oil change interval too much, or ok ?

[rubberchicken]

I am looking at a used 2014 Honda Accord V6. The last oil change appears to be after 11,000 miles duration, which was done in a 10 month period, changed at 14500 miles and it now has 25500 miles. There is a Honda dealer sticker on the windshield that indicates next change at about 26300 or so. (not from this dealer, but from the one that did the change at 14500.

The owner appear to be following the Maintenance Manager (on board oil life monitor). Here is what I can determine, and I do not have access to the MM, and no other written records available.

1) 6500 miles first change
2) 14500 miles second change
3) 25500 miles third change, done by dealer as part of trade-in- customer bought a Audi A6.

I have no idea if this is a reasonable interval, but it does appear to be mostly highway miles, and the tires are original and have 40-50% life remaining. Car drives well, engine purrs, other than 2 slight hail dents and a few rock chips the car shows well, no body damage, no body repairs, and the only warranty claim was for new front brake rotors at first oil change. The price is pretty good, and it still has 10k miles on factory warranty.

I know a lot of recent BMW, Mini's etc have gone to extreme change intervals, like 12.5k or 15k miles, but not sure about this Honda, and I cannot find a normal-severe maintenance schedule. Opinions on 11k miles on last oil change ?

 

[Shrubitup]

Talk them down due to the poor OCI habit assuming they used only average oil quality.

 

[Mr Nice]

You'll be fine. Thats really not that much of an OCI.

15K miles I would be worried.

 

[ecotourist]

My 2007 Accord V6 averages about 8,000 Km (5,000 miles) on a change. I change the oil when the maintenance minder gets down to 10% or so. The longest ever was 10,195 and that was down to 10%.

Presumably the dealer reset the maintenance minder when they changed the oil. It will (so I'm told) show how many miles/Km the change is overdue. On my 2007 it's easy to check what % life is left in the oil.

Don't know how the maintenance minder works but it definitely allows many more Km for highway driving. I did an experiment on the weekend. We had an unexpected trip out of town and my maintenance minder was showing 20% (meaning less that 20% oil life left) when we left home. I left the display on the maintenance minder and saw it trip at 15% and then again at 10%. It was 706 Km between 15% and 10% so it would have allowed 14,000 Km (8750 miles) if run right down to 0%, for all highway driving.

The Accord V6 in 2007 is apparently hard on oil. Oil analysis (though not mine) seemed to show fuel contamination - so I wouldn't push the change interval.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: rubberchicken
I know a lot of recent BMW, Mini's etc have gone to extreme change intervals, like 12.5k or 15k miles, but not sure about this Honda, and I cannot find a normal-severe maintenance schedule. Opinions on 11k miles on last oil change ?


And alot of them are slugged up disasters. Might want to try to take a peak under the valve covers (if it's possible to see the camshaft through the oil fill hole).

 

[donnyj08]

Originally Posted By: Shrubitup
Talk them down due to the poor OCI habit assuming they used only average oil quality.


i would definitely use the long oil drains in your advantage. Let them know its a concern and it may cause you to walk away. if you have to walk away and wait for the call to come the next day offering you a few more hundies off

After you have it in your possession treat it too a good syn oil and filter!

 

[cptbarkey]

i would not be too concerned. while inspecting it, pull the dipstick, does the oil look new? worry no more. if it looks black, demand an oil change before taking delivery.

 

[KrisZ]

How about looking for another Accord if the maintenance bothers you? These are dime and dozen, so finding a well maintained and documented one should not be too difficult.

 

[fdcg27]

Depending upon how he car was used, the first drain was likely early but the next two may have been at MM 15%.
There is no normal OCI for this car. OCIs are required only per the IOLM that is the MM. AT 15%, the little wrench on the dash illuminates and you start thinking about when it would be convenient to change the oil in the next thousand miles or so. As long as the specified 0W-20 was used, or at least something of equivalent quality, there should be no worries.
Back in the day, Honda recommended 7500 mile drains on any API compliant oil of the appropriate grade and those engines survived just fine for many miles on that regimen.
Nothing here to worry about and if you buy the car you should follow the MM as well.

