I have a 2008 Honda Civic and I just got to 30K miles. Now my Dad and conventional wisdom says that I need a 30K mile check up. But I was reading my manual and it says to use the Maintenance Minder and nothing about 30K, 60K, or 90K check ups. Now the dealer is telling me that the Maintenance Minder is not coming on because every time I bring it into the dealer for an oil change they reset it. They have also tried to sell me things that I know I don’t need so I don’t fully trust them. So who do I believe? Do I need a 30K mile check up? It is $419 for a lot of “check.” Thanks
You need to get everything done that the manual has for scheduled maintenance, and you should get everything done that is even suggested under the severe duty schedule. Check your manual and service schedule carefully, as they may have a lot of “inspect” that should really be “replace”. Honda (and others) love to do this simply to be able to brag about low maintenance costs, but it is really bad advice. Transmission fluid changes come to mind. Toyota, for instance, does not even list fluid changes in their manuals anymore - they just have “inspect”, which really means inspect and replace as necessary.
Here’s what I would expect as a minimum to do, assuming these haven’t all been done recently:
Change oil and filter
Change transmission fluid
Change coolant
Change brake fluid
Change air filter
Change cabin air filter, if equipped
Change fuel filter
Inspect brakes
Inspect suspension
Inspect all belts and hoses
Check and tighten chassis bolts
That very well could run $419 in total at a dealer. Welcome to car ownership. It isn’t cheap.
30k usually means new air filter, transmission oil change and possibly new spark plugs. The maintenance minder is for oil changes, there should be a maintenance schedule for all items except for the oil change.
I also don’t trust your dealer (my friend received a ‘maintenance schedule’ from their Honda dealer that had nothing to do with the factory manual). They are either lying or incompetent when they claim “the Maintenance Minder is not coming on because every time I bring it into the dealer for an oil change they reset it.” Honda wouldn’t put a feature so useless in their cars. If you want to do extra maintenance, feel free, but I would follow the recommendations in the manual.
The Honda maintenance minder also provides a code in the form of A123 where the A would be oil change, a 1 is for tire rotation, 2 is for air filter and cabin air filter, and 3 is for transmission fluid. There are other possible codes but they vary by model.