Learning how to reset maintenance light on Honda Accord is something you cannot avoid if you’re planning to change your oil and filter personally.
However, when you are paying a dealer to do this, this knowledge may not be necessary because it is included as part of the service.
If you are not aware, the Honda maintenance minder system is designed to be reset after the oil and filter change.
Therefore, if you have come here to learn how to do this, you won’t be disappointed eventually.
Contents
How To Reset Maintenance Light On Honda Accord
Tools
- A functional dashboard
- An ignition button
We have to break this section into two parts. One will deal with resetting the oil life for the newer versions of the Honda Civic.
The other area will focus on how you can do the same for older versions of the Honda Civic.
Resetting Oil Life For Newer Models of Honda Civic
Step 1:
Turn On The Car – You would have to accomplish this with the help of the car’s ignition button.
When you press the ignition button, the car’s power will come on. You do not need the engine to be on before you can do this.
However, if you happen to turn the engine on in the process mistakenly, no harm will be done.
But, what is needed here is for the car’s dashboard to come alive. Nothing more!
Step 2:
Press Menu Button – On the left of your steering, a button has ‘i’ written on it. It is expected that you press that button twice.
Apply caution here, so you do not press the button more than the required times. If you press it more than twice, you may need to repeat the process.
Step 3:
Press Enter – When you are done with the above steps, you must press the enter button.
You have to depress or hold it down until the maintenance screen comes up.
Please, do not take your hands off the button when the maintenance screen has not appeared.
Step 4:
Select An Option – The maintenance screen will display a number of options you have to choose from.
Run through all the options to be doubly sure and select the one that has ‘oil life’ in it.
Typically, it is positioned as ‘Item A.’ But you can still check through every option just to be sure you are not making any mistakes.
Step 5:
Press & hold the ‘Enter’ button – This is the final part, and it has to be executed perfectly like the others.
This part requires you to press the Enter button and hold it down for a while.
The process will last for as long as it will take for the oil life reading to reset to 100%.
Usually, it only takes some seconds for this to happen. Whatever the case, it should not take you too long to accomplish.
Congratulations! You just successfully reset the oil life of your new Honda Civic model. So let’s see how it is done for older models.
Resetting Oil Life For Older Models of Honda Civic
Fixing this problem in older Honda Civic models is actually simpler.
It is not the same as how it is done for the newer models. What does this process entail? Read through the various steps to find out.
Step 1: Power The Vehicle
Turn the power on without actually activating the engine. You can complete the oil light resetting process without turning the engine on. That won’t be necessary.
Step 2: Hold Down SEL/RESET
You need to press down the SEL/RESET button for some time. How long? Do that until the indicator light starts to blink.
The moment it blinks, you are free to take your hands off the button. Mind you; you are not done yet. You still have one last thing to do.
Step 3: Hold Down SEL/RESET
Again, you must press and hold down the SEL/RESET button. But, this time, you are holding it down for another purpose.
The reason is you need to hold it until the indicator stops blinking.
By this time, the oil reading would have gone back to 100%. And you can conveniently say the oil reset process was a total success!
Congratulations on completing the process on an older Honda Civic model.
As much as this will be most beneficial for people who love DIY ways of fixing things, it’s the knowledge that can be useful to anyone.
For example, online forums have shown that there are several instances where people took their cars to dealers for the oil to be changed.
Only for them to return to their houses and discover that the dealer forgot to reset the oil light.
In that case, you would be left with two options. One, go back to the dealer and have them reset the light accordingly (which is meant to be part of the service.
So you are not paying anything extra). The other option is getting it done yourself.
This is not a complicated task, so you might very well want to learn it before that day comes.
Photo Credit: wikimedia.org; C.C
What is an oil reset?
The oil maintenance light is a crucial part of most vehicles, including Honda Accords. This light is what tells a car owner they need to change their oil.
Without this system, it will be impossible for the car driver to know when the oil is due for changing automatically.
Coincidentally, every time a Honda Accord oil is successfully changed, the oil maintenance system stops working.