 

[raytseng]

I wouldn't change my decision based on oil.
All the new honda's MM are around 12500 miles or so.

Additionally you're a 2014 honda, and doing the math on the mileage, they're regularly driving their car and averaging decent length commutes-which is easy on oil.

They changed it at least once AND at the $tealership too, so they aren't ignoring the MM.
The new Honda Owner's manuals advise to go full mileage on the first oil change anyway, if so it could've been 14k on the initial factory oil (which is what Honda tells you to do btw).


Checking out the brakes/suspension or other things would be more concerning to me.

If you like the car at the price get it.
Donny said you can use it in negotiations; but I personally wouldn't have true concerns.

 

[HTSS_TR]

My daughter 2014 Accord I-4 had OLM down to 15% at around 7.5-8k miles, her driving was about 75-25 Hwy-City with daily round trip around 40 miles. She has 2 years free oil change at dealer she bought the car from, I don't know if they use syn-blend or full syn 0W20, my guess they used syn-blend.

I think full syn can be used for 10-12k miles, but with syn-blend I would change at no more than 8-9k miles.

You need to find out which oil type did they use when they changed it at 14.5k miles.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: rubberchicken
I know a lot of recent BMW, Mini's etc have gone to extreme change intervals, like 12.5k or 15k miles,

These BMWs also have 7-8qt oil sumps as opposed to 4.5qt in this Accord you're looking at.

But still, if it's mostly highway, 11k miles might be just fine if good oil was used.

 

[aquariuscsm]

It's probably ok seeing that's it's still practically brand new. Now if it had 100k+ on 10k oil changes I'd walk away from that one.

 

[rubberchicken]

The oil changes were done at the local Honda dealer, so they used some sort of 0w20 according to the limited info I have. The OCI - MM was reset in the last 50 miles (at 25k) and the Audi dealer did a oil change- the oil looks new. What I do not know is if the MM keeps track of the previous changes- its possible the owner did his own change(s) but I have no way of finding out. I was able to get a service history from Honda but it only shows a warranty claim for brake rotors.
Late model Accords are a dime a dozen, but not in my area, and not V6's. The vast majority are 4 cylinders. This one is about 2k less than I expected from looking at the competition, which is why it caught my eye.
The only real concern I had that could not be immediately addressed by the dealer was the oil change interval: if it was neglected I would avoid the car at all costs, but if its within specs or normal maintenance then I might take it. I even came with my oil analysis pump ready to do a sample and send it to Blackstone, but since they just changed it the OA would be worthless to me.

 

[aquariuscsm]

Originally Posted By: rubberchicken
I even came with my oil analysis pump ready to do a sample and send it to Blackstone


That's AWESOME!!

 

[Doog]

11,000 miles would be an issue for me but if the rest of the car looked good I would probably go for it. I run all of my cars on a 5000 mile OCI.

 

[rubberchicken]

Originally Posted By: rubberchicken
The oil changes were done at the local Honda dealer, so they used some sort of 0w20 according to the limited info I have. The OCI - MM was reset in the last 50 miles (at 25k) and the Audi dealer did a oil change- the oil looks new. What I do not know is if the MM keeps track of the previous changes- its possible the owner did his own change(s) but I have no way of finding out. I was able to get a service history from Honda but it only shows a warranty claim for brake rotors.
Late model Accords are a dime a dozen, but not in my area, and not V6's. The vast majority are 4 cylinders. This one is about 2k less than I expected from looking at the competition, which is why it caught my eye.
The only real concern I had that could not be immediately addressed by the dealer was the oil change interval: if it was neglected I would avoid the car at all costs, but if its within specs or normal maintenance then I might take it. I even came with my oil analysis pump ready to do a sample and send it to Blackstone, but since they just changed it the OA would be worthless to me.

MM=Maintenance Manager (Honda's term, includes oil life monitor)
OCI=oil change interval (duh

)