Honda Civic '06 maintenance schedule

I currently have 5460 miles on my 06 HCH and the service indicator light hasn't turned on yet. I read in the manual that it'll turn on at 15% oil life left, usually about 10K miles.

My dealership recently informed me that I should get an oil change now, because they need to be serviced every 5000 miles in spite of the indicator light not turning on. Is that right?

And how come older models of civic hybrids require religious maintenance at like every 3750 miles while the new 06 model is whenever the service (wrench) light turns on?

Should I really trust the indicator light only to tell me when and how the car should be serviced, or am I responsible for other maintenance items to keep the warranty valid?

the cold air your getting is prolly because you have air coming from outside. if this happens when the car is moving just hit the button to the right of the a/c button, the one with pic of a car with curved arrow. this will only allow air to circulate within the car and no air will blow in from outside through the vents.

My dealer told me it should be serviced at 5K... or when the oil life is 5%. I own a 2006 for 2 months. Very pleased with overall performance. Superb car.

My wife took my 06 Civic Hybrid to the dealership today to get the oil change because the service department informed us that only THEY could do it. Well, I showed up in time for my appointment and after waiting an hour, the service people slowly made their way to my car. All of the service customer service people seemed lazy and angry to be at work.
Nevertheless, they finally changed the oil, but failed to reset the oil percentage indicator. :mad:
How sorry is a service department that not only cannot keep the appointment times, but forget to do something as important as resetting the indicator?! Anyways, that will be the last time we go there.
Now to my question: Does anyone know how to reset the indicator back to 100%? The manual says to bring it to the service department, but they are obviously too incompetent to do this. Can someone help with some info? Thanks!

Boonedoggle

I just got my oil changed at 6700 miles, I waited until the car's light went on (the one that looks like a wrench.) Between the book and the dealer I trust the book. I have found that the dealers are better with regular Honda's but that they really are not all that well informed about the Hybrid. The best they can do is remember to use the specific oil the Hybrid requires instead of regular oil.

12-29: It seems that there are a lot of Honda dealerships that are more attuned to the culture and philosophy of Henry Ford and Louis Chevrolet than Soichiro Honda. The ones who advise customers to ignore Honda's maintenance minder should be called stealerships. How do customers report them to Honda management and what is the likelihood that Honda will do anything about their unscrupulous behavior?

It varies from car to car. Some cars will reach 15% in less than 5000 miles. Others may go as high as 12000 miles or more. It all depends on how the car is driven.

Cheers;

MSantos

Thank you so much Msantos!

I do agree wholeheartedly about the pinstripes.. they are a bother. My dealership already had them on the car and normally I would not get them because they are just stickers and stickers peel... :mad:

I am SO happy there is an 07 trunk tray! YAY! You are the best!!!

As far as the Purigen thing goes, I am not sure why, but my car came that way pre-purigen-ized. Poor thing... But thank you for letting me know :)

I do ok with my headrest as long as I do not put my hair up. I have finally found the perfect position... it required months of adjusting both the tilt of the chair and the height, and now its alright.

Thank you again for all your help!!
:D

Laurie,

Any reputable mechanic or oil change shop should carry the 0w20 oil. Just make sure that it is API SM 0w20. That way you can be assured that it meets Honda's specifications. If you do need to use something else in a pinch, try to use a 5w30. With that being said, I would recommend that you change that oil soon there after once you find a suitable 0w20 that you can use.

My sticker says to fill my tires to only 32 front and rear.... I have read on here people putting upper 40s and even low 50s.

Is mine so low because it is Purigen? or because I am in Fla and well... never encounter snow...?:confused:

Thank you so much MSantos,

My tires say 44, and I checked them last night at they are at 31. I knew something was not quite right, they just look so low. When I get home I will air them up to about 36, that seems like a good compromise?

I have a 06 Honda Civic that had terrible road noise, but was getting 39 mpg. I installed 150 lbs. of Dynamat and changed my tires to a high performance tire. I am now getting about 28 mpg.
What in the heck happend? The road noise is gone, but so is my gas mileage. Help!

