Ok, so I've hit just over 6500km on my new Accord and am looking into getting an oil change before I go over the 7500km mark (don't like the thought of having that break in oil with all that metal in there longer than needs to be). I checked the oil life the other day and at 6500-6600km it still says 40%....this means I'll be over 10,000km before it "suggests" an oil change.
Anyhow this got me thinking about the maintenance minder system on the new 2006 Hondas...since MM lumps all repairs in with oil changes, technically if I change my oil early and reset the light/MM system then I'll never know what it would have asked for had I waited it out until I hit 15% oil life remaining.
Now since I have a digital copy of the 2005 manual...it states that under the "normal" conditions for the V6 oil is to be changed at 12,000km, and under "severe" conditions it is to be changed at 6,000km. Now it also states that "if you live in Canada (which I do) follow the servere schedule...now I can see this for up north...but why would Buffalo be any different from Niagara Falls Ontario...lol.
Anyhow on to the point of all this...what I am thinking of doing is just changing the oil at 7500km now and not resetting MM, that way I can see what else it wanted done when it hits "15%". In my mind so long as I keep track of my mileage the "old fashioned way" and change my oil at between 7500km and 10,000km (so in between the normal and severe levels) I should be fine. When I do switch to synth down the road I'd want to be using 10,000-12,000km intervals anyhow, so when I do that MM would be in line with how I'd do things myself.
I'm still hoping if I do it that way the dealership will change my oil but not reset the MM system on me (not sure if they'd abide to that) and also since I'll be getting the first few changes through a dealership that they will replace the filter if I ask them to (as it doesn't appear to be part of the "A1" service for the 2006 models). On top of that...obviously if I am changing my oil independently of MM I'd want them to subtract all parts/labour for doing an oilchange for any inspections or whatever they want to do (same goes for rotating my tires...I'm not paying Honda to do that for me).
