My new Honda CR-V Hybrid has already changed my driving habits for the better, getting me to slow down and focus on efficiency over speed. There’s another habit Honda is trying to get me to change: the habit of having a strict maintenance schedule I follow to keep my car on the road for as long as possible. Why? Because my Honda doesn’t have a maintenance schedule.
Like most car people, I’ve owned many cars in my life, and all of them have recommendations for when/how/why you should change various belts, fluids, and other consumables. My old BMW has over 230k miles on the odometer and the previous owner nicely sent over a spreadsheet with all the work that’s been done to the car in his care so I could make sure to follow the same intervals.
I’m a big fan of this spreadsheet, so my goal last week was to recreate it and leave myself little guides for when I should bring my brand new Honda in for service. The first service, obviously, would be an oil change, and this sent me down a rabbit hole trying to find an oil change recommendation that, it turns out, doesn’t exist.
For the record, there’s the maintenance interval for my old Subaru above.
When Should You Change Your CR-V’s Oil? It Depends…
Conceptually, the idea of an oil change interval is slightly flawed. Few cars are driven exactly the same way, under the same conditions, in the same place. When an automaker says a car needs to have its oil changed at 4,000 miles or 6,000 miles it’s making a best guess based on how most people drive.
As anyone who isn’t perfectly rigid about oil changes knows, you can drive for a long distance past the recommendation and you’ll probably be fine. Hell, I knew someone who had a parent do the oil changes for them and their Honda Pilot and; when that person moved, they just completely forgot to do oil changes! That Pilot was able to go almost another 40,000 miles before the engine seized.
Still, I’m used to there being at least some kind of guideline to follow. My previous car, a then-new 2016 Subaru Forester had a 6,000-mile recommended oil change interval (see above), but I generally tried to get the oil changed at 4,000-5,000 miles.
My first stop when trying to find out when I should change my Honda’s oil was the owner’s manual, assuming I might get a fun little chart with all the maintenance. Instead, I saw this:
Huh? I went to Google, to make sure I was understanding this correctly. Because this wasn’t a mileage number, it was a percentage.
I’m not the only one who has had this concern. Here’s a reddit thread on the topic:
There are numerous threads on the CR-V Owners Club Forum, including this one:
The “Maintenance Minder” is the little digital readout in a submenu on the electronic half of the gauge cluster. Here’s what mine currently shows:
I’m at 80% and have driven a little over 2,400 miles.
Here’s what Honda’s My Garage page says about oil changes:
There is no longer a maintenance schedule in the owner’s manual. The system shows engine oil life as a percentage, which drops over time as the vehicle racks up miles. It starts out at 100% with fresh engine oil, and winds down to 0%, signaling the oil life is over. Your Honda will alert you with a visual warning light to indicate not only when the next service is due, but also what type of service is needed by a series of codes.
That makes sense, I guess? There aren’t specific timelines for most replacements, and the car will just tell you. There are a bunch of codes that you can easily interpret with the guide that comes in the manual. If you see “B5” then it means you need an overall inspection and you need to replace your engine coolant. If you have “A1” it means you need to rotate your tires and change your oil.
I’m generally a fan of having your car give you this kind of info though, in an ideal world, you’d get OBDII codes right on the dash or one of the many in-car screens. Still, this is a helpful tool for people who don’t want to think too much about taking care of their car.
While the manual does not give an oil change recommendation, specifically, there are some general mileages listed for certain conditions like changing in the air cleaner element at 15,000 miles if you live somewhere dusty.
What Does Honda Say About This?
Conveniently, our local Honda PR minder Chris Naughton also just bought an almost identical Honda CR-V Hybrid and we’ve been keeping in touch about how our crossovers are performing. I was tempted to get a FWD model for the fuel economy improvements and that’s what Chris has, so now I can make a reasonable A/B comparison (he is currently kicking my ass).
I asked Chris about the oil thing and here’s what he had to say:
We’d recommend that you follow the guidance of the Maintenance Minder system. It’s explained in the owner’s manual, but in a nutshell, it’s wasteful (financially) and contributing more to environmental degradation by changing the oil too frequently. Modern oils last longer than oils used in the 80’s and 90’s.
Our maintenance minder is smart enough to know how the car is actually used, including RPMs, ambient and engine temperature, etc. to find a conservative spot to recommend an oil change. It errs on the side of engine longevity. You’ll find a % of oil life remaining on the instrument panel. If you’re getting more miles than you’d expect between oil changes, it indicates that your vehicle is seeing light usage, etc. If you experience severe usage conditions, then it will likely recommend a change more often. Ultimately, it will set an oil change reminder at least once per year, regardless of mileage.