MSantos,

In an earlier post, you said to work up the tire pressure to 40 in the rear and 42 in the front. Is that where you would recommend as a balance between FE, safety and a comfortable ride? Do the dealers have a problem doing this for us if we ask them to at the oil change?

In the Manitoba area, what exterior air temperature would you start removing the pipe insultation? I only have the top row around the "H" logo blocked, as the left side of the lower grill already looked blocked by Honda.

Tried to check out the www.cleanMPG.com website. Where on the site do I go to find a forum like this one on the HCHII? I am impressed by your l/100km numbers this past winter. I was around the 7.8-8.8L/100km mark.

Thanks.

Peggy, many dealers have a problem doing that for their customers on request. The best we can do is ask them not to touch the tires and instead you watch the tire pressure yourself.

When the ambient temps rise above 0C I start removing the pipe insulation one row at a time. The objective is to ensure that the engine temperature does not rise much above 90C. If the engine temp does rise above 90 then the radiator cooling fans will turn on and that is the give away that the engine is too warm. I keep my eye on the various temperature readings with a device called "ScanGauge". It is worth every penny.

While at CleanMPG, just intro yourself in the "Start your journey here" section and we'll take care of the rest. While our underlying objective is to help everyone regardless of what they drive, you'll see that we have the strongest and most capable HCH-2 community anywhere. Also, do not forget to read up on Tarabell's article, which happens to be the HCH-2 bible for anyone serious about knowing their HCH better.

Cheers;

MSantos

Wow - great website! I'm glad I found it!

I have an '06 Honda Civic [not hybrid though - hope you'll accept me in your community] and I love it, but I am experiencing some major changes related to gas mileage.

On a full tank of gas [fill up somewhere between 10 1/2 gal. to 11 gal.] I would get about 320 - 340 miles. This started changing about 6 months ago - it went down to as low as 220 - average is 250. I went to the dealership [never again, especially that one] and they told me my front brakes are wearing, I need an oil change and new tires. All this for the incredible amount of $1,500. What a deal, huh?! Needless to say, I left without looking back..

I chose a Goodyear rep close to my house - had my front brakes fixed, changed tires [alignment, balance included, obviously], changed oil, everything. The tires I had put on are Goodyear Assurance TripleTred. Unfortunately my gas mileage problem is still there. I went to a different Honda dealership and told them what I had done, but my mileage was still low. They couldn't figure out what the problem was, so they just told me this will go down as the total mileage on my car increases. Right now, I'm at 56,700 miles.

Anyone have any input?

Thanks,

YYZ

Can regular Civics use OW20?

Also, I agree, the instrumentation in the Hybrid is really instrumental (haha) in obtaining better mileage. It's a constant education on what improves your mileage.

One marginal side benefit: you get to know which way the supposedly level roads in your neighbourhood are sloping.

MS,

Thanks for your response. I assume by DWL & DWB, you mean Driving w/ Load & Driving without Brakes. I have heard the term before, but I'm not sure I fully understand the technique - could you please explain a bit more?

Regarding the Scangauge, I found this.. http://www.scangauge.com/features/
Does this basically just help me see my car's readings _or_ save gas too?

I must admit, I do drive over 60mph, on the highway I usually go up to 80mph - 85mph, but I have always driven the car like that.

I will though follow your suggestions and see if something changes. Thanks again!

Greetings,

YYZ

Several times I have seen people asking for maintenance schedules, but have not noticed anyone mentioning the Honda Owner site:
https://www.ahm-ownerlink.com/

Once you join up, for free of course, you can access many informative things there including maintenance schedule. I find it to be a very easy site to use and being run by Honda. expect the information to be correct. Anyone else use this site?

JC:

The advice we offer in this forum echoes Honda's own recommendations for the HCH-II and is consistent with the service directives published by the Honda engineering group regarding this model.

In the simplest of terms, the basis of Honda's recommendations are supported by the vehicle's maintenance minder and any inferences to traditional maintenance cycles are hardly helpful for HCH-2 owners. If anything, Honda has openly and explicitly warned against replacing the factory oil before it reaches 15% or before 1 full year of service.

