How many miles does everyone have when it calls for differential fluid service?
I change my engine oil every 5000 miles and reset the oil life indicator. So I have not got any service reminders till now .. 11,500 miles. Will the maintanence minder come on calling for only differential fluid service in my case. I am not sure if the car is smart enough to know this or is it relying on maintanence minders to come on for example 2-3 times before adding the differential fluid service with the next oil change. In other words does it really keep an eye on the condition of differential fluid.

2005 RL

 

No, it has a set, predetermined "target" interval for other services. The only service that is electronically monitored/calculated is the engine oil life.

Fwiw, the new Civic has an actual ATF life monitor.

 

I've got about 47000 miles on my '05RL. I had the A16 service done today by a Honda dealer in Mississippi. The "6" is to change the rear differential fluid. After seeing several posts about changing the differential fluid I became concerned about mine and a little while back, I looked through all of my service tickets but could find no reference to any differential fluid changes. All of my servicing has been done primarily at Acura dealers, and I'm starting to switch the non-warranty stuff to Honda dealers. I vaguely remember a reference to check the fluid level at some point when I was having some servicing done by my Acura purchasing dealer in Louisiana, but see no reference to a fluid change, and in fact, can find no reference to checking the fluid.

I'm not towing or driving in mountainous areas. One dealer told me the stuff is good for a long time where I drive...primarily Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

It seems to me that this should have been done before now, and maybe someone else on the board has more info regarding servicing at an earlier interval.

I've always changed my oil in my Hondas and now this Acura at the intervals in the manual (7500 for the Honda)...in spite of dealer recommendations to change more often. My '94 Honda has 459,000 miles on it and isn't using any appreciable oil. I've seen one other post somewhere that it's probably not a good idea to reset the maintenance minder except at the regular maintenance intervals because that would put some other items out of sync...but I'm certainly not an expert on that.

Fred

 

Wow, you sure have a lot of miles on your RL!

Many owners, apparently, have had their Maintenance Minder display "6" before 15k miles for a differential service. I guess yours didn't. Odd.

At 47k, you may want to consider getting the automatic transmission serviced via partial drain and fill. It should cost less than $60 at a Honda dealership using the genuine fluid.

The RL isn't going to indicate the need for a fluid change until about 120k, but I'd personally service it at least every 50k just to be safe given the low cost.