80% oil life after 1K miles?

[disp350]

I have driven my 2007 Pilot LX about 1050 mile so far in a month. I noticed that the oil life is down to 80% already. Is 5000 miles about average for the oil life for the newer Pilots? Hard to beleive when my 2004 CR-V had 10,000 mile oil change intervals.

[howdySA]

Our '07 Pilot has around 700 miles but noticed the other day that the reading was around 90%. Not saying you're thrashing your Pilot, but I'm sure driving style and conditions has a little to do with the life of the oil.

10,000-mile oil changes? WOW!

[mmmmark]

Originally posted by disp350
I have driven my 2007 Pilot LX about 1050 mile so far in a month. I noticed that the oil life is down to 80% already. Is 5000 miles about average for the oil life for the newer Pilots? Hard to beleive when my 2004 CR-V had 10,000 mile oil change intervals.

Is it mostly in-town driving or road? We can only guess exactly how the computer computes its figures.

I replaced my first oil at 6700 and the oil said 10% at that time.

[jl_ss]

Not sure about the algorithm, but if the normal service interval is 7,500 miles and the severe is 3,750, I would imagine that you would wind up at 0% somewhere in between based on driving style/conditions. Did your CRV really specify 10K mile service intervals? Our 99 CRV specified 7,500.

[whizmo]

My 2006 is averaging 5K. I think the number of start/stop cycles plays a huge role in the algorithm (as it probably should).

On most of my cars, I tend to run shorter intervals than the mfg's recommendations (i.e., I assume "severe" service), but on this car, I think 5K is about right and am just following what the dash says. And I use synthetic (Mobil 1 5W-30).

- Mark

[mmmmark]

Originally posted by whizmo
My 2006 is averaging 5K. I think the number of start/stop cycles plays a huge role in the algorithm (as it probably should).

On most of my cars, I tend to run shorter intervals than the mfg's recommendations (i.e., I assume "severe" service), but on this car, I think 5K is about right and am just following what the dash says. And I use synthetic (Mobil 1 5W-30).

- Mark

I may go with synthetic, but I rarely start using synthetic until the engine is fully broken in.

My Passat used a little oil until it had 40k on it then quit. I then started synthetic. This is a hotly debated topic. I'm not claiming to be the know-it-all, just sharing what I do.

[t00mies]

i've been wondering the same thing.

my odometer is at 1158 right now, and the oil life is still 90%. i think it went from 100% to 90% around 800 miles. most of my driving is highway -- 38 miles each way to work -- and i am usually driving between 70-80 mph.

at the rate i'm going, maybe i will get the 10k oil changes.

i also plan on switching to synthetic oil after this first cycle.



t

[disp350]

My driving is about 70% highway ( 17 miles turnpike each way to work) and around 30% city. I know it sounds far fetched, but I was just wondering if the dealer would actually change the service intervals from the factory default before delivering to me. Plus, no where can I find what the manufacturer recommended service intervals are.

Quoting from the 2004 CR-V manual, for normal driving conditions, oil change is recommened at 10K miles with a filter change EVERY 20K miles. On the page just prior to this it says "You can extend the life of your engine by NOT having recommended maintenance performed earlier than specified". Hard to believe, but it is true. We also have a 2003 Accord LX with the 4 cylinder engine that has almost the exact same scheduled maintenance intervals. The first time I brought it in for an oil change, the service writer nearly freaked out cause it had 9935 miles on it. I finally shut him up when I pulled the book out of the glove compartment and showed it to him. Of course, since the vehicles are leased, I have no intentions of following anything but what the manuals (or in this case the service indicator) says.

[whizmo]

Originally posted by disp350
My driving is about 70% highway ( 17 miles turnpike each way to work) and around 30% city. I know it sounds far fetched, but I was just wondering if the dealer would actually change the service intervals from the factory default before delivering to me. Plus, no where can I find what the manufacturer recommended service intervals are.

The intervals are baked into the software - the dealer can reset them, but he can't change the algorithm.

They maintenance minder lights aren't a reminder for some other documented schedule - they ARE the schedule. In theory this is good because many more factors can be taken into account.

On the "when to switch to synthetic" debate, I'm of the opinion that it probably doesn't matter when you switch. Many cars these days come brand new from the factory with synthetic, so it's hard to justify the old school recommendation to postpone synthetic until after break-in. OTOH, there's little advantage to switching early, so if it makes you more comfortable to run conventional for awhile, fine. The dealer did my 5K and I presume put in conventional, but at 10K I put synthetic in for the duration. While conventional oil provides adequate protection, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that an oil like Mobil 1 is simply a better oil that will likely pay off in the long run. But if I were leasing or selling the vehicle at 50K miles, I wouldn't spend an extra dime on synthetic.

- Mark

[t00mies]

ok, the oil indicator just went from 90 to 80%. this happened around 1486 miles.


just fyi, in case anyone is still watching this thread.


t

[nobby]

My first oil change was done at 15% and 7980 kms. Incidently, the A1 service came on at the same time.

[ctobio]

Note that internally, the software is not jumping from 90% to 80%, merely the display.

Essentially, the 90% really means anywhere from 90%-85%, etc. I'm actually not quite sure whether it rounds up or down, but you get the idea.

And yes, the maintenance minder is THE schedule. If it's telling you that your oil is at 5%, and you think your oil change is in another 3000 miles because of some schedule, you damned well better change your oil.

I wouldn't do any of the maintenance outside the maintenance minder schedule, because I wouldn't want to throw off the timing of the schedule.

One thing that I'm pretty confident isn't actually being measured is the VTM fluid change interval. I'm pretty convinced that maintenance schedule 6 comes on with maintenance schedule 1 nearest, but not exceeding, 15k, 45k, 75k, 105k.

I actually rather like this maintenance minder scheme, since particularly for the oil changes it's doing a pretty good job of adjusting the maintenance schedules accordingly.

[aryn_07pilot]

I happened to check my oil life percentage tonight when I reset my 'A' tripometer. I have 3160 miles on my Pilot and my oil life is down to 60%. I do mostly highway driving (27 miles to work one way), but I often get stuck in stop and go traffic.

Aryn