[mailmishra]

Hi All,

First of all thanks to Team-Bhp for letting me into the forum. This is my first thread.

I own a Apr-2009 Honda City 1.5 S-MT. Since the car is more than 6 months old, free services are over now. Honda has a strange servicing cycle.
1st service on 1 month/1k Km
2nd Service on 3 Months/5K Km
3rd Service on 6 Months/10K km

I am not sure about this but how exponentially is the km's growing? I mean 10K in 6 months then why would a sensible guy go for a petrol vehicle. I also own Swift VDi bought around the same time but it has 3rd Service on a year/10k Km.

Anyway this argument apart, now I was due for paid service and I got call from honda dealer just 3 months later that my car servicing is due. I was astonished, I confirmed that my car was serviced just 3 months back and since I have not much of running It does not make sense. But the dealer representative insisted that is mandatory to maintain service intervals. But 3 months service interval sounds ridiculous to me. I called up Honda one2one and confirmed this. Honda representative confirmed that yes for vehicles in Mumbai(metro city) 3 months and for non metro vehicle 6 months.

Guess what when I reached dealership, he mentioned oil change for car, i reminded him that it has been changed in last service, to which he mentioned that oil change is needed every service ? I resisted and asked him to check how many km's have I covered since my last service, on checking records it came out to be less than 1k kms, meaning oil to be used only for 1k? I resisted and said no to oil change, just service.

I just wanted to confirm from Honda owners is that you also having service intervals of 3 months? Is it worth?

PS: I had to anyways visit the Honda service center as srs airbag lights were continuously on even on ignition, on inspection at service center, it came out to be a rat menace. Entire wiring harness needs to be changed cost approx 6.5K

Thanks for reading through : Bhpians, please advice on service intervals query

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by mailmishra

I just wanted to confirm from Honda owners is that you also having service intervals of 3 months? Is it worth?

See the post below:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post1188118

Please check the same in your service book. This page is what I have used to resist 3 months service tactics. If your running is low, you can resist oil change for a maximum of one year. Then you will have to change to maintain warranty.

In my case, I run 5000km in 4 or 5 months.

If they insist and have used synthetic oil, the change is needed only every 10000km or one year. In my case it was oil change every 5000kms when I was using mineral oil. But I will have to take my car every 5000km or 6 months to maintain warranty.

Originally Posted by mailmishra

PS: I had to anyways visit the Honda service center as srs airbag lights were continuously on even on ignition, on inspection at service center, it came out to be a rat menace. Entire wiring harness needs to be changed cost approx 6.5K

Since it is in external cause, you may have to bear the cost. Sorry about that. You can try another service centre if you have any and see what they say.

[rg_chn]

Guys, if the car runs very low, isn't 6 months the recommended interval?

[Axe77]

i'm also really irritated by this. basically its two fold.

1. they get their free services out of the way virtually within 6 months (contrast this with altis where the free service extends for a yr or more i think)

2. for my new civic, i asked honda on their 3 month interval point blank and they gave some runbish about accounting for indian conditions which are tougher/ dustier et.c or some such hog wash.

i'm personally not very impressed with honda's service. we recently bought a 2nd hand accord as well and apex honda service has been far from satisfactory. they may not be a skoda but i feel each one seems as bad as the other. service is now where each company wants to milk the bulk of its money with service advisors earning commissions based on how much billing they do.

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Axe77

2. for my new civic, i asked honda on their 3 month interval point blank and they gave some runbish about accounting for indian conditions which are tougher/ dustier et.c or some such hog wash.

Please check the manual and ask them to show in the manual where it says so. When the manual is for Indian cars, it should show service schedule as per the conditions.

When these days diesel engines stretch to 10000km or 15000km oil change intervals, the CVT was having 5000km oil changes in spite of being a Honda engine. Pity, the way we are being fleeced and precious resources wasted.

[ImmortalZ]

Service every 3 months / 5000KM, oil change every 6 months / 10000KM. Atleast for the Civic. For me, they let me use the oil longer because my running is low and it's synth.

The manual says that the car has to be serviced at shorter intervals if it runs in extreme conditions. That is, 8KM or less per trip, high ambient temperature (35? 38degC? I forget) and dusty conditions. This is pretty much the template for India.

[rg_chn]

ImmortalZ, pardon my ignorance or stupidity (as some may call it). What does this 3 month/5000 Kms service consist of? I thought it was oil change.

[Axe77]

Originally Posted by trrk

Hi,

Please check the manual ... and precious resources wasted.

Thanks trrk. Most helpful - will check the manual. They try to finish off the free service asap it seems.

[ImmortalZ]

Originally Posted by rg_chn

ImmortalZ, pardon my ignorance or stupidity (as some may call it). What does this 3 month/5000 Kms service consist of? I thought it was oil change.

Nope, oil change is every other service. The in between services are an excuse to fleece around 900 bucks from you. Funnily enough, Peninsular here actually do check the suspension and such at every service.

