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12/27/13

When to Change Oil on 2006 Honda Civic LX - The Car Will Tell You

Like most cars these days the 2006 Honda Civic LX will tell you when it is time to change the engine motor oil.  Regardless of what kind of car you own, changing your engine oil is one of the most important ways to maintain and prolong the life of your engine.   

The classic way checking is to keep a log book of what mileage you last had your oil changed, compare it to the recommended miles between each oil change as stated in your owner's manual and then change it again when your odometer hits that reading.  For example you changed your oil last at 10,000 miles, your owners manual says change every 6,000 miles, so therefore when your odometer hits 15,000 you should get another oil change. 

The other way of course is to follow the recommendation of the service station who changes your oil (they may post a sticker on the inside of your windshield) 

The best and easiest way I find to keep track is to let the car tell you.  On the 2006 Honda Civic LX, ( and I believe the DX, EX too) the car's dashboard will alert you when it is time to change the oil.  If you want to get an idea of how long you have to go until you need another change, follow these steps 


I also included a complete video below for your reference at the bottom of this post

Step 1 - Turn on The Ignition 

Turn your car on so that your dashboard lights up 

Step 2 -  The SEL RESET button 

Look for the "SEL RESET" button on your dashboard.   This is found  to the left of your steering wheel and the button sits almost to the far left of the dash. 

Step 3 - Look at Your Trip Odometer 

Look at your trip odometer on your dashboard just under the speedometer.   See it?  OK.... 

Step 4  - Press the SEL RESET Button 

Press the SEL RESET button until the trip odometer changes to read "Oil Life".   

Step 5 - Oil Life 

The rest is self explanatory.  If your oil life reads 100% it means that you have just changed your oil and your oil is 100% fresh (give or take). If you show 20%, you are getting close to time to change that oil.  When it is officially time to change your oil (I think around 10% or so) your cars dash will notify you that it is time to get it changed. 

Hope that helps. 


Want to Read  More ?

Here's a post on how to increase or decrease the brightness of your Honda Dashboard Lights

Increase Decrease Brightness on 2006 Honda Civic LX Dashboard

Not all of the dashboard lights increase or decrease on a 2006 Honda Civic LX.  That said, the lights on the odometer, trip meter, speedometer region of the dash do.  This might also work on the Honda Civic DX as well as Honda's  EX models as well, but I know for sure the 2006 LX can be adjusted here. 

This is easy to adjust.   If you are sitting in your Civic driver seat, just to the left of the steering wheel is a set of buttons with a plus sign ( "+") ,  a minus sign ("-") and right in the middle of the plus and minus signs you see a speedometer icon / image.   If you are really having trouble finding this,  it is (as mentioned) to the left of the steering wheel, on the dash,  just to the right of the " SEL RESET " buttons. 


Note: Video is embedded at end of this post if you want to see more

Step 1 -  Turn The Ignition On 

Turn the ignition key far enough so that the power turns on inside the car. You can turn the ignition key all the way until the engine starts but this really is not necessary  ( PS ... don't drive the car while doing this task ) 

Step 2a -  Darker ? 

Press down the minus key to make the dashboard lighting darker.  You can just hold the minus key down until it dims to your liking.  Think of the minus sign as your dimmer 

Step 2b - Brighter ? 

The plus sign will make the lighting on the dash (speedometer area) more bright. Hold the + down and you'll see it get brighter. 

Step 3 - All finished 

When you are done, just take your finger off the button and you are finished. 

Final Thought - Did I Just Ruin My Odometer ? 

So while you are doing this, you might notice that your odometer goes blank and steady is replaced with zeros.   Don't worry. Each zero represents how light or dark you have set your dash brightness.  More zeros = more bright , less zeros = less bright 

Don't fret.  After a few seconds or so after stop adjusting the brightness your odometer will reappear again.


I hope that helps you to increase or decrease the brightness on a 2006 Honda Civic LX Dashboard

Still want more here's a post on how to change the clock in your Honda LX

12/26/13

How to Change Clock on 2006 Honda Civic LX (and likely DX and EX )

How to Change Clock on 2006 Honda Civic LX (and likely DX and EX ) 

Changing the dashboard clock on a 2006 Honda Civic LX sedan is pretty easy to do once you learn how but I found it somewhat difficult to figure out.  Since you much more intelligent than I am, you took the time to research how to change the hours and minutes on the Civic LX clock instead of wasting time teaching yourself how :  -  ) 

This probably also works on Honda's 2006 DX and EX and might work on a bunch of other models as well.  This for sure does work on the LX sedan. 


Note: in addition to the steps below, I also posted a video at the bottom of this post so you can see how to adjust the clock easily in your Honda.
Step 1 - Turn on the Car 

Go ahead and put the key in the ignition and turn it until the power comes on and the dashboard lights up (the 'on' position) or if you want, you can turn the call all the way on so that the motor starts. 

Step 2 - Press the AM (radio) button and hold 

Look at the AM button (that allows you to switch to the AM frequency on your radio) on the dashboard.  This button is just above the radio channel buttons.  There is also the word "clock" next to this button which I somehow managed to overlook every time I looked for this. 

Press the AM button down and hold until the clock on the dashboard begins to blink. 

Step 3 - find the M and H buttons 

Here is kinda the tough part (but still easy :  - )   Just below the AM buttons are the preset channel buttons #1 through #6.  Look for buttons #1 and #2.  See how one has a little "H" on it and the other has a little "M" on it?  The H button changes the hour and M button changes the minutes.  So.... 

While the clock is blinking, press the "H" button to see the hour to what you want and press the "M" button to set the minute. 

Step 4 - Press AM button to complete 

Once you have the desired hour and minutes set, go ahead and press the AM button (aka the "Clock" button) again and your time will now be set. 

12/24/13

Staples Easy Tech Support Can Not Fix Blue Screen Auto Shut Down

The problem I had was that my computer (Windows powered PC HP Pavilion ) would just shut off automatically without any warning.  It was nearly impossible to start it back up without doing a hard reboot or pulling the battery out, unplugging, etc. etc.  The computer would turn off so quickly I really struggled to run any sort of diagnostic on it.

So what did I do?  Across the street from where I live is a Staples office supply store.  Staples offers “Easy Tech” support that, in theory , can repair any number of computer problems.

So I take my HP Pavilion notebook computer to this Staples store.  Instantly I am out about seventy bucks because they require this BS charge to run the diagnostic.  They are only supposed to have the computer for a few day but it turns into a week and a half.  Every day I call Staples Easy Tech to find out when my PC will be ready they just keep telling me that they ran the diagnostic tests and they are still trying to figure out the problem.  I don’t believe any of this as it just sounds like they haven’t got around to looking at my computer. I mean, this shouldn’t take over a week to figure out right?