2007 Honda Civic maintenance

I hope I haven’t made a big mistake - or if I have, it can be fixed. Before I figured out that the car tells you what maintenance to do based on the oil life level, I changed the oil and reset the oil life monitor to 100%. (It had been at 50%.) Do I need to do something to fix this?

Big mistake? No, not at all. You are the Master. You are in charge, not some silly oil life monitor. Get your oil changed when YOU want to have it done. You are not the slave of the computer.

Seriously, the electronics are for those lazy or neglectful owners who would never maintain their cars unless prodded to do so. You clearly know how to take care of your car yourself. You can get back in synch with the computer if you wish, or you can ignore it completely.

Agree. The day when an oil monitor can measure oil acidity, loss of viscosity, presence of waste metal, pesence of water or colant,etc., I would obey it. Even the best monitors on luxury cars today don’t do a very good job, so you are better off consulting your owner’s manual for the change interval. There is also a huge margin of safety built into this, so you would probably over-maintain if you followed it. You’re the boss!!

It is impossible to change the oil too often (once the breakin period has been passed. If you changed the oil early, just change it early again next time. Follow the periodicity specified in the owner’s manual.

Oil cannot be too fresh, or filters too new. The goal is to make the car last, not to make the oil last.

You didn’t do any damage. An early oil change doesn’t hurt anything, just a waste of money. The oil life monitors are a pretty good indicator of when to change the oil, but if you want or need (like a long trip coming up and don’t want to stop half way to do an oil change), thats OK.