"Maintainance Required" Dash Light

[AceEngineer]

My ride recently started blinking the Maintainance Req'd light a few times when I first fire her up. Seems my owners manual is missing pages 31-62. Funny though, pages 63-94 are duplicated, filling the binding. Poor quality control at Honda's manual supplier. Since those are the pages that explain the pertenent dash lighs, I am clueless about how this indicator works. Can anybody tell me what triggers it? How to reset it? etc? I have a copy of the service manuals and they make no mention of the maintainance req'd light except to show it in the schematics. It seems the only information about it is in the pages missing from my owners manual. I haven't been able to locate a free copy of my '02 EP3 owners manual anywhere on the web, so I was hoping maybe another owner could tell me what is in those pages.

TIA,

AceEngineer

[poeticfinesse21]

:coffee:
http://www.ephatch.com/forum/content.php?192-DIY-MAINT-REQ-D-Light-Reset

It comes on automatically every couple thousand miles. It doesn't mean anything, it's honda's way of tricking people who don't know anything about cars into bring their car into the stealership.

[jared07]

:coffee:
http://www.ephatch.com/forum/content.php?192-DIY-MAINT-REQ-D-Light-Reset

It comes on automatically every couple thousand miles. It doesn't mean anything, it's honda's way of tricking people who don't know anything about cars into bring their car into the stealership.

This...this is how they make their money from the soccer moms.

[Jas72]

Now let's be a tad realistic here, Honda didn't make a random lite to just "pop on" to get people into the dealership, it's an oil change service lite, which I'm sure most of you already knew this, but be a little informative on it to those who don't know lol

[poeticfinesse21]

Now let's be a tad realistic here, Honda didn't make a random lite to just "pop on" to get people into the dealership, it's an oil change service lite, which I'm sure most of you already knew this, but be a little informative on it to those who don't know lol

It's not an oil change light. It comes on every 5 to 10 thousand miles, that's too long of an interval for an oil change. I know a few people that took their car to the dealer cuz of this light and got duped into all kinds of unnecessary service. Maybe honda didn't purposely put it there to trick people but that's what the people at the stealership use it for.

[Jas72]

Unfortunately dealers do use that for sale tactics, which isnt always good lol but also as far as the interval goes I believe Honda doesn't require oil changes every 3k miles either, they inquire going longer between changes, hence the lite coming on in that timeframe. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not, but regardless I myself don't care for reminder lites unless my car is goin to die..lol!

[SC61Boosted]

To reset your light just press and hold the odometer reset knob. As you're holding the knob down, turn your key to the on position (but dont start the car) and hold it for about 10 seconds. You should notice the maintenance light go out after the 10 seconds.

[SC61Boosted]

To reset your light just press and hold the odometer reset knob. As you're holding the knob down, turn your key to the on position (but dont start the car) and hold it for about 10 seconds. You should notice the maintenance light go out after the 10 seconds.

[AceEngineer]

Thanks for the info on how to turn the light off. Now that I know about the light, I will use it as a reminder for service. Does anybody know for sure what the exact mileage interval is for the maintainance req'd light? Do they tell you the interval in the owners manual? The shop manual makes no mention of it that I can find.

AceEngineer

[poeticfinesse21]

Not sure, next time it comes on for me I'll try to keep track of it.

[Stoop]

Thanks for the info on how to turn the light off. Now that I know about the light, I will use it as a reminder for service. Does anybody know for sure what the exact mileage interval is for the maintainance req'd light? Do they tell you the interval in the owners manual? The shop manual makes no mention of it that I can find.

AceEngineerThe light will first come on 7500 miles after it was last reset. You'll notice it blinking at you a few times when you first turn the key on, then it goes away. This is just the reminder light that basically says maintenance is coming up. At 15k miles after a reset, it will come on when you turn the key on and the light will stay on. This is to tell you that you need to do the maintance. Usually the maintenance is more than an oil change. Every 15k is something more to be done such as change the air filter, cabin filter, transmission fluid, etc.

[poeticfinesse21]

The light will first come on 7500 miles after it was last reset. You'll notice it blinking at you a few times when you first turn the key on, then it goes away. This is just the reminder light that basically says maintenance is coming up. At 15k miles after a reset, it will come on when you turn the key on and the light will stay on. This is to tell you that you need to do the maintance. Usually the maintenance is more than an oil change. Every 15k is something more to be done such as change the air filter, cabin filter, transmission fluid, etc.

Good info :thumbu:

[ep32424]

Thanks that's great information.

[SlcEp3]

This thread was a great help thanks everybody!

[rtc975]

Definitive answer, which is in the manuals.

It will start blinking upon start up for a few sec at 5000 miles after a reset. When you reach 7500 after a reset that's when it goes solid. It's how I do my oil changes. When it goes solid, time to change your oil.

Hold the button in and turn the key to position II for 5-10 sec without starting the engine. It'll go off. Rinse & repeat. I've been doing this since new and it has 255,000 miles on the odo.