andysinnh

Hi there. I'm sure this question will get a ton of debate - but here goes.... :-)

The wife's 2018 RLX Sport Hybrid was built in Dec 2017. It was mostly moved around the dealer's lot from early 2018 until Nov 2018, until it was put into use as a loaner. From Nov 2018 till March 2019 it had about 1200 miles put on it - lightly used loaner. We took delivery in early April, and as of today the mileage is now at 3k. The maintenance minder (MM) just clicked down to 70% life remaining. It has used zero oil from that factory fill.

Normally with my Honda/Acuras I change the oil when it hits 30% remaining, which is usually 6-7k miles. Yea, it's more frequent than required, but I try to stay ahead of it. The timeframe is usually 7-8 months for that given our typical usage.

In the case of the wife's RLX, the oil has been in the crankcase for about 18 months at this point, with some obvious frequent start/stops in its early life, and more consistent usage now. My concern with the oil is the time it's been in the crankcase and possible external contaminants from lack of us early in it's life. I've been tempted to do a change now and just remove that risk - espeically considering there's nothing such as a "break in oil" from the factory like it was years ago.
Thoughts?

thanks - andy

Limelight

You will most likely get some feedback to the effect that the initial manufacturer oil has additives included to protect the engine during break-in, and should be allowed to flow through vs. early replacement. I have simply followed the maintenance minder system for the life of my SH so far - and so far so good.

hondamore

Hey andysinnh, I will take the side of the argument that you SHOULD change the oil.

I'm a retired old fart who doesn't drive a lot (less than 10000 miles in 4+ years), so I faced the same question and found that the Sport Hybrid manual actually states that your should change the oil according to the Maintenance Minder OR every 12 months. The wording in the manual is:

If a message Maintenance Due Now does not appear more than 12 months after the display is

reset, change the engine oil every year.

Now, considering the whole "break in oil" issue, the first oil change may be different and so, a discussion with your dealer's service manager might be the wise move. To tell you the truth, both options are probably acceptable - that is, waiting another 6 months is probably fine and changing it now is probably fine. The tolerances today are much tighter than the good old days and so the initial "break in" is less stressful to the engine.

Good luck in your research. I look forward to hearing back from you on what you find out and what you decide.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

Hondamore is correct!

the owner's manual will state one year or according to MM, whichever comes first.

andysinnh

Thanks for the feedback thus far. I know about the "..or 12 months" thing because I sometimes run dangerously close to that :-) But given this thing sat on the lot for quite a while with little to no use, I was second guessing that timeline advice. And then that "break-in oil" debate is still there for some, even though I was told by the dealer years back they stopped that practice quite a while ago at the factory.

Our driving habits for both vehicles are about 8-9k per year so far - but given we're close to retirement (yup, I'm an old fart, too - or getting close to it :-) ), the time question comes up.

I'll give the dealer a buzz next week and see what they think. They're good about not asking me to throw $$ at a service need if it's not necessary. Here's where doing business with them for nearly 30 years allows me to trust them more than a run-of-the-mill dealer :-)

thanks - andy

DanL07RL

I change at 10,000 miles whenever that occurs. I also run Seafoam through the crankcase for 200-300 miles prior to change.