OIL Change and SRS Light

I've got two questions:

1) I am getting an Oil Change done for my 2001 Accord Sedan from the dealer for $31.88+taxes which is a bit of a rip-off. They say that they use this special oil: Genuine Honda 5W20 Motor Oil. I know you can get oil change done for like $15-25 bucks in the GTA area. However I'm not going to be stingy when it comes to the longetivity of the car. Can someone tell me if $31.88 is justifiable for the "HONDA-trained" technicians using the Genuine Honda 5W20 Motor Oil at a Dealership or should I try my oil change a regular mechanic?

2) The SRS light on the Accord has been going on for sometime. Initially I thought it was because of the handbrake being jarred but it wasn't the case when I had my mechanic look at it. He suggested that I take it back to the dealer to have something 'reset'. I didn't understand that at all. Can someone explain? I've googled it and I realise its got something to do with air bags.

Thanks in advance for all your help

You can try the disconnect the battery to see if it goes away.

Otherwise you have to pull the code and diagnose.

Re. Oil change....just get a good mechanic (for everything), he can change your oil and check the SRS problem below. No need to spend extra at Honda especially if your car is no longer under warranty (is it? 2001). Re. good mechanic - they'll save you money and won't tell you to do unnecessary work.

Re. SRS light, I had the same thing happen in my car except it stayed on constantly. When I took it to my mechanic, he hooked it up to a diagnostic computer and it said there was nothing wrong. He reset the code (similar to rebooting I think) and I haven't seen light up again. He said it could be a loose connection in there somewhere. Can be opened up and all connections checked if needed.

Honda reccomends 5W-20; but you could use 5W-30 which is more common and cheaper. 5W-20 is a semi-synthetic without the normally higher cost only Honda and Ford use it afaik.

$31.88 isn't a bad price you could save $5 by going to a quick-lube place; but they usually don't have 5w-20 and will use a cheaper filter. Brampton Honda charges the same price but will wash your car and rotate the tires for free.

I think i'm going to take my car in to my regular mechanic and ask him to do the oil change, it'll cost me ~$20. I'll take ur advice on the oil change. It seems to be the general consensus here.

Originally Posted by gr8dlr

Re. Oil change....just get a good mechanic (for everything), he can change your oil and check the SRS problem below. No need to spend extra at Honda especially if your car is no longer under warranty (is it? 2001). Re. good mechanic - they'll save you money and won't tell you to do unnecessary work.

If my mechanic is unable to fix the SRS, then i am going to have to drag my car to the dealership to get it inspected.

Originally Posted by gr8dlr

Re. SRS light, I had the same thing happen in my car except it stayed on constantly. When I took it to my mechanic, he hooked it up to a diagnostic computer and it said there was nothing wrong. He reset the code (similar to rebooting I think) and I haven't seen light up again. He said it could be a loose connection in there somewhere. Can be opened up and all connections checked if needed.

Thanks for all your input guys, its greatly appreciated.

haha, "Honda certified technicians". That's pretty funny considering when I went to Markham Acura I saw a bunch of high school kids. For an oil change they're not going to use honda certified technicians to do it.

a cheaper alternative is to buy engine oil yourself, as well as an oil filter, and bring it to a shop for them to do it for you (or you can do it yourself if you have the tools). They'll charge you only for the labour and you can ensure your car is using high quality engine oil. I know the Superstore sells Mobil 1 large bottles for about $30 and you can get about 4-5 oil changes depending on your engine oil capacity.

Re. SRS light, I had the same thing happen in my car except it stayed on constantly. When I took it to my mechanic, he hooked it up to a diagnostic computer and it said there was nothing wrong. He reset the code (similar to rebooting I think) and I haven't seen light up again. He said it could be a loose connection in there somewhere. Can be opened up and all connections checked if needed.[/QUOTE]


hey this happend to my civic too, can u give me the address for ur mechanic?
btw how much is to get it reset?

thanks

Originally Posted by Kenneth

Honda reccomends 5W-20; but you could use 5W-30 which is more common and cheaper. 5W-20 is a semi-synthetic without the normally higher cost only Honda and Ford use it afaik.

Since when you learned the weight rating telling you if its synthetic or not?

THis is greatly misinformed. Dont say stuff you dont know

5W-20 or 5W-30 is simply a weight rating of the oil. If your manual said 5w-20 then stick with it. You can go with the lower weight in cold "0W instead of 5w, or 5w instead of 10w".

So its good to go 5w-30 instead of 10w-30 but NOT good to go 5w-30 instead of 5w-20, you will wear down the engine.

I believe Genuine Honda is blend synthetic not full synthetic. If your car is still under warranty then keep using. If not you can go to other mechanic for oil change, make sure you know what oil they're using. Most quick lube places use cheap dino oil. Or you can deal with the mechanic that you will provide your own oil. (Get high performance oil such as Castrol or Mobil, DO NOT need to get full syn its not as helpful now as your car is probably 100k KMs)

OH about the SRS, bring it to the dealer, they will reset it for free.

SRS light is a problem with Accord and TL.

Same thing happened to me.

Avoid the stealership !

1 Plug in an OBD unit
2 Reset the code

3 Drive the car - important

4 If it comes back on then its something to look at,
5 Most likely after an oil change or bad gas the switch got tripped
6 If the car is fine after step 3, it was just a false alarm.

Some idiot mechanics at the stealership just look at the code, and perform some expensive repair (indexed to the code) without double checking - so be sure to drive the car for a little while first to see if the light comes back on.

I had a little screetching sound from the front brake once - mechanic wanted $700 for new bearings - wtf - so I took the sled home, removed the pad, sprayed rotor with a $6 rattle-can of cleaner fluid, and problem solved.

It was a little piece of sand or some other little debris, guy was trying to rip me off...

Originally Posted by sky888

Re. SRS light, I had the same thing happen in my car except it stayed on constantly. When I took it to my mechanic, he hooked it up to a diagnostic computer and it said there was nothing wrong. He reset the code (similar to rebooting I think) and I haven't seen light up again. He said it could be a loose connection in there somewhere. Can be opened up and all connections checked if needed.

hey this happend to my civic too, can u give me the address for ur mechanic?
btw how much is to get it reset?

SpeedyMuffler charges $70 flat to hook you up to the reader, thats a lot for a 3 minute job.

That IS expensive...considering you can probably get your own ODBII reader (and light resetter) for around $150...

Isn't that supposed to be SES? (Service Engine Soon)

Originally Posted by MameXP

Since when you learned the weight rating telling you if its synthetic or not?

THis is greatly misinformed. Dont say stuff you dont know

I believe Genuine Honda is blend synthetic not full synthetic.

Originally Posted by Kenneth

5W-20 is a semi-synthetic

I'm not sure what I mis-informed you about? Ford/Motorcraft still label it as a semi-synthethic even though the base stock is less than 1%.