Perhaps you could provide some sort of empirical affirmation that can support your assertions?

Cheers;

MSantos

Hi ReneeB;

Please to drop by CleanMPG and let's work on real improvements.

Please do yourself a favor and avoid any Gas additives or gimmicks of any kind. As it is, your car can give you truly astounding mileage without any snake oils at all. Lets work on that first and... please save your money. ;)

Cheers;

MSantos

Somewhere, some time back, I managed to find the *full* pdf manual, without all the links nonsense. It's referred to as "unlinked", and is around 6 megs. I've been looking again recently, just to provide a link to people, but have not been able to find it.

I beleive the wrong grade of oil was put in my hybrid. It was 5w20. Is that a problem? Isn't the right grade 0w20?

Hi Derek. Reading between the lines of your post, it sounds like your dealer is ignoring the Maintenance Minder, and pushing *their* mileage (and time?) based schedule.

As long as they're at least adhering to the requirements of the Maintenance Minder schedule, it's ok, but: part of their motivation is likely:

to get more money out of you.

I'd suggest to do what you can to get back to the Maintenance Minder service style. Let it run down to 15% (you can go down to 0%, personally I prefer to act at 15%), and get those items done.

Or, you might consider doing at least some of the service items yourself. Advantages are mainly that you'll save some money, and avoid the inconvenience of having the car tied up at the dealership.

Bare minimum, I'd change your own filters (cabin and engine), something that comes up maybe every 25~30K miles. Though, the labour charge likely lsn't much, if any, for that. At least it shouldn't be, there is nothing to it.

Anyway, *do* start reading through your manual. Here's a current online source for the '09 Owners Manual, which is more-or-less the same:

http://www.freepdfmanual.com/2009/01/03/honda-civic-hybrid-navigation-an...

This is the full, linked pdf. Not sure why they're not readily available from Honda, but this is one source.

Regarding the codes:

B:

First off, "A" is engine oil change *only*, ie: not engine oil and filter change. You do *not* need to change the oil filter at "A" service. Check your receipts. are they dinging you for an oil filter at *every* oil change?

Also, how many quarts/liters are they charging you for? Oil change *only* (no filter change), the quantity to bring it to the full mark is 3.0 liters (3.2 qt). *With* filter change, the qtys. are 3.2 liter or 3.4 qt., due to the extra oil in the filter being poured out.

But, it's not chiselled in stone that the oil must be at the full mark. Doing my own, I like to set the level a little below the full line, closer to halfway between the low and full marks. As long as you're not losing oil, this is actually the sweet spot. With/without filters changes, I routinely use 3.0 liters. FYI, I remove the oil filter at every change, but at A service I just empty it out and reinstall (re-use).

If you do your own changes you obviously have more control over this. The dealership does not want to deal with fractions of bottles, it's a hassle to document. My experience with dealership oil changes was: they routinely put in 4.0 liters (and charged me for it), and virtually *refused* to not change oil filter at service "A".

They have an ingrained culture of "second guessing" Honda's schedule, and it's very hard to budge them. For me the solution was simple: walk away. I *enjoy* doing my own routine maintenance, and like the control and cost savings. I still rely on the dealership for the more serious and involved items, but you're within your rights to do the mundane items yourself. As long as you are reasonably dilegent and competent, you will be ok.

So, "B" is every *other* oil change, in my experience, and includes the oil filter change. It also includes front/rear brake inspection, tire rotation, and inspection of suspension/exhaust components, and general top-up of fluids. Some of this is important, some, well: do you really want to pay a mechanic $60+ dollars an hour to top up your windshield washer fluid...?

BTW, tire rotation and brake inspection *should* go hand-in-hand. The tires come off for brake inspection, so it is the perfect time to also rotate them (swap them around).

Anyway, in my experience, "A" service comes up at around 9000km (about 6000 miles?), and after another 9000km it is "B" service. Usually "A" service is just that, no extra numbers, but not always, I think. It's usually "B" service with extra numbers.

