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would you follow the manual for any car or just a honda? just for kicks i looked at the book for my dad's 83 vw van--7.5k for oil changes, 30k for an airfilter, and other parts were rated at higher milage that don't work either. Is my van just a great piece of german egineering? no. while the manual has good information, it is not always right or the best source of information. My dad bought it new and after almost 20 years of maintaining it himself, good common practices like 3k oil changes are nessary to keep it running as long as it has. I have also worked on a toyota truck that exceeded all the service intervals (140k before new plugs, the cheap kind, not plat) and was still on the road running pretty well, and it think it still going. All i can say is that was one good little truck. I don't have one right now to check but i think there are gm books saying 100k tune ups. these manuals are full of bs!

i see a lot of post where people are swearing by the manual saying that it must be right. i guess if you didn't have more experience or other resources it would be all that you had to go by.

just so you know i won't take any offense to replies that differ from my own beliefs and go. running of to another board vowing never to return.

 
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i am sure the engineers know what they are doing, but more and more, 3k oilchanges and xmiles new plug and xmiles for new filter seem to became a golden rule, i recharge my filter whenever my car seems it's having trouble breathing. and i change oil every 3k miles, it's all good

 
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For a VW find a Bently manual for it. It has everything on VW. I got one for mine and it is very detailed

 
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I follow the manual, but always use the "SERVERE" interval for maintenance. This means 5,000 miles for an oil change and I'm perfectly fine with that. I guess would only follow it by the book for Toyota and Honda cars...

If you trust the engineers to design a good car for you, then you should trust their documentation... if not, why bother buying the car in the first place.

BTW, I know of a guy who changed his '92 Integra's oil every 20,000 miles... over 150,000 miles and it's still running fine... No, I don't recommend this at all. On the other hand, my dad did everything by the book with his Buick Century, but by 50,000 miles the tranny and enigne was gone.

 
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My girlfriend talked to a dealer and they said that some people were complaining that the 2k1 civics were getting dirty oil before 10k miles and they suggested that she do it every 3k. She took it to the DEALER who put 10w30 in it. Now does that sound like BS or what? She didn't know any better at the time. I need to change her oil tomorrow. Is it hard on these cars? I used drive american made trucks.. The oil filter and stuff was easy to get to on my Jimmy and on my S-10.

 
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<< If you trust the engineers to design a good car for you, then you should trust their documentation... if not, why bother buying the car in the first place. >>



I concur with that ... couldn't have said better.

Today every brand of engine oil contain all kinds of additives to make sure the engine function properly while protected, these additives include detergents, pH buffers, viscosity modifiers, etc. Over time, additives comes with the new oil will be used up and the oil in your engine will not be able to provide the level of protection offered by new oil.

The oil base never "use up" or deteriorate, it slowly become the single weight base oil and diluted by the little bit of air/fuel mixture escape from under the piston everytime you start the engine.

 
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<< If you trust the engineers to design a good car for you, then you should trust their documentation... if not, why bother buying the car in the first place >>



Engineers are not the only ones that have a say in what goes into the manual. There are different people with different interest that put things in there too. Why do you think it says use honda brand "everything"? Not just because it's specially made for the car--it's to make more money. Why is it that few of us fit into the normal driving catagory? So they have these unrealisticly long service intervals to calculate long term cost of ownership. They use the lower figures to help sell more cars. These types of figures are becoming more important now that is so much easier to compare cars when shopping. Besides how would it look if honda was the only one recommending 3k oil changes? That's why i don't trust all the documentation that is in the manual.

 
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I know that the way I drive, it is definately 'severe'. I always floor it, and i like to rev it good for fun sometimes.

 
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Was it synthetic oil?