Please reply with the mileage you had on your TL for its first oil change.

 

On my 2006 TL 5at my first oil changed was at 7,000 miles.

 

'06 TL - close to 6k miles at MID < 15%

 

06 TL first change at 3500

 

4200 miles - had dealer then convert to synthetic. Been using Mobil 1 5-20 ever since.

 

Some where in the 4200-4800 range. Mid was at 40%, I was at my personal limit for the factory fill....

 

Mine is an 07 with less than 500 miles on it, so no oil change yet. But your message does bring up a point I've been wondering about. The Maintenance Minder section of the manual seems to imply you change out the the oil filter only every OTHER time you change the oil. Page 278 of the manual shows an "A" symbol and a "B" symbol. These will display on your info panel (such as A00000 or B00000) when a maintenance interval is reached. A is for oil change and B for oil and filter change, along with other maintenance tasks. Did you follow that schedule when you changed oil? Also, if you took it to Acura for the service, what did the tech recommend?

 

Might want to check with dealer. Our 04's had factory oil that both dealers said had to stay in so many miles....would go at least 5000 if that is still the case...

 

On my 04 automatic I changed both oil and filter at 4000 miles. I am now using a 5000 mile oil change interval with dino oil.

 

hmm I think it was about 6k miles...I changed my oil the first time when the MID < 20%.

 

Thanks for the responses, keep them coming...

I've got <20% on the mid and exactly 4k miles. I set up an appointment a while back expecting to have ~5k miles by now. I think I will postpone the oil service.

 

I would assume that is the cabin filter, not the oil filter

 

I drained the factory fill at 3500 and refilled with dino oil and an additive package to match factory fill chemistry to keep the Acura engineers happy thru the 7500 mile factory fill specification.

 

I did mine at around 3750 at 40% MID oil life and had Acura put in the oil i bought (M1 5W-20)

 

I did mine at 3500 mi just to be safe...

 

wat additive did u use???

 

Page 278 of the owner's manual states: Symbol A, replace engine oil. Symbol B, replace engine oil and oil filter.

 

Thats pretty goofy! wonder if your suposed to unscrew the old filter and drain it before you screw it back on and then contaminate the fresh oil?

Kamlung.......valvoline syn power oil treatment is the oil additive that I used to achieve the chemistry that acura was specifying

 

I wonder if the techs follow that and leave the filter.

 

Well I have a nice new honda filter after my A service, so they changed mine out

 

5k according to MID, then used acura break in oil for another 5k based on mechanics reccommendations (independent) and car runs smoothly for the most part and get 28 MPG when driving like an ass in the city.

 

don't think "city" and "28" have ever gone together in the same sentence about the TL and mileage! course I never had "ass" in any of em! lol

 

I did my first oil change at 2844 miles and went straight to Mobil 1 5W/20 and a Mobil 1 M1-104 filter.

You should never change oil without also changing the filter.. this is not a good practice to follow. A high quality filter may cost $11; your engine probably would cost well over $6000 to replace. Not even a comparison in my book.

csmeance mentions getting "28 MPG when driving like an ass in the city". I can believe this, especially if he has a manual transmission. I have gotten 27.98 with my '04 for in-town and suburban driving for a week of work commuting in the summer months, however, this was using strict gas saving techniques and really trying to milk it. My normal MPG in these situations in the warmer months rangers in the mid 26 area.

 

I can't attest for Drivewire.com's expertise, but this link: http://www.drivewire.com/acuraparts/...oilfilter.html
gives info on oil and filter change for a TL. In a nutshell, they say to change oil and filter every 3,000 miles. Of course, that goes against what I understand Acura recommends, at least for the first oil change. They allegedly add breaking in additives to the oil and recommend you don't change it until the scheduled time (7,500) miles to do so.

BTW, does anyone know what that additive is and what it is doing in the first 7,500 miles? I have this sneaking suspicion that the real reason they tell you that (also the recommendation in the manual that you only change the filter every OTHER oil change) is so that your engine will wear out faster and need to be replaced (by them of course).

Okay, half kidding about that last.

 

Yes there is an additive package in the factory fill. For a very good description of this, do a search on the writeups by Road Rage and Micheal Wan. As I understand it, the package is very similar to that found in Valvoline's MaxLife oil products.

Road Rage reported (RR Journals) that the factory fill package starts to break down much sooner than what the MID is going to tell you. He advises to do your first oil change in the neighborhood of 3000 miles because of this and not to wait until the MID tells you to do this.

