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 ****! 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!

 

Thanks for the detailed info. Does the car's puter reset itself after? Whadya think an oil change runs locally for comparison?

 

Nope... You have to hit the select button until it is displaying the oil life. Then you hold the select button in for 10 seconds and the display flashes. Press the button again and hold it for 5 seconds and it resets to 100% oil life.

As for local pricing for oil changes... I've seen quite a few postings for $40... some for $80... and a few for over $100. I don't recall which part of the country these came from. I'm guessing the So. Cal ones would be on the high end of it.

Frankly, I wouldn't care if the dealer charged $25... I'd still do it myself. I know it's done right... and I have a chance to inspect other stuff while I'm doing the oil change. That, and I enjoy doing my own work (that one's pretty important!!!).

 

$40 for oil change here. My A1 came up at 7500. The dealer charged another $40 for tire rotation/balancing (ow!).

 

Jeff, excellent play by play however you did not say if you had to jack the car up to get under? Also I have had 12 other Hondas before and always changed the oil myself and wondering why do you have to leave that stewwwwpid undercarriage plastic on there? I suppose it has to do with air flow??? It seems that most of your time changing the oil is removing and reinstalling that thing. Wonder if you would even notice any difference in mileage if you just left off? Also where did you buy the filter?

 

Bnsfengineer... your answers...

1) I only jacked up the car a couple of inches on one side to gain easier access to the center pin on the lower cover. I could have done it without jacking it up. This, of course, will depend upon how large you are!!! NO lifting was needed for any other access to oil drain or filter access.

2) You could just remove the cover, but it is supposed to have some impact on MPG. I also like the fact that stuff remains clean above the cover. Makes it easier to spot oil leaks coming from your vehicle (instead of oil splashed on the under-surfaces from the road). I've heard that you could just remove the front clips and bolts from the cover and fold it back enough to gain access to the drain plug and filter. This would cut the access time back considerably. I didn't try this, but it looks like it would be possible.

3) Bought my filter (and the drain plug washer) from the Honda dealer. I think it was about $6.

 

To add to your sentiments about the undercarriage plastic, IIRC that piece is only on the US version according to the owners manual, not on the Canadian version. I wonder what regulation or rule or other difference does not allow or recommend that piece to be standard issue for Canadian Hybrids also ? At least it only has to be dealt with every 8500 miles or so....

And to the original poster, thank you for the writeup on the oil change. The other thing I wondered is how you rotate your tires at home. Basically just jack up one side of the car and rotate front to rear, and then the other side front to rear?

 

VERY good question! I was seconds away from posting that exact question!!!! When I went to do the tire rotation (yesterday) I was hunting for jacking points. My goal was to get the front end on jack stands and then raise the rear with my floor jack. That would allow the cross-pattern rotation.

My owner's manual only shows the jacking points for the standard car jack (the reinforced areas on the sides between the front and rear wheels). I did notice the big tie-down hooks and reasonably stout looking flat area in the front (left and right side) which APPEAR to be decent jacking or support points, but I'm not 100% certain. These are the ONLY front areas which are NOT covered by the big plastic lower cover. When I jacked up the car a couple of inches (as stated in my original post... for access to the center lock pin on the lower cover), this is where I did my lifting... but I never even got the front tire off the ground. I didn't want to go higher until I confirmed this was an "approved" jacking point.

Does anyone know (or have access to the official workshop manual) where the jacking or lift / hoist support points are located? Is that tie down hook area okay???

As an alternative, I could just lift one wheel at a time and use the spare tire in the rotation pattern... removing it at the end. That would require five lifts and five removal / replacements of a wheel. A pain, but it would certainly work.

 

Per the service manual, the rear jacking point if lifting with a floor jack is the tow hook itself. Unfortunately, you'll need a hi-lift jack to really do anything there. I've got a Craftsman 3-ton Truck/SUV jack that does a good job, and they had it on sale recently for about $60. The first time I lifted the car with a floor jack, I didn't know about the 'official lift points', and gouged the undercoating a bit when I used a flat area of the floor pan / chassis to lift with.

The front jacking point is a small rectangular metal piece (about 2" x 4", flat) in the center of the front subframe, between the ft. fascia undercover and the main front undercover. There's an arrow pointing to it stamped on the fascia undercover plastic. A wide saddle floor jack would extend past both ends; a narrow / conventional saddle hits the area on both sides, ft / rear. So be more careful when lifting if you don't have a wide saddle (I don't).

Don't use the front tow hooks as a lift point if you can help it - I don't think they'd handle the weight.

The lift points are at the four corners of the passenger compartment - directly behind the front wheels and in front of the back wheels. If you look under the car, you'll see a couple of ~ 2" areas with curved & reinforced body weld / frame points. This is where your scissors (tire change) jack and jack stands go. It's also where the tech is supposed to place the rack when your car goes on a lift.

If you have one set of jack stands and a floor jack, you can loosen the lug nuts on the wheels, jack the front of the car up, put your jack stands under the front lift points, and then use your pantaframe to lift one rear wheel. Criss-cross the front tires (so, the ft. pass. tire goes to the rear drivers' side and vice-versa, and move the two tires on the back straight forward (rear driver becomes ft. driver side tire). This will require three jack lifts (four if you lowered the floor jack after putting the car on the front stands).

You can use just the scissors jack and the spare in the rotation (as a 'placeholder' of sorts), but as mentioned, you will need to lift / drop the car five times - that's a LOT of turning of the scissors jack!

Best solution I found is to get a second pair of stands; I can then have all four tires off the vehicle if I want, and only two easy lifts with the floor jack are needed (I don't have to use the scissors jack at all!). Ok, three, because I lowered the jack on one end. But it's much easier to deal with a floor jack than the scissors.

Finish torque the lug nuts in an alternating star pattern to 80ft-lbs. Done.

Also, it goes without saying - do NOT get under the car when it's supported only by the scissors jack. Put the car on ramps or stands. I prefer stands because it leaves the wheels free if I want to rotate the tires, and I can lift the stands higher than pre-formed ramps. Still can't lift high enough to just drop the front of the undercover, though - I have to remove it each time. My kingdom for a lift! LOL

 

GreenAndBlue... thanks for the very useful info! I do have a decent floor jack with a narrow saddle. I think it gets 22" of lift (I bought it for my SUV), so that should be just fine. I only have two stands, so my thought was to lift front from the subframe area you mentioned and place the stands at the official front jacking points, lower the jack... move it to the rear and lift from the center to basically have the car up on three points.

Is the rear tow hook you mentioned in the center of the rear (I can't look right now!!!)? That would be important for proper balance. If so, this should work just fine. I've supported much heavier cars this way. As long as the lugs are broken free before the lifting is done, it should be quite safe.