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No one should feel bad about following MM, but it's not optimum for long term ownership. 5K/6mo is arbitrary and not optimum either.

You can split the difference and change at 60%, put a sticky on the screen to not reset the MM at the dealer, and do again at 15% for your free service while in the Honda service window. Or DIY, if that's what you enjoy.

Also use top tier fuel per the manual. And consider running a bottle of techron through the engine before the oil change. I don't know if it's on the new Pilot, but a fuel cleaner @ the OCI is in the maintenance tech docs for my CRV.

Will the dealer do the free oil change when the MM is at 15% and indicates "service due soon", or do you have to wait until the MM is at 5% (or less) and indicates "service due now"?

Also. what are the "maintenance tech docs" for the CR-V?
Is that something other than the owner's manual or service manual?

 

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That tells you everything you need to know about that dealer. It’s 5k intervals on your dime and MM interval on their dime.

Stick to the MM interval for both vehicles and your dealer is a crook.

Hey @Nail Grease, looks like your "buddy" is here!

 

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Hi guys, new 24 elite owner here and am taking in for an oil change before the free MM oil change interval. I understand to not have mechanic reset MM so I can get the free change when I am prompted to, but here’s my question. I’m of course thinking to change the filter but if I do and it’s not a genuine Honda filter, will it be a problem when I bring it to Honda for the free change? Will they say oh, you had it changed already cause you have a (gram,stop,etc) filter?
If so,, should I order and have mechanic install a genuine a Honda one or just leave the one that’s in there on until next change?
Car with about 6500 miles just turned to 30% but I have a 2000 or so mile trip coming up before MM alert.
Thanks

Honda does recommend that the oil filter should be changed only at every other oil change.
If you're at 6500 miles and 30% remaining oil life, and will be having the oil changed (again) at 5% oil life, or less, then maybe consider leaving the filter alone and just have the oil changed before your long trip.
I'd make sure that the dealer will be changing the filter when they eventually change the oil.

 

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Also, for most people who just bought a new Pilot, "long term ownership" is probably 7-10 years. We might get the rando who buys a brand new vehicle from the dealer lot and then somehow drives it for 25 straight years before buying another new car, but I would say that most people who can afford for drop $50K for a brand new car are probably likely to replace that car with another car within 10yrs, just because they have the scratch to do it and will want something else by then anyway.

I know of at least one "rando" who bought a new 2003 Pilot in 2002 and still owns and drives it.
Just because you have the "scratch" needed to buy a new vehicle doesn't necessarily mean you have an itch to do so.

 

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Wow shocker

Mechanic who gets paid for a service recommends that said service be done more often

Who would've thought?

Not only that, but you want to use an "independent Honda shop" where the owner has to check with a "friend who is a Honda tech at a dealer" for maintenance advice.

Phone a friend must be one of the lifelines on the 'Who wants to be the owner of a Honda repair shop?' game show.

 

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We just had someone at my local dealership bring one in at 19k miles for its first oil change. 😔. The service advisor couldn’t believe it.

Any chance that this was a leased vehicle?
Could the MM have possibly indicated an oil change interval that long?
Hopefully the customer checked the oil level periodically - or maybe they finally brought it in because there was a low oil level warning.

 

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Mine popped at just under 5000, and was triggered by the year passing and not by mileage running out

What was the remaining oil life indicated after about 11 months/4500 miles?

 

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Yes it just goes through its typical progression down to 0%, as if you were driving it to rack up the miles. It just happens in a way that it is now based on time too. Only a Honda engineer would know for sure how it works and now that I'm typing this, I'm curious. Let's say that the mileage target for my vehicle is 7500 miles (if I drove 7500 miles in 1 month, the MM would have gotten down to zero - I'm using hyperbolic examples here to make the point). So if I've only driven 2000 miles after 10 months, the MM certainly isn't still at 70%...it is lower because the MM also counts down with time. Maybe it's at 15% let's say as there is only 2 months left for it to get itself down to 0%. If I still don't drive another mile at that point, at EXACTLY 12 months it will click to 0%. BUT if at that 2000 miles and 15%, all of a sudden I start driving like crazy and put 4000 miles on it in a week, will it tick down to zero quickly (because 15% of 7500 miles is only like 1100 miles) or will it just sit at 15% because even as I'm building back miles driven, that number of miles (now 6000) is still below the 15% of theoretical 7500 miles in this period? Hope I'm explaining myself.

One might expect that accumulating 4K miles in one week's time would be done mostly on the highway, with the engine fully warmed up and running at a relatively low and constant rpm. Thus, those miles would tick down at a slower rate than miles that had been done during short, local drives before the engine is up to temperature and is revved to higher levels.

 

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yeah I get that, but it was a broader point about whether when you are being ticked down by TIME, whether there is then a "built in reserve" of MILES that you haven't used according to the system, so you could drive a lot of miles on a relative basis and the MM wouldn't tick down further at that point, because you are just eating into your miles "reserve" that you built up over the months

Rather than speculate, have a used oil analysis performed and you'll know with greater certainty how much life might be left at a given elapsed mileage with the specific engine oil you're using.

 

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Based on my average annual mileage I'll be about 114 years old when I hit 500K miles.

Good for you if you'll still be driving at age 114.