So even when you have added the new oil, it still won’t work as expected. Therefore, the only way to fix this is to do a reset on the oil maintenance system.
Why is oil resetting necessary?
The probability of using your Honda Accord without changing the oil is zero.
The fact that you keep driving the car around only men’s the oil will be due for changing one day.
So how do you know when that day comes? Is it something you have to figure out with your head? Absolutely not!
The oil maintenance light is what will indicate that the oil is old and due for a change.
And if you want this oil maintenance system to keep reminding you of when to change your oil, you need to ensure it is always reset after every oil change.
Benefits of Oil Resetting
The benefits of resetting oil life Honda Civic is something that can hardly be overemphasized.
If you reset your oil light as at when due, you would be informed early enough anytime your oil is due for a change.
Thus, you get to enjoy the following benefits when you have a functional oil indicator:
- Prolonged engine life
- Better mileage performance
- Eco-friendly combustion process
- Protects your engine from unnecessary harm
- Relieves your engine from excess heating
- Ensures a higher engine efficiency
- Can quickly scale through an engine emission test
The Problem of Oil Resetting
The moment you are prompted by your vehicle to change your oil, you should do it as soon as possible, not as soon as you can!
That’s because any unnecessary delay can lead to severe damage to the car.
Of course, I’m talking about colossal damages that will make you spend good money.
So, it would help if you didn’t joke with that oil light on your dashboard.
However, after draining out the old oil in your Honda Accord and replacing it with new oil, you will still notice the car displaying ‘change oil.’ The possible issues are:
- Faulty sensor
- Low oil pressure
- Oil pump issues
- The sensor wasn’t reset
Related Questions
My oil indicator is showing 15% left even after changing the oil?
Anytime you finish changing your oil in Honda Accord, it still shows you the old figure that was there before the oil was changed.
But that does not mean that the oil light maintenance system has developed any fault.
What it simply requires is for you to reset the oil light, and it will start showing the real oil life.
Please, can anyone help? Why am I still seeing ‘change oil’ on my dashboard because I already did?
The oil maintenance system of Honda Civics has a unique way of working.
Upon successfully changing the oil, you need to reset the system again before it can start working normally.
Do not expect it to work perfectly when you don’t do any reset.
I am just coming from a dealer where I had my oil changed but forgot to reset the oil light. Do I need to pay extra for this service?
Oil changing in Honda Accord has to include the resetting of the oil light. If the dealer forgot to do that, then it’s on them.
You do not have to pay a single dime for them to take care of that. It is part of the service you already paid for.
Is there any penalty for not changing my engine oil?
There is no law that stipulates any penalty for not changing your oil.
That said, I have to make it very clear that such acts will only bring you more harm than good.
It is advisable that you change your oil when it’s time. Failure to do so will come with some pretty serious consequences.
It can result in the complete failure of the engine.
If it damages your engine beyond repairs, you have to get a new one. I don’t think that is wise enough. My opinion, though!
What if I choose not to reset oil life?
Resetting oil life is for your own good. If you don’t reset oil life, how are you going to tell when the oil has gone bad and needs some changing?
Without resetting oil life, the figure displayed by the oil indicator will not be an accurate one.
Hence, you might keep using the car like that, and someday everything is just going to go wrong.
Really wrong! Reset your oil life if you don’t want your car to stop you in the middle of nowhere.
I need my oil life reset. Do I give it to a professional?
You must not give it to a professional if you don’t want to. Actually, it is a simple task that anybody can complete.
You don’t need to have any special skills to see this through. With just 4 or 5 steps, you would be through.
It is not something that takes time either. We are talking minutes at most.
Last Words
The dashboard lights in your vehicle are not there for fun. For instance, the indicator light lets you know when you should change your oil.
When it’s a Honda Civic, like what we’ve learned here, you need to reset the oil life after changing the oil.
That is where knowing how to reset the maintenance light on the Honda Accord comes in handy.
You would appreciate this knowledge when that time comes, as a DIY person or not
https://www.autoblog.com/2019/04/29/2019-honda-accord-touring-20t-review-the-car-with-everything/