As for changing the filter every other oil change, I am going to have to examine my owner's manual for this one. Even if it said this was Ok, there is no way I would follow this recommendation.

And as for change intervals after breakin, I would suggest that this very much depends upon how and where you drive your car. I do my wife's '05 TL automatic every 5000 miles (probably do it today as a matter of fact) because most all of her driving is not in heavy traffic or a lot of stop and go. I recently altered my change interval from 5000 to 4000 miles because I just feel better about not having the MID dip below 15% and also, I do see more traffic than does my wife with my '04 TL manual.

 

As far as Honda (Acura) filters for our TLs, I understand that they are made by Fram.. not such a good thing. Better to use a higher quality filter such as Mobil or Bosch or Champion or STP or Puralator One or a few others. Fram oil filters are not at all what they once were.

 

The dealer I go to changes the filter regardless if it is an A or B service. To ensure that it is changed, I bring my own filter (Purolator Pure One). I believe the additive RR mentioned was molybdenum (?).

 

Sounds right.

 

Anybody doing their own oil changes?

 

Sounds like another poll...

I would bet near 50-60% on this forum change their own oil.. Way tooooo easy not to.

 

Did my first one today (actually yesterday since it is 2 AM now) at 5492 with <5% oil life and first tire rotation. I paid $51 for these services and will be considering doing it myself next time or when the weather gets warmer...

 

Initial change at just under 3800 miles, with 40% life remaining, since I had the car for more than 6 months while commuting just 2.3 miles each way per weekday. I'm lazy and no longer do car maintenance myself as my independent Honda/Acura mechanics do oil changes, fluid fills and inspections in about 15 minutes; they use Honda 5w-20 dino oil.
Well, I do some visual inspections myself since the car is on the rack and I deal with tire pressures myself, but otherwise leave maintenance to the mechanics...

 

Oh, and they install a new filter with every oil change.
I'm not a fan of changing the filter on every other oil change, nor are my mechanics.

 

I change out factory oil on every car I own at either 1K or 2K then start normal intervals from there. Withthe TL I usually go to 30% MID which for me was about 4.5K-5K miles. I did my own Mobil1 oil and filter. I will still use Mobel 1 oil and filter, but my dealership is open until midnight for service and has express lube service so I plan on letting them do it.

 

I just changed my oil/filter yesterday at 4920 miles with the MID reading 30%. It's been 30% a couple weeks now so I figure the MID would be decrementing soon. We're taking the TL out of town the next couple weekends so I didn't want to wait 3 more weeks and 1500+ more miles to change the factory fill. I have always changed the oil on the 5K intervals for my past cars with no issues. I think the 5K interval is a great compromise for engine longetivity .vs environment/cost/time. I'm using a Mobile1/Castrol GTX mix for this change so I may change at 6K next time.

 

Just did my A1 over the weekend at 7142 miles, MID < 10%. It's a cinch to do, especially if you have the oil filter wrench. I believe it'll be even easier if you put the car on jack stands and remove the passenger side front tire (I drove it up a ramp).

Purolator PureOne oil filter and Exxon Superflo.

Total Costs: Approx $13
Total Time: Approx 20min

I had a friend of mine do the tire rotation at his shop, total cost $0

 

The break-in factory fill is high in molybdenum which is an antiwear additive. Other than that, it is unremarkable. I know this because I have had my oil tested by a lab everytime I have changed it.

It so happens that Havoline 5W-20 has the same amount of molybdenum as the Honda/Acura factory fill. Also, the Valvoline Extended Protection additive is high in molybdenum.

I changed my factory fill at 3,000 miles and went with Mobil 10W-30 with the Valvoline additive but, if I had to do it again, knowing what I know now, I would have changed oil and filter at 2500 miles and used the Havoline until 5,000 then change to Mobil 1 5W-20.

The idea is to change the factory oil sooner rather than later to get rid of the assembly debris and early wear particles, then go with the MID or sooner.

I use either Mobil 1 oil filters (104 or 110) or Purolator Pure One PL 14610.

 

I changed the oil for the first time on my car at 86,9xx or you can just round to 87k. I also got a new air filter for the car too.

 

Huh?



Did you get it used? (I hope)

 

Hahha we have a winner!!!! I was really hoping to make some people like flip out and just sit here and laugh, I doubt an engine would run that long with the same oil. I could see it now "you stupid 17 year old you dont know anything about cars" and blah blah blah.