Ok, back to codes:

1: Rotate tires: typically at every B service, say 18000km

2: Cabin/Engine Filter replacement: Maybe every other B service, say 36000km (check them yourself, more frequent replacement might be warranted, especially with the engine filter)

3: Transmission fluid change, also every 3600km I think, per above. This is one service I jump the gun on, I replace mine *yearly*, my personal preference. Do *not* get suckered into doing a "flush", ie: 3~4 changes of fluid. This is *only* needed if the fluid got contaminated, say by accidentally putting in motor oil (don't ask).

4: Replace Spark Plugs and check valve clearance: the interval for this is *very* long, not sure, but would speculate over 100,000km.

Likely the spark plugs *will* survive that long. The stock plugs are very pricey, and very durable. I pulled ours at around 50000km, they looked pristine, apart from a little coating, which I removed with carb cleaner. Never brush, sandblast or attempt to adjust the gap with these, it will damage them.

The valve clearance should be checked sooner, imho, but will probably "survive" to the Maintenance Minder's mileage. Still, I would do them sooner, actually much sooner. My opinion: around 20000~30000km is a good time, once the engine has fully "settled". I checked ours around 50000km, and almost all were out-of-spec, on the loose side. Not distastrously so, but worth correcting. Here's some info on how I did it:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17946

5: Replace Engine Coolant: I'd follow the MM for this. Not sure when it comes up, maybe every 80000~100000kms? We got a block heater put in, and this necessitated a coolant change way too early.

IMHO, block heaters should be factory installed in all cars, both to fuel economy (if you use it...), improve engine life and to avoid wasting coolant. Also, to avoid customers getting gouged with after sales installs at the dealership, and problems associated with incompetent installs...

Likely the only way this will happen is through legislation though.

I just recently purchased both the engine and cabin filters, retail, through our dealership parts department, they were $18.84 and $36.78 respectively, in Canadian dollars, and typically our prices are a bit *higher*.

Assuming this is a Honda dealership you're going to, if it's at all possible I would check out another dealership, and/or contact corporate Honda. Spell out the what/when/how much of your experience, and keep your cool. It does sound like they are price gouging and pushing unneeded services.

Honda's retail parts prices are set, and fairly steep to begin with. But this definitely is out of line, and points to an unscrupulous dealership. My personal experience is that a dealership's service department can swing from good through indifferent to bad, depending on the management. There are conscientious, honest (well semi-honest) service departments, but they do vary...

I have a new 2010 Honda Civic coupe. Sometime in the next month, I'm taking it on a driving trip of about 5,000 miles. I don't want to stop for service at a strange dealership, etc. in another state. Should I get an oil change ahead of time (have driven only about 700 miles so far) or should I figure it'll be fine for 5,000 miles? Confused, because with my old Accords, I had maintenance schedules in the manual and now there's nothing in the Civic manual that lists miles. Do I just trust the wrench to come on? But I don't want it to come on while I'm far from home. Help, someone? Thank you. Gratefully, Confused Driver

I purchased a 2010 Civic Hybrid in October and really love it so far. I have already had the oil changed once and will need to again in early summer. When I had the vehicle in for the first oil change the advisor at the desk told me that the vehicle should have something done to the brakes every other oil change. I think she said it had something to do with the regeneration system. No price for that service was discussed and in the mean time I have been thinking it sounded rather fishy. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

read the manual....I dont think ANYONE here has read the manual. Hold the SEL/RESET button and start the car while continuing to hold the button. It will reset in about 5-10 seconds. FYI...an owners manual comes with every new vehicle :)

Dear Sir\ Madam,
I bought a Hybrid Honda Civic 2006 a year ago. the battery gave me 80% at the computer check.But now I face a problem which is the charging of the battery. It gives a full charging quickly and discharging as well. sometimes it shows normal charging and discharging. Please advise me soon since I live in Jordan and there aren't too many dealers I can trust. I love my Honda. Best regards