The 2.0-liter, naturally aspirated inline-four in my car is only used roughly 40-60% of the time I’m driving, so it’s logical that the oil change intervals would be longer than for my previous vehicle. The motor also acts as a generator when the car is below 45 mph, which is probably 80% of the time I’m driving (and even then it isn’t particularly taxed when in generator mode).
Based on the forums, it sounds like 10,000 miles is when most CR-V owners get the 15% maintenance minder alert. Given how the motor is used in most cars, this makes sense. If someone is on the highway more often, or going over steep grades, I imagine that mileage is going to be lower because that’s when RPMs are higher.
I Have Nothing To Worry About, But I Do Still Worry A Little
Again, this all makes logical sense to me. A vehicle with a lot of sensors will do a better job of knowing when to change my oil than I could, just putting in dates in a spreadsheet. If I’m really worried about what the oil condition is I can always grab the dipstick and look.
In fact, when I get to 15% I’m going to look at the oil and see what it looks like because I’m curious.
Even though I logically know that this is just one less thing I have to think about, some small part of my “lizard brain” (as one CR-V owner put it) would feel better if I had a number, even if that number is wrong.
As Consumer Reports recently pointed out, we’re probably all changing our oil too often for modern cars:
The “every 3,000 miles or every three months” rule is outdated because of advances in both engines and oil. Many automakers have oil-change intervals at 7,500 or even 10,000 miles and six or 12 months.
“Your owner’s manual has more detailed information about your car than any mechanic does,” Ibbotson says. “Don’t get talked into too-often oil changes. Follow the manual and your car’s engine should stay well-lubricated and perform well.
Basically, I will change the oil when it says 15% or I get to 11 months, whichever happens first. The good news is that Honda gives me two years of free regular maintenance, so when I do change the oil I don’t have to pay for it.
As a new owner of a ’25 CR-V Hybrid I found this interesting. Both of the dealers I shopped at made a big deal about the fact that Honda bases their service intervals on the maintenance minders percentage rather than mileage.
@Matt,
Now that you have gone down the maintenance minder rabbit hole here can your Honda PR minder explain why the US version of the CR-V has halogen rear turn signals and the rest of the world gets LED rear turn signals? Every other light in the car is LED. Perhaps something fun for Torch to investigate.
Also why in the world does Honda still use wheel speed sensors for TPMS sensing rather than putting an actual pressure sensor in each tire? My previous mid tier Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson could tell me the exact pressure in each tire but my top tier Honda CR-V can only just tell me one of my tires is low, but not the exact one.
This is why I tend to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines, if not even a bit longer if UOA says the oil is still fine. A lot of the “common sense” about oil is based on outdated information that has no bearing on 2024 oils and engines.
On top of that, I recall seeing a study on the BITOG forums which found fresh oil actually caused more wear in an engine than used oil (up to a point, obviously). Changing your oil too frequently may actually be doing more harm than good.
Anecdotally, I’ve been stretching the OCIs on my gen 2 Prius because I bought it to reduce my usage of oil, not dump a bunch of perfectly good oil out every couple of months. UOA said the oil had lots of life left at the 5000 mile recommended interval. Despite the fact that these engines have a penchant for burning oil, the oil burning has gotten no worse in the 60k+ miles I’ve owned it and may have even gotten a bit better. Probably because I drive the car a lot more regularly than the previous owner did. I’m not using anything special either – cheap-ish Supertech synthetic and a mid-range filter.
I suppose it’s possible that I’ve now jinxed myself and the engine is going to die tomorrow, but given that these engines almost all reach EOL due to excessive oil consumption I kind of doubt it.
On my niro hev they recommend 7500 Ive been doing it at 5k, but this does make sense, the hybrid runs less often, so it could go longer, but my lizard brain as you said makes me more conservative!
You’ll get used to it. I drive about 8k miles a year (I’m retired) and sometimes it’s annual, other times the MM comes on.
Keep your spreadsheet though: Honda forgot to reset the MM once so I’ve needed to keep my own records of what needs done when.
Part of me says, ‘Ignore the Minder, change the oil like you know you should.’
But then there’s the rational part of my brain that tells me the reason these maintenance schedules ever existed is because the auto maker had to come up with numbers that accounted for the habits of the most abusive drivers in the most abusive environments to get through the warranty period without having to buy a new engine. The fact you aren’t that person in that place isn’t, and can’t be, known.
Except now it can be known. The car can know what the environment is and how you’re driving and can crunch the numbers to tell you the real deal and not enslave you to the rule of thumb that was designed to cover abusive idiots.
Maintenance schedules are devised by the auto makers who know the car best and know how to keep it on the road in the best condition possible. Those same people, knowing the same things, are programing the car’s computer. If you trusted their schedules, trust their programs.
If you want to be conservative, schedule the work as soon as the light comes on. That’s 15 percent oil life left.
You forgot the worst one. Enjoy replacing the rear diff fluid every 20k with Honda’s unicorn dual pumping fluid. I’m curious how that went from a regular mileage interval.
