deuxpied

I just picked up an 08 TL-S w/ ~57k miles last week. The car inspected well other than needing some wearable parts attention like brakes and tires. I asked the local Acura dealer, Plano David McDavid, about 60k services, etc. and what should have been thus far. I'm a bit of a stickler for maintenance so wanted to make sure I'm all "caught up" so to speak.

The service member told me to simply wait for the Maintenance Minder and not really worry about "60k" or other particular milestones. Basically I interpreted the vehicle is intended to auto-magically inform me of it's maintenance needs.

I understand the Minder considers driving conditions and I'm sure data from other sensors/etc to formulate an alert for a maintenance (such as like a 50k warning arriving for generally a 60k service)?

My question though is that once these intervals are reached and "potentially" fulfilled, and the maintenance code is cleared, is the car "done" w/ that maintenance item. For instance, if someone just reset the notification and didn't actually perform any work; would the car know to still alert for said maintenance in another 50-100 miles or something to that effect.

Anyhow, that was just my train of thought, and I want to make sure I'm off to a good start with keeping everything in order. If said maintenance needs to be performed, I'll take care of it, but just wanted to know if my car was a super genius and really knows what it needs best.

Thanks in advance.

pohljm

wow! thats great advice coming from a dealership! The MID will tell you when. like you imagined its not entirely mileage based on the service intervals. owners manual will describe the services. its no super genius, a simple reset would fool it.

ez12a

yeah there's no way for the computer to know whether or not a service or inspection was actually performed. It just calculates the intervals for service and inspections and assumes you do them when you reset.

also if i'm not mistaken if you reset the oil life % before it goes into the "service soon" mode, it will also force the next set of service items to appear. I've never reset my oil early though, just thought i read something to that effect in the manual. It's also a "sneaky" way for the dealer to tack on service items when you go in for an oil change. depends on how you look at it. Could be also considered a time-saver since you dont have to take it in again just after taking it in for oil.

paperboy42190

iTrader: (7)

i always wondered...could someone screw with the maintenance minder by resetting it multiple times in a row? like say before selling a car. that way whoever buys the car wont get the necessary reminders laters on. and if so, is there a fix for that?

ez12a

i think there are probably some protections in place for that. It probably keeps an eye on the ODO and factors that in. Not to mention it seems like the things come and go at different points, so it's not you can reset 5 of them and he'll have a long time without a notification, or force the timing belt change to come thousands of miles early.

at least the oil change type alternates from oil vs. oil + filter. Eventually it'll all go back to equilibrium. Basically, every couple thousand miles a minder will come up eventually, even if it was reset 10x in the past 500 miles. give it another 5k and it'll appear.

but i'm not in any rush to test my hypothesis. When i bought my car it had no service records, but only 53k miles. I went ahead and changed all the consumables like fluid, front pads, filters to set a baseline of my own and then use the MID. I'm now at 78k following the MID with no problems. pretty much everything but the "105k" service comes regularly. Most of the things are simply inspections, replace if needed type deals. Safe way to go is just look it over whenever you change the oil.

hondaacurapro

Just wanted to give my opinion on the maintenance minder, and manufacturers fluid intervals in general. I think services should be performed twice as much as the manufacturer states (meaning forget the minder, and follow old school mileage intervals). I have been a Honda Tech for a long time, and my shop does mainly Honda and Acura work. From experience most of these vehicles would last twice as long with half the expense if services were done more often. Manufactures have a life expectancy of about 100,000 miles for most cars. Most people expect 150,000 - 225,000 miles from their car. The manufacturer wants the car to make it through the warranty. After the warranty is over, they want the car to break down. They make money on parts sales, and on new cars. Take the trans fluid for example. The minder sets off the 3 service (trans fluid) at about 55 - 60k miles. About 3 quarts are drained, 3 added, and about 4 old dirty quarts are left in the trans. Those remaining 4 old quarts are left in the trans until the next 3 service shows up ( around 110k). This is how I treat my cars, ( I have a 92 Legend, 07 TSX, 2010 Accord, 08 Oddy Van, 89 5.0 Mustang, 03 Mitsu Outlander (for sale), 01 Kia Sephia (don't ask) ). Oil change at 3000 miles, trans fluid at 20k miles, coolant at 36k miles, brake fluid at every brake job, power steering fluid every other year, I do diff fluid when I do the trans fluid, filters when needed. I think the minder is a great way to sell a car. Everyone wants a car that does not need any services. I believe the manufactures are doing a disservice to it's customers. I could go on and on about this. If any one has any questions on why the manufacturer does not know what is best for the cars that they design, email, pm, or call me. drew@pitshopgarage.com, 847-331-4298

Drew