hi guys, am a bit puzzled here -- actually it prolly shows my age more with the question im going to ask... when i used to own my cars prior to moving to North Am. i had to change oil after 1000kms of driving... i called my dealership up for my new rdx and they said those days are long gone... they told me to just keep using my rdx till 5000 miles (8000 kms) then bring it for servicing... is this true?

at the rate im going it might take >1yr before i reach 5000 miles... i read in the manual that one should take it for servicing nonetheless... so i should follow the principle of 1 yr or 5000 miles whichever comes first, is that correct?

many thanks! loving my car a lot!

 

Yes, you are correct. Actually, the MID should tell you when to get service, but if you don't get that indication within 1 year after purchase, it's not a bad idea to take the car in.

 

thanks princelybug!

 

The MID will learn the way you drive. It'll determine that you won't reach 5,000 within say a year and will alert you to take it in at said time. I remember my first two services occurring way sooner than I expected but the MID informed me to do so. Never hurts to have it checked though.

 

sorry guys, but what is MID? i havent completely finished reading the owner's manual... is it the maintenance indicator on the dashboard -- those buttons that i press which shows oil life, sh-awd, kms/liter, etc etc? thanks...

 

 

oh! haha... thanks!

 

I would say 6 months instead of a year....if your car stays parked for a while the oil will break down because of time instead of mileage...just me, but I would do it every 6 months at most.

 

oh ok... thanks wrestrepo... wouldnt the "mid" be able to catch that and advice me accordingly?

 

I don't think so....I don't think that the MID test the viscosity of the oil and determines if it's okay...I think that it must have some algorithm taking into account the hours of operation, miles, RPMs, whether the car got up to temperature, etc. all the things that would affect the life of the oil, and tells you when to go for service.
Anyways, changing the oil every 6 months is not a big deal for the pocket.

 

thanks wrestrepo... but wouldnt my current car oil have additives for break in? therefore by changing it early i would not have the additives anymore? anyway, i figure ill be at least 1000kms already by 6 mos... otherwise, one more trip to niagara falls...

 

What are you using this car for? grocery shopping? I can do 1Kkms in less than a couple weeks.
I don't really know how the NEW car maintenance works, I have never owned a 0 miles car. But after you do that initial maintenance (you don't have to listen to me though) I would recommend to perform oil changes at least every 6 months. REmember that when you get an oil change they tell you to come back in 3K miles or 3 months. Well, with synthetic is no different. You can run synthetic in some cars for 10-15-20K miles before the light comes on (has never happened in the RDX), but I would play it on the safe side and do it every 6 months regardless

 

haha wrestrepo, yes, grocery shopping is one... (which is just across the street)... i dont drive to work (subway's faster) so basically i use it on weekends and some weeknights with wife-y... and yes, i think im a bit early on the car purchase given that im moving to the burbs only next year... but dont worry, i love this car too much not to drive it... ... my place to niagara and back = 300kms... should build up soon in terms of kms -- ill definitely do it 6 mos after i do my initial oil change... my problem is solved if i go to ottawa or montreal (800kms i think, one way) sometime the summer

 

YOu are welcome...now, how about a deal on whatever property is that you have in Niagara? is it near the falls?

 

I let my RDX tell me when it wants to be serviced.

I think I went ~6000 miles before my A1 service. I had my B1 at ~12000 miles about a month ago.

 

haha @wrestrepo, my property is halfway between downtown toronto and niagara... it hasnt even been built yet and that going to be our future home...

and thanks also markmass (and everyone again)... ill just play it by ear and inquire at the dealership too for our acura new owner's clinic next month... will keep you guys posted on what the dealership says...

 

i've had my RDX less than a year and i've already done 3 oil changes. I don't even drive the car hard, but the car seems to always be needing service

first service - 5% oil remaining, 2543 miles
second service - 5% oil remaining, 5895 miles
third service - 5% oil remaining, 9700 miles

Maintenance on our cars is horrible. My porsche i do it once every 10K miles, but on this acura, sigh.

 

I always go 500 - 1,000 miles past the 0% point since 0% point is just a mathematical calculation and not a measurement of the actual quality of the oil. The dealer says that a lot of other customers do the same.

 

i just did my first service last weekend. i had about 5400 miles

 

I talked to a guy at the dealership and they said something similar. its based more on mileage than anything else and they said 5k should be fine. I think i will do my next one at 4K intervals

 

The thing abou the MID and its "remaining useful ife %" and its Service Now warnings is that it creates a perception of precision that really isn't there. I doubt that it's any more or less accurate than following the 5,000 mile rule of thumb.

 

hi everyone,
I just bought myself an 08 tl-s. It has 15,000kms and only gotten 2 oil changes. I'm assuming the dealer throws in dino oil, and curious when its ok to throw in synthetic?

Thanks

 

There is no 5K mile for synth. You can safely go to 10K between changes. I split the difference and go about 7.5K. With the RDX, the MID has come up around 8K all the time.


You can throw synth at any time, BUT once you do it, you need to stick with it and not go back to dino.

 

Thanks! Time to look up good synthetic oil

 

I've never had the MID service interval stretch beyond around 5,000 or so. Because that is obviously too short to need an oil change, I usually run about 1,000 miles beyond the MID suggested change.

 

I have changed the oil as soon as the indicator comes up (I believe that's at 15% remaining) out of convenience more than anything. It has occurred at around 7.5K, so I assume that I still have a few more miles to go.

 

I wonder what could account for the approx 2,500 miles difference in our average MID warnings? Could different driving habits alone account for the difference?

 

perhaps....I know that it does for the differential fluid change

 

Driving habits absolutely accounts for a huge % of the algorithm with the oil life. The MID measures the number of cold starts, high RPM acceleration, etc to determine when the oil change indicator light appears.

 

No doubt you are correct. I would have thought that my interval would be fairly large because at least 1,000 of the miles (a roundtrip of 500 miles each way) are pure, continuous freeway driving, with no stop and go, sudden accelerations etc. But maybe during those other 4,000 miles or so, I am just a bad boy.

 

Is there an echo here?

My RDX is currently at about 12k miles, and I've had two services via the MID. Both have been A1 so far. At the time I had the service done, the oil life was at 15%. So I'm guessing if I ran the oil life down to 0%, I'm looking at at least 6500 miles between oil changes.

Note that I also drive mostly highway and tend to accelerate gently on city streets. In fact, I tend to drive at or below the speed limit in the city, as I don't see the point of gassing it then stomping on the brake every block.