Hi,

I bought a 2006 accord used with about 20k miles on it. I've been changing my oil before the maintenance minder indicator light goes on when it usually reaches about 30% oil life. I have yet to see any of the maintenance light indicators go off. I just surpassed 35,000 miles and will probably be taking my car in for service soon. I know that traditionally there is a list of things to do at 30-35k miles. I called the dealer and asked for a list of recommended things to do at this mileage. However, my maintenance minder has yet to indicate I need any of these things.

My first question is, would having my oil changed and the maintenance minder rest sooner than the mm suggested affect my maintenance minder alert for things like tire rotations, power steering fluid, filters and longer term maintenance? Also, I suppose it can't hurt to go by the "dealer recommended" service schedules they provide, but is it really necessary if the mm light has yet to come on?

My final question is should I play it safe and go by the dealers expensive recommendations or am I safe to wait for the maintenance minder to alert me of needed services? Trying to save as much money as possible while also being smart and I'm just not used to this whole maintenance minder yet!

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

There's not too many things going on at 30k miles. If you can do routine maintenance, then do the 30kmiles stuff yourself.
Replace engine air filter. Pretty easy.
Replace cabin air filter. VERY easy.
Inspect/adjust external drive belt.

The drive belt tensioner is spring-loaded, so this is really just a good inspection of the belt.

My 2007 Civic has the maintenance minder, and I had an oil analysis done when it read 10%. That showed I could have left the oil (Castrol GTX 5w-20) in longer. So I think you can believe the monitor, unless you use the cheapest garbage oil you can find...

The cool thing about the maintenance minder is that it keeps track of starts, cold starts, total revolutions, all the stuff that matters to the oil. You don't have to worry if your mixture of city/country/highway is changing because the monitor tracks that stuff for you.

Maybe think about changing the brake/clutch fluid since it's been 3 years. I would certainly take a good look at the brake calipers, for sticking caliper pins, worn out pads, etc.

Oh yeah, if you let the M-M go down to 15%, it'll say A-1 or A-2 or whatever. Look up the list of things to do in the owner's manual. Each time you reset it early, you may not have seen the 1, 2, or 3 that goes along with the warning lamp.

This is really a General Tech question, so I'll move it over there.