Oil Change Question for 2007 Civic Hybrid

I would humbly recommend against performing your own oil changes for several reasons:

• The appropriate oil is 0W20 which can only be found on the market as a synthetic oil. Depending on the dealership you may find their 0W20 to be very price competitive.
• You need to remove the underbody aero shields and the retaining clips may break. If the dealership breaks them then they replace it. If you break them then a bag of clips can cost you.
• When the maintenance minder recommends an oil change its typically includes other maintenance items that you are not likely qualified to perform.
• If you dont take your vehicle into the dealership often enough (and the oil change periods are already long enough for the HCH-II) you may not be able to spot issues that may be covered by the warranty, thus losing out on the benefits of professional oversight. This may include the resolution of smaller recall items you'll never know about.
• Everytime you visit a good dealership for an oil change you add to the service history which may help the resale of the vehicle later on. As long time Honda owner I have always gotten top dollar for my trade-ins because I had a verifiable history of professional maintenance. In other words, in the long run, I LOSE money by doing it myself or having it done at the quick lube places.

Despite all the reasons above plus a few others I may be forgetting, some folks do prefer to make their own oil changes anyway. If you choose to do so then you should have no problem finding the parts/products at most quality auto stores. Some folks however, have trouble finding a good 0W20 oil. :)

The maintenance minder feature of the car is the determinant of when to make the oil change plus any other servicing that accompanies it. It is common for a lot of HCH-2 owners to get an oil change every 9,000 to 12,000 miles (depends on driving style and otehr operating conditions).

Good luck.

MSantos

Agree with Dr diesel, that previous guy sounded like a dealer.
Just did it myself for around 30 USD, which included 5qts of fully sinthetic oil (1.5qts left) and the most expensive fram filter. Did not brake any retaining bolts (and probably you could buy several dozen of them for the difference) as well there is a great chance, that dealer will not replace a broken one if you will not notice and point it to them on the spot. Other thing is what usually happens at dealerships, is when fixing one thing, they screw up someting else to keep the business going. So do it yourself and do not hesitate, these plastic underneath covers are not that scary, just remove few bolts and then just like in regular car.
Good luck

I just did mine yesterday.
Mobil 1 0w20 synthetic $7.35 per quart. x 4 = $29.40 plus 7.25% tax of $2.13 and a Bosch Filtech oil filter for $5.39 + $.39 sales tax. My own time (I only used 3.5 quarts). for a total of $37.31
The MPG gained from an indicated 56 to 58.3
The previous best of 67.3 to the new 60.1 That`s 2.3 MPG increase over the Honda non-synthetic....:cool:
I`ll post my overall @ the next fill-up:D
My last tank overall was hand calculated @ 64.1. I`m looking to squeeze 65 MPG on a regular basis.

You sound like a dealer...:eek:
And service record for warranty claims ?????
I have my oil and filter purchase receipts. I log everything in the vehicle log/mileage book and don`t need to be a guinea pig for the dealers poor tech work habits because there under paid, flat rate, hacks, under skilled, under qualified because the dealer is owned by corporate thieves . Yeah, I`ll take my car to the dealer and let them butcher it until I find a dealer that has a good service department. NOT..;)
If any warranty claim was ever needed, the motors cleanliness speaks for it`s self as long as you service when needed.
I have had no engine problems with my vehicles ever...They are serviced every 3K to 5K depending on vehicle and engine type. When you open a well maintained engine you`ll know it. Everything will be clean and sludge free.
If something fails, know one will need to question the service history because it shows.
You must be a corporate story/spinner, Internet story/myth starter.
Dealer records for resale....Now I have heard it all. Have you ever traded a vehicle into a dealer... They care less about anything, other than making as much money from the deal/you as they can. They give less than book and if you get more than book, it`s in your new car price somewhere. Don`t be so vain about the brand of corn flakes your trying to sell.:)
I have read other post from you. You do have great inside info. I do appreciate your time and opinion, but when it comes to service work and dealership service departments. I have the upper hand of knowledge. I`m not trying to be an A-- towards you. I just think your statements are very Dealer Oriented. Thanks.:cool:

Respect I could not afford you......What are you talking about.....I never disrespected you. I just tried to read between the lines of dealer promotion
Sorry it your offended...But my 30K investment will not be handled by unscrupulous dealer personnel.
Like I said you have great inside info, and I do appreciate your opinion and the time you take to post it for all of us....:cool:

You really have an attitude problem..:eek: ..Happy Motoring...:)
And since your far superior to the common working man and minor service work is beneath you.:rolleyes: I bid you Ado.

Actually, I like a lot of what Dr. Diesel1 has to say. I like having him participate in this forum.
Let's just all lighten up and focus on the interesting and useful stuff. When I agree with him, I usually just sit quietly but when he comes down on something, I have no qualms about offering a counter-point.
Hopefully, He'll see that there is room for many opinions and preferences around this place.
In this case, he seems to enjoy tinkering with cars. More power to him. Me, a long time ago, I realized that I'd rather spend my time avoiding the work.
In the case of oil changes, it's an efficiency thing. Rather than:
0. driving out and buying oil and filters
1. jacking up the car
2. dragging out my creeper
3. dumping the oil into a tub
4. pouring the oil from the tub into a jug
5. pouring the new oil into the filler
6. letting the car back down
7. wrestling with the oil filter to get it out (the last car that I changed my own oil in - back when I was just a common working man - had the oil filter tucked up under the transaxle so it was almost impossible to reach while laying on my back)
8. Swapping out the air filter (if needed)
9. scrubbing the grime off of my hands
10. driving back to the parts store and dumping the oil into the recycle

total time 1.5 hour, 1 trashed set of clothes, 3 miles driven, ~$20 worth of parts

