This is my first Acura so not familiar with MMS system. I was wondering if the MMS display sub items only?? I am wondering if i change my oil next month which is 6 months around 4500k miles and my MMS shows 50% life; and I reset the Oil Life Indicator. Would the other sub items such as #1 (rotate tires) come on at 5k miles by itself without A or B mainteance code since i already reseted the oil life?

 

I talked to my service manager about this on friday...he said don't do anything until the car tells you to! He said it will come on somewhere between 4-6k.

 

if you read in the manual it talks that it calculates what you need to do based on your driving habits and preprogrammed lengths of time. I haven't decided if I am going to follow their instructions and get it done at the Acura dealer or continue my usual 5k oil change 10k rotate as I did with my previous car. It just seems 10k is a long time for oil....

 

Actually, my question is not regarding the oil change interval. It is about the MMS and whether it will still display the sub items on time if i were to reset the main items A or B. That means if i reset oil life aroudn 4500 miles, would sub item (ex: 1 rotate tires) still come on around 5k miles? Thanks all.

 

You can read up on the Maintenance Minder and it's logic here:

Acura:
Pages 3-4
http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SN/B050900.PDF

Honda:
Pages 6-7
http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SN/A050900.PDF

Page 3
http://www.in.honda.com/Rjanisis/pubs/SN/A051100.PDF

 

The dealership technician is able to reset the engine oil life monitor portion only (without affecting the maintenance item codes) with the HDS.

If you set it yourself through the normal method, it will affect the maintenance item codes.

 

is the oil life monitor just a timer or does it actually "read" something in the oil?

 

Not a direct measurement of any kind.

Uses an algorithm that includes Time, Miles, RPM's, Operating Temps and possibly other factors. I don't recall ever seeing the details on the algorithm, just generalities.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. How safe do you feel following the monitor? It seems to be way more miles than the 3K all the oil companies say you should follow.

 

3k miles is old school thinking, but of course oil companies like it.

Modern Oils and Filters can easily last much longer than 3k. Amsoil guarnatees 25k miles or 1 year with their oil and filter; Mobil and Pennzoil both have 7500+ mile formulas.

I've been running 4k - 5k Oil Change Intervals on the past 4 cars I've had (Taurus 60k miles; Grand Prix 89k miles; Impala 68k miles; Camry 6k miles)

PLUS 7500 mile oil change interval on the '02 TL-S, now with 77k miles and following the MID on the '07 TL-S (27k miles). The MID on the '07 TL-S puts me at ~4500 miles per oil change.

So, yeah, I'm pretty comfortable following the MID. But if the interval were much over 5k miles, I'd might be tempted to do the change "early".

 

As an example, if you performed an oil change at 5k and the MMS showed 30% oil life remaining, when you go to reset the system, the MMS will tell you what services are due.

At any time, you can find out what services are due at the next service stop by scrolling to the oil life screen and holding down the reset button until the oil life percentage flashes. This will tell you what services would be due if you were to reset the system at that time.

Remember, by resetting the system, you are telling the MMS that you have performed all services that it requested.

 

I'm conservative I guess, oil and a filter is so cheap and I just change it myself. I change the oil about every 3000-4000 miles. I'm going to change the oil at around 3000 miles and see what it looks like. if it's super clean I'll wait longer next time but since I just did a trip to deals gap I'll change it sooner rather than later.

 

Deals Gap. Cool, I slayed the dragon on my Gold Wing a few years ago. I had heard that the local coppers closed that a while ago but that they had to re-open it.

 

Yeah, I don't think 3K miles is the standard with newer vehicles. I had a 2007 Camry Hybrid before this car and my recommended was 5K miles. I want to say that with my 2003 Accord Coupe the recommended was also 5K miles. I personally like the fact that the car will tell me when and what I need to do so that I don't have to keep up with it.