loaded with over-sooty blow-by from poor fuel mixture like it used to. if you did oil analysis, you'd almost certainly find that even 10k miles is conservative and that the oil could last much longer.

ummmm....so let me get this straight:

the dealership, which is an independent business, sent you a card to come in solely because your car hit some mileage figure. And, he suggested things that you should pay him to do.

Correct?

Allow me to stretch a bit here and assume that you have never, not once, opened the owner's manual to your shiny new $20,000 toy.

Completely incorrect. I went through the manual thoroughly when I bought the car, and again last week. Unlike my previous car, a 94 Accord, this manual basically says nothing about maintenance except how to check the fluids, and to follow the maintenace minder. There are no tables showing how often to do what maintenance. So since it's been 18 years since I last bought a new car, I didn't know if there was a particular reason why I needed to bring this car in at 7500 miles. And that's why I asked here.

But I'd like to ask a favor of you, Elmo. You are so, uh, knowledgeable, and your responses to questions in here are so far over my head, that in the future I would appreciate it if you would just ignore any post I might make, and not respond to it. Could you do that for me? As I said, I would appreciate it, and of course it would prevent your wasting your valuable time on someone who doesn't find your reponses particularly useful.

Thanks very much. That's what I suspected. I appreciate the helpful response.

ok...

so, you either /haven't/ actually read the part about how to follow the maintenance minder, or you didn't understand it.

so what you're really asking is whether you should go ahead and ignore the multi-million dollar tool carefully installed on your car which you say you know but clearly /don't/ know how to use, or just stick with the program of paying college fees for someone else's kids. doesn't seem like a hard decision to me.

ok, so please explain how the FUCK it makes sense to ask for information if you don't actually want to know it??????

no you don't - otherwise you'd have said the same thing to elmo because he gave you exactly the same information.

What I've seen in this NG is that there's one ace mechanic who knows about everything there is to know about Hondas and consistently offers accurate, on-point, succinct advice and solutions. There's also a few fairly knowledgeable wrench turners who usually have something constructive to offer.

Then there's the usual assortment of NG adolescents, wannabes, angry boys, and hip shooting generic butt-heads who rarely have anything to add-- but insist on posting anyway. They make the most noise here...kind of like a machine badly in need of lubrication.

Peabody, wrote the following at or about 2/24/2012 7:53 AM:

[snip]

And that seems to be the Golden Rule for Honda's (as well as any other car). When dealers are forced to cut their profits on sales to the bone to bring in customers, they gotta make it up somewhere and that somewhere is the service bay.

Your dealer is actually pretty decent. Following the maintenance minder on my 2006 Accord (~ 87,000 mi), I find I'm changing the oil - on average - around 8,000 miles. It's been as low as 6,800 and as high, IIRC, as 9,500. When I've had the change at the Honda shop, they tell me I'm due in 3,000, same as the quick lube joints. Screw them!

The other dealerships are just as bad. I recall seeing a GM service bulletin in the early 2000's PLEADING with their dealerships to follow the service minder installed in the cars rather than trying to rope their customers in for unneeded service.

"follow the maintenance minder" means that it "says nothing about maintenance"???

I happen to know for a fact that the section about the maintenance minder spells out exactly what A, B, C and 1, 2, 3 maintenance combinations mean.

That's far, FAR from "says nothing about maintenance".

so you read the manual, did you. Including the part about how MM has taken over from the old method of time/mileage method of specifying maintenance?

Or maybe your phone rang right before you got to that point, and you got distracted.

And I suggested that you had not read your owner's manual.

I still suggest that. No, actually, I *know* it--because you're really, really bad at lying.

And you apparently are offended at being called out on that.

apparently "read your owner's manual" is far over your head.

Then don't read your owner's manual.

As it is, you *have* been outed as having lied about reading your owner's manual. You had the balls to think that no one here knows what a Honda owner's manual looks like, and that you could pull it off.

You've been busted. And now you're trying to weasel out of the embarassment by claiming to be "offended".

Way to go.

And you've just described Peabody to a T.

I don't have this model of car but I looked it up for you.. here are the items performed in the 7500 mile service:

Inspect front and rear brakes Inspect drive shaft boots Inspect exhaust system System Road Test Inspect hoses Rotate and balance tires Replace engine oil and filter Replace drain plug washer Inspect and Top Up all fluid levels Inspect tire pressure, lights, horn, and wipers

As far as what they charge, probably not very much, I'll hazard a guess and say $50? Depends on the dealership for sure. You could always call and ask how much for an oil change, tire rotation and new drain plug washer before you tell them anything else. Take it in for that and they will probably inspect all the other items anyway.

If you haven't had the oil changed and this is your first service since purchase, I would do it, personally, just because post break-in inspections can highlight any initial problems (and its still under warranty so its not like you'll be hit with unexpected costs if there are any problems). I also do not like to run the factory oil more than a couple of thousand miles in a brand new car -- some manufacturers recommend doing the first oil change at 1k just to get the breakin oil out of the car.

Also, you would have much better luck with this question by finding one of the Civic owners forums. The really car-knowledgeable people left usenet a long time ago. Nowdays you get fuktard trolls like Elmo who hate Honda so they come here to harass others. On a forum with other real Honda owners you have moderators to be sure trolls don't stink up the place. And you get objective tips, too... they aren't all happy owners singing praise of the brand, you get to hear all the horror stories as well. I don't know which of these forums would be your best bet for a 2012 so you'll probably want to search around.

Because usenet isn't moderated you're always going to have the elmos of the world around.

I got a letter from the dealer about this. I can see an oil change, and maybe rotate the tires. What else would need to be done?

Anyone had this done, and remember what they did and what they charged?

Follow the Maintenance Minder. On my 06 Accord it came on at around 6800 miles for the first service; on our CRV it was around 7500. On my S2000 --well I am a little more picky and run an oil change sooner (time --

5-6 months or around 4-k whichever comes first) because I don't put the mileage on it driving to and from work.

Oil doesn't break down sitting there.

"moderator" is another word for "control freak troll".

You're clearly afraid of going anywhere that your performance or behavior could be judged by others.

Moderated car forums are an infinitely better source of information than this craphole and self-appointed experts (who are experts at nothing besides) trolling. Like you for example.

usenet is uncensored - it's the /ultimate/ place to be "judged".

you're reacting to his reaction, not his information because he is 100% accurate here.

bottom line, if elmo has something to say, he's usually right on. if he doesn't, well guess what, he doesn't say anything! i wish more people would follow that example.

Peabody wrote in news:20120224-135327.124.0 @news.astraweb.com:

.

The Maintenance Minder is all there is these days. The old time/mileage tables are gone, replaced by the Minder's readout. The Minder's computer calculates the need for maintenance based on many variables, such as ambient temperature, number of starts, mileage driven between starts, time and mileage between services, that sort of thing. In some ways, it's better than the old tables. In other ways, it's not.

There are always pages in the Owner's Manual detailing the various services which would be performed according to the code (A2, B1, etc.) displayed by the Maintenance Minder. Check your Manual more carefully; it's all in there. Use the Index if the Table of Contents doesn't help.

The whole thing is aimed at lazy and neglectful owners. Such owners cause problems for automakers with the EPA. Automakers are hoping to appease the EPA, basically by nagging owners incessantly to perform proper maintenance. Those of us who are diligent about maintenance are /worse/ off than before.

Paul Jarrett wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I'd amend that a bit: Web-boards are a better source of /unpolluted/ information. Web-boards still have dumb posters, it's just that in a moderated forum, they need to be /politely/ dumb.

I've mostly migrated off Usenet myself, for the very reasons you state.