LONG POST (sorry!). Just changed my oil this evening, and wanted to give anyone doing this themselves a few hints...

This was my first oil change... I'm at 8,500 miles and the maintenance minder shows 15% remaining. I'd wait longer, but I'm sick of the wrench light coming on each time I start the car!

I parked in my driveway which is on a slight slope. The rear of the car is lower than the front... and this is perfect, because the drain plug is at the rear of the aluminum oil pan.

Most will say run the engine until warm. I chose not to do this, since the car was sitting overnight and the oil is so thin (warming the oil so it gets thinner and drains back easier isn't a problem!). Some may say you change it with hot oil so the sediments are in solution... but to me, if I get more oil out, I've accomplished the same task. With complete drainback (overnight) and low viscosity oil, I get as complete a draining as you could ask for... and I don't burn my hands in the process!

My first task was to remove the big plastic lower cover. I found one of the nine locking pins already broken off. Don't know if it was a rock or an assembly line goof, but the head was gone. I had no choice but to shatter the rest upon removal. I will replace it with the correct one, but in the mean time, I used a "christmas tree" clip... a plastic trim clip that looks like a screw with plastic fins where the threads would be. It holds it just fine.

Getting the lower cover down is a pain in the arse! Some of the clips give up easily, others need coaxing to pop out the centers. There are two 10mm bolts in the rear which do NOT have to be removed. The two up front do have to come out.

The center plastic pin was difficult to reach, so I got my floor jack out and just raised one side a few inches to get better access under the car. The rest of the process could easily be done with no lifting whatsoever.

Once the cover was off, I removed the drain plug. No problems. Oil came out easy, fast and straight. This 0w20 stuff really drains quickly, even when cool. I let it drain for 30 minutes, but it was down to slow drips after just a couple of minutes! I got out 3.4 quarts of old oil! That's the exact fill quantity. I can't believe that an engine can go 8,500 miles and not use a drop of oil. That's great!!!

Oil filter was next. Book says you don't need to change it on the first oil change, but what the heck... I'm under there anyway, and I don't really want to leave a few ounces of dirty oil in that filter (makes up for that sediment issue I mentioned before!). This was my first Honda oil change... and the filter is TINY. None of my three oil filter wrenches would touch it. I figured I'd just get the old one off with a big pipe wrench (worked fine) and I could screw the new one on by hand (like every filter I've changed in the past 30 years!). NOPE!! Instructions on this (genuine honda) filter were to turn 3/4 turn after the gasket contacts the mating surface. I could only get it about 1/2 turn by hand. Luckily, my brother has a Kia and they use small filters, too. He had the small wrench. Worked just fine to get the last 1/4 turn.

I reinserted the drain plug with a new "crush washer". Despite what had been said in another thread about the washer being bi-metalic, that was NOT the case here. I even cut the old one in half. It's just a hunk of solid aluminum. Nevertheless, I installed a new one. Torqued the bolt to 29 ft-lb.

While under there, I noted some oil stained dirt around some of the CVT bolts and pan. I wiped it off, and will need to keep an eye on that. Everything else under there looked fine.

I poured in 3.4 quarts of Mobil One (purchased at Walmart for $4.95 / qt.). Started the engine and then checked for leaks (none). Reinstalled the lower cover (not too bad getting it back on)... and then reset the maintenance minder thing in the dash by following the directions in the owner's manual.

Oil change done... cost... about $25 for oil and filter. I'll do the tire rotation tomorrow, and then I'm all done!