I have a 2001 with a little over 6000 miles. I change my own oil and ususally do my own small maintenance. I received a letter from my honda dealer stating that I needed to bring in my car for a scheduled check. What are you guys doing when it comes time for these scheduled checks. I don't want to pay $200 or $300 to have them check my belts, coolant, brake fluid, etc. Will this hurt my warranty if I avoid these checks and do them myself?

Any guidence much appreciated.

 

I do it myself and mark it in the book. It will not affect your warranty unless a case can be made that maintenance was skipped which caused a failure. BTW, I have watched the Honda mechanics in my dealership do the checks.. believe it or not they do every one (removing wheels, etc.) checking items off the list.

 

I am on highway all the time, 95% of my driving is all highway miles, should I wait a little more or is 7,500 miles good enough for the break in ?

 

I do all my own maintenance and record the date done. If you do not have the time or the tools to do the complete job, then do what you can and take the car to a dealer who will do only what you tell them and charge you accordingly. Stay away from dealers who insist on charging you the standard price for a scheduled maintenance job whether or not you've done some of it already. Myself, I stay away from dealers.......period!

 

mstw- I think there's been a HUGE amount of mis-information regarding when to change break-in oil, but Honda says to do it at 3750, and they're the ones in charge of the factory warranty, after all. Even with the "additive" in the oil, my personal opinion to those of you who wait until 7500 is that you're taking a major risk.

 

The manual says 7500; the dealer recommends the lesser mileage. You be the judge; as long as you adhere to the manual recommendations, your warranty will be honored without question, depending on any questionable mods you may have installed.

 

When I had the Civic, I used synthetic oil, and since most of the travel is on the highway, I dont change the oil as frequent as "every 3000 miles" ...... there were times I had to change it at 3000 miles even with all highway mileages ......

This is what I do to determine when to change my oil, feel free to chip in your comments. Everytime I fill up, I reset the tripdometer to 0, the next time I go for a fill up, I calculate the mpg by the amount of gallons and the miles traveled since the last fill up. Based on factory numbers, if it drops more than 3 mpg than average or what the car usually does, and if the car has passed 3000 miles since the last oil change, I just get it done within a day or so ...... otherwise, my Civic had gone as far as 8000 miles without an oil change, didnt even notice the difference until a friend of mine was changing oil in his driveway, and it reminded me all of a sudden as I was watching him working under the car.

I always go to the same gas station, if not the "exact" same one, I prefer the same brand at least ...... my S2000 is doing on an average of 27mpg, maxed out at 30mpg couple days ago, it now has 5500 miles since 6/22 ; My owners manual does mention the 7500 mark ....