I assume this is CR-V specific? My Fit doesn’t require it.
My wife’s 2014 GL350 has some gobbledygook about ‘Service A8’ or ‘Service B7’ due in some mileage interval. I ignore them religiously. Her oil gets changed every 5,000 miles with Mobil 1 5w-40 Diesel Engine Oil and HotShots FR3, oil filter gets changed every 2,500 with a PremiumGuard Extended Life Filter, and fuel and air filters get changed every 10,000 miles. OM642 motors in the GL350 chassis are notorious for timing chain stretch but this can be mitigated by ‘overmaintaining’ them, which I’m fine with because oil and filters are purchased by the case
My X5d follows an identical service schedule, but only because it’s deleted and i beat on it like i hate it
Its because its an appliance. Sold to people who like boring, appliance-like blobs to drive and rely 100% on the dealer to tell them what to do to their appliances.
You just described 97% of cars.
This SUV in particular. We test drove one. They are about the most boring and uninspiring thing I’ve ever driven.
3 months / 3000 miles is two things
– leftover from 70s and earlier engines and oils (half a century!)
– what they still use for the “next oil change” sticker they put on your windshield. And not just at quick oil change places — I had my Wrangler, which uses a % remaining indicator rather than a schedule just like the CRV, serviced at a dealership and they placed a 3/3000 sticker. Annoying.
I get a 5k sticker from my mechanic as I did from Honda before the warranty ended. I just peel it off ànd toss it.
I would love this! The car telling me when exactly to change what rather than me second guessing.
My ’09 Cobalt (traded in), ’20 Civic (deer are a menace), and now ’19 Civic have the same (or similar) systems. While I am sure the Cobalt was varnished to all daylights, it still made it to 250k miles with following the oil change reminder light only (lots of other things unrelated to the engine/oil). I have a tendency to trust that the engineers designing those things have a good factor of safety built in (especially on the more “when in doubt, build it stout” vehicles [not looking at anything American in the malaise era]) and they get to see much more test data than any of us changing our own oil over the years.
Clarity PHEV owner. Just follow the computer. It won’t let you go over 12 months, and if your drives don’t tax the engine, the interval is incredibly long.
When I spent some time highway driving, the interval was definitely shorter than heavy electric driving. So the machine does know the difference.
I’ve settled at 10,000 miles for oil changes on my wife’s Accord hybrid. The oil looks ok when I drain it and the level doesn’t drop much, but going beyond 10,000 makes me nervous. If she had a non-hybrid model I’d probably change it at 7,500 miles like I do with my Mazda3.
My parents will have to change the oil in their Niro PHEV based on age. They drive it around town, and most of the time the gas engine only kicks on for maintenance purposes.
At the end of the day, it’s a Honda with a great engine. Since it’s a hybrid, that engine gets a very different workout than a conventional ICE vehicle. Follow the maintenance minder and you should be just fine. I think first oil change maintenance minder on my 2023 CR-V Sport came on at around 12k. Interestingly, the maintenance minder for the diff oil came on earlier. I guess they want to get the break-in particulate out of there early on, then it will be good for a long time. Made me nervous, but I have a rock-solid extended warranty and have had ZERO issues with the vehicle so far.
My experience with Honda’s is that the oil change minder is pretty accurate for what it does. There are times I go a whole year without changing the oil but have done 10k miles because it was all highway miles. If I’m doing mostly city driving and spirited driving like now then I can go about 6 months before needing to change even though I’ve only done 5k
My Chevy Volt (Recently repurchased after insurance totaled it and sent it to auction just because wheels got stolen, that’s a whole different story) after one year of combined driving (70% electric, 30% gas) goes down to 50% on the reminder, but oil is cheap and after one year I think its enough time between season changes, cold weather, etc. People seems to go up to 2 years between oil changes if you drive +90% on electric, that’s insane to me.
Yeah, I go one year and have it done on my Volt when I have my annual state inspection done. But a plug-in hybrid especially makes sense to have an oil life percentage; 5,000 miles is very different on 90% electric drive compared to 50%.
It’s a hybrid so 10,000 total miles is probably less actual hours on the engine than a regular car at 10,000, with start/stop and the motor helping the engine off the line those are probably the hardest times on the engine so it kind of makes sense.
Reminds me of when I had my Volt with over 50k miles on it and the oil change place wanted to use the oil for ‘high mileage’ engines, I’m like, the engine has maybe 20k miles on it, it’s fine.
50k a high mileage engine? Interesting theory.
well you know it needs the ‘special’ oil. Stopped going there shortly after that, was a Good year shop and the guys there were cool but around that time I went in and almost all new faces, must’ve had a ‘new management’ type thing happen.