I'd rather just:
0. drive into Jiffy-Lube where they have a regular working guy above and one below
1. they pour the old oil into the long necked funnel/jug
2. pour in my selection of oil from their pull-down oil spouts
wrestle to get the oil filter out
3. swap out the air filter from a well-lit, standing position
4. pay my bill
5. drive away
6. go back to work and put in a little extra effort so I'm more likely to get a raise.
total time spent: 10 minutes, same clothes I wore the rest of the day (the oil-changers wear the same set of clothes all day and don't get as dirty anyway since they didn't have to roll around on the ground), 1/2 mile out of my way, and I'm now ahead of the do-it-yourself oil changing guy in line for the next promotion (not to mention, I like my job better than crawling around under a greasy car) so that while a working man, I'm the higher paid working man. Oh yes, if I spend more effort at my job (instead of wasting time responding to this forum :) ), I may succeed in helping get rid of the old dinosaur burning cars on the road and get us into cleaner cars that don't require so much unproductive maintenance in the first place.
Hey, its a free country and we're all entitled to our opinions. I'm just offering my opinion/suggestions (that have worked for me) for free.
Not Adieu Dr. Diesel, how about BonJour my friend!

.02....:eek:
Thanks for adding it....:confused: I`m not sure where you coming from with it, but it`s your right to feel how you do. So I`ll try to keep that in mind next time.
Just because I disagree with someone else`s opinion or have a little online debate and you take someones side in the matter certainly means nothing to me. So remember what you say and don`t act like a little baby about it.;) I did not reply to you or ask for your opinion. But thanks for giving it freely. It`s not about what your unable to resist. I think some will find my opinion helpful.
It`s your post that helps no one here. Thanks Again.

That`s a good way to handle it if your not going to do it yourself.
It`s not really hard to request a certain tech to do the work.
Just talk with the S/A and make sure he know`s where your at with their service and who`s working on your car. I have had customers request to have me and only me work on there cars. They can get that level of service if they are willing to wait if the tech is busy.
Half the time the S/A will introduce you to the tech that he recommends to work on your car. It all depends on the S/A`s attitude and level of (real) customer satisfaction. Good Luck.:cool:

I had one Honda, an '81 Civic, where you simply reached in from above to unscrew the filter. Never happened again.

When I thought about changing oil on our '06 Civic Hybrid (that's as far as it's got so far :o), 2 factors that came to mind were:

1. find a reasonably cheap source of 0W20.

2. take off the plastic undershield and just stow it away.

I'm quite sure that MSantos IS in fact a dealer, from Friendly Honda in Poughkeepsie, NY. I think it would be only right of him to disclose this.

RR

hi

I am going to attempt to change my own as well. I'm not sure where everyone keeps getting the price of $40-$60 but I got charged $99 for an oil change (that was "standard" for this IL dealership. The car has well over 90k now (it's an '07) and runs like a dream. My wife wants to trade it for another car but why would you do that when you put on 30k a year (at least). Personally, I would have gone with a toyota corolla (or the like) for all that highway driving but that's just me.

Thanks Jhunz for the info. I suspected that the hybrid is capable of doing 200k+ mileage. Trade-in currently is not worth the amount owed.

ps; check that tire inflation and use the same type as the dealer (we tried a different type and saw a 5mpg decrease - *winter tire*)

Hi Greg. I'd agree, oil changes are not that difficult. You just need to be reasonably competent and careful. The one hitch I found with the Honda Civic Hybrid was getting the car up a bit higher to allow the plastic shield under the engine to swing down at it's hinge point. Either that or remove it completely.

We had bodywork done on ours recently, and the next time I changed the oil I found one of the two 10mm (socket size) bolts that hold the leading edge of the plastic shield had it's head sheared off, likely someone installed it with a pneumatic driver. What's really sad is that they don't give a damn, figure the customer will never notice, or won't know how/when it happened. This taught me a couple of things: how to extract a broken off bolt, and where not to take our car for repairs again (and to stop recommending them). This was just one item in a list of oversights by this outfit, but they were a typical example of the work quality of over-rushed "pros".

I gave up on the dealership's service department, at least for routine maintenance like oil changes, some time back. My beefs: they routinely put in 4.0 liters, when the spec. is 3.2 liter with filter change, 3.0 liter for oil change only. Also, they insisted on changing the oil filter at "Service A", which according to Honda is oil change only.

FWIW, I put in only 3.0 liter, even with filter change. This puts the oil level approx 3/4 of the way up, between low and high marks on the dipstick, and the object of the exercise is to really just to get it in that range.

It is not critical to have it exactly on the top mark, and overfill is actually detrimental: enough overfilling will reduce your mileage, since the cranshaft has to slog through the deeper oil in the pan with each revolution. Also, overfilled oil can foul various components.

"I am only getting about 40-42 mpg tops, and am seriously disappointed.

Were you getting better mileage previous to oil change?

Re Honda Civic Hybrid 2006 108,000KM
Thank you for your comments abouts the oil, you are right.
NB After 100,000KM Honda reduce the price of his labour to lower rate
Questions: Air pollen filter - can I buy at Walmart and change myself?
Gas filter - what km should I change?
Thank you!

I'm curious. Aren't there two different oils that should be used on an Insight. 20W for the engine and a special different kind for the CVT transmission?