Attached is the recommended service interval by Honda for the Civic. The clause in the page before states that this is the minimum required servicing level to maintain warranty. The line before that states that additional servicing may be required for extreme driving conditions. A bit hazy.

Oh yeah, the free services.

1 month / 1000KM
3 months / 5000 KM
6 months / 10000 KM

[ritedhawan]

What the manual states is mere prescription. With the indian climate conditions affecting every car driven here. One would prescribe, that one thing should be taken into account before taking your car for service-- valid only for those whose cars go through sparse running-- is the mileage. If your car hasn't clocked 5000 km and its been 3 months since service, the need for engine oil change may not arise, the need for inspection of the car does.Taking into consideration only the Engine Oil change factor for cars that run sparringly, Until and unless its been a year since the last Engine Oil change then engine oil should be replaced , otherwise may not.

Usually, for those cars with everyday running, 10000km is the interval for engine oil change. We too have a Honda accord, our car running is 5000 km per 3 months. Inspite of the fact that engine oil change interval is 10000km , we still send it for servicing because we want it to inspected and thier are other jobs to be done on the car other than engine service.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by Axe77

i'm also really irritated by this. basically its two fold.

1. they get their free services out of the way virtually within 6 months (contrast this with altis where the free service extends for a yr or more i think)

2. for my new civic, i asked honda on their 3 month interval point blank and they gave some runbish about accounting for indian conditions which are tougher/ dustier et.c or some such hog wash.

The Altis' service interval during warranty period of 100,000 km/3 years is"
a) 1000 km/1 month (no oil change, though I had it done @ 2k kms as I always do after the running in period)

b) 10,000 km/12 months, with oil change

c) 20,000 km/24 months, with oil change

Obviously Honda's service intervals are more frequent. But if your car is in warranty then you have no choice unless you are not bothered about warranty coverage (NOT recommended)

Originally Posted by mailmishra

I just wanted to confirm from Honda owners is that you also having service intervals of 3 months? Is it worth?
Thanks for reading through : Bhpians, please advice on service intervals query

IMHO it is not required but I would sincerely recommend following their service intervals and all other recommendations to the 'T'. Otherwise you will put your warranty at risk.

My friend booked a new City V MT today and was advised on the intervals. He too raised an eyebrow after he compared it with his Octy.

But we as customers have no choice as the car mfr will use every trick in the book to duck a claim if you skip service recommendations. You dont want to give them an excuse on a platter.

Cheers!

[rg_chn]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

Nope, oil change is every other service. The in between services are an excuse to fleece around 900 bucks from you. Funnily enough, Peninsular here actually do check the suspension and such at every service.

So what exactly do they do during the in between services?

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by rg_chn

So what exactly do they do during the in between services?

Frankly, they give the car a look over, a wash, vacuum the interior and it is back to the owner.

As far as the look over is concerned, they dont waste time. The technicians mostly go by the mfrs suggested inspection checklist (at least for the record).

Cheers!

[GTO]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

Nope, oil change is every other service. The in between services are an excuse to fleece around 900 bucks from you. Funnily enough, Peninsular here actually do check the suspension and such at every service.

Thanks for putting that up. A service call every 3 months can get annoying! Even though Honda may not require an oil change <10,000 kms, you can bet that the ever eager dealers flush the oil every 5K anyways.

Honda SERIOUSLY needs to revisit their service schedules. Here's why:

1. I don't agree with the 10K interval when the oil is mineral. Synthetic, sure, but 10K on mineral oil is bad news.

2. Best for Honda to switch over to synthetic and require owners to change every 10,000 kms (10K is slowly becoming the standard service interval window). Personally, I'd be happier with an interval of 7,500 kms. Even with synthetic, I'm not comfortable going over 7.5K of city driving.

[mailmishra]

Originally Posted by trrk

Hi,

See the post below:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post1188118

Please check the same in your service book. This page is what I have used to resist 3 months service tactics. If your running is low, you can resist oil change for a maximum of one year. Then you will have to change to maintain warranty.

In my case, I run 5000km in 4 or 5 months.

If they insist and have used synthetic oil, the change is needed only every 10000km or one year. In my case it was oil change every 5000kms when I was using mineral oil. But I will have to take my car every 5000km or 6 months to maintain warranty.

Yes thats a good point, as it does not make sense to flush out oil for less than 5K kms, I will fo through city manual and even speak to Honda. The only thing concerning me was not to void warranty, as Honda has a good extended plan. Will try to convince dealer guys, as you know it affects them monetarily so will be a tough nut.

Btw
just fyi, I am not sure if many of you know this (atleast I didnt).
Regarding engine wiring, insurance companies to pay you in case of rat mennace, but that being a plastic material claim is 50% of value. It can be used incase the damage is really high.
In my case does not make sense as my policy expires this march and I have not made any claims, and claim amount is fairly less than no-claim bonus.