Has anyone seen a picture of Matt lately? Because that topshot implies that he’s opted to be forever fused to his CR-V via Torch’s homunculus method.
Not the car I would choose personally, but I bet he’s happy he waited and didn’t mate himself to the Subaru. Sometimes you have to wait for the right one to come along.
I think he was Turbo Teen, and has grown up, but before this shot he got splashed with water.
Ah, nothing gets the opinions flying like an oil change discussion. If changing your oil every 3,000 miles makes you feel good, by all means keep doing it. It’s a small price to pay for happiness. If you’re gonna stretch it out to what the manual or dashboard tells you, you better be checking the dipstick along the way.
Generally agree, although dipsticks are starting to go away. Makes me sad.
this! My 2013 crv has the same minder but it consumes oil, so I need to top up (something the computer doesn’t/can’t comprehend is oil level/amount)
From reading the comments, it sounds like Hondas done have oil level sensors. Am I the only one who thinks that’s insane? Every BMW and Mercedes I’ve owned has had one, including my 1994 W124. They will alert the driver with a light on the dash if the oil is running low, long before the level reaches critically low levels. How is this not a thing on every modern car?
Also 10k is too long for oil changes, especially on Hondas that take basically no oil. A lot of those 4-cylinder Honda and Toyota engines barely take 5 quarts!
Come on Micah 5 seconds on google would’ve saved you from making that comment.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195366983623
https://youtu.be/5t2bKlRxLTI
But that’s even more confusing. If the engine oil level sensor isn’t alerting drivers that the oil is running low, or at least prompting for a more frequent oil change, what purpose does it serve?
It’s a Honda. All of the nuns and the pope has one. They are so holy they don’t need new oil. They run on holy water. Be glad you’re driving a holier than Thow car and enjoy the lack of maintenance whiny car guy. I thought ditching the wheel hub bolt breaking Subie would quiet you down, but, noooooooooooooooooooo. Still whining!
The nuns at my company all drive Toyotas….
Yea Honda has had the maintenance minder system in its more modern digital form since the mid 2000s. It’s great! It generally lets people go 8-10k between oil changes and it saves me time because there is nothing to drain! Yes modern oil last longer but modern engines still burn oil and Honda doesn’t think about the vast majority of people that will never check their oil levels between oil changes. There is nothing in these engines that physically measure the oil level. So you usually end up getting cars that burn oil like a sumbish after 100k because of all of the buildup from constantly running the car low on oil. It’s all good though, job security for me! These systems are also designed to chase the “lowest cost of ownership” brag as well. Bet the Honda PR guy knows all about that.
Look at you, all fancy w/your dipstick. Show off. My BMW doesn’t even have a dipstick, just a level sensor & an oil life monitor. I changed oil 4K miles ago and it still insists I have 10,000 miles before I have to change. I change every year, whether it needs it or not. That works out to about 7-8k miles or less. A few years ago, I had leaky injectors and mysteriously, the oil level would go up. Then it would drop precipitously on a 2 hr drive. Replacing the injectors seems to have stopped that. Fixing the leaks seems to have stopped the level dropping. Or, the level of gas dilution matches the rate of oil consumption. (Sigh)
Send oil samples to Blackstone Labs https://www.blackstone-labs.com/ and let data from the oil tell you when to change? I think DT had talked about it before (when he was sleping in Detroit), but oil analysis are more accurate and comprehensive than built in optical sensors eg it can tell you which parts are wearing and if there are any fluids that are not supposed to be there.
Since you have a new car, it is good to have a baseline. I have been using them for a few decades.
Totally worth it. I don’t send them EVERY oil change but for $35 or whatever it’s an amazing health checkup every 3, 4* oil changes.
*increase checkup frequency if you own a BMW.
I change the oil in my cars regularly but I am really not on board with all this “do it at 3000 or 5000” even if the manufacturer says 7,500. Internal engine wear is about the last thing I worry about in modern cars, unless you are regularly tracking it or something. The electronics and sensors will start crapping out on you in multiple fail modes, or your transmission or rust out before your motor wears out.
Why change at 15%? Isn’t zero percent really the spot? Like if it was set at miles like you want and the miles were 5000 wouldn’t you do it around 5000 miles, not 4250? I mean you don’t ever hit exactly, but don’t you aim for the center of the target, not the edge?.
Given that our local dealer is a few weeks out even for oil changes, if you make the appointment at 15% you’ll be closer to zero when it gets changed.
The more reasonable answer is that running oil to zero is akin to running a belt until it snaps. Everything is a lot better off wasting the dregs of a maintenance item.
Except oil doesn’t snap at zero. It may not snap at -5000. Zero is just a guess and a conservative one at that.
The zero percent isn’t when it is predicted to fail, that is the recommended service interval so it won’t fail. It is not the final countdown to buttons for the nukes to be pushed with no turning back.