Maintenance light reset

The maintenance light reset procedure varies greatly from model year, and vehicle. Procedures for 3 popular manufacturers are listed below.

Why does the light come on? The parameters that cause the maintenance light to come on also vary greatly with vehicle manufacturer.

Some car makers just turn the light on when a vehicle reaches a certain mileage, whether it is every 3000 miles or 4500 miles.

Other companies use a scientific procedure that is based on outside temperature and vehicle usage characteristics to turn the light on when a maintenance service or oil change is required.

When you have a lube oil and filter service performed at a auto repair center they should reset the maintenance reminder for you.

But more often than not, they will just perform the oil and filter change and give the vehicle back to the owner.

As far as I know if you have any maintenance light option installed on your vehicle. The procedure to reset it will be contained in the owner's manual.

This can be surprisingly challenging to find. So, below I will list the reset procedure for some very popular models, but not all?

Toyota maintenance light reset

The trick is to have the odometer display reading and not the trip miles showing when you turn off the vehicle.

This is a one step procedure that follows. Hold down on the trip meter reset knob and then turn the ignition switch to the on position (not cranking or start).

You continue to hold down the trip odometer knob for at least five seconds or until you see the odometer flash all zeros.

After all zeros flash a couple of times the odometer will go out. At this point, you turn the ignition key to the off position and then release the knob.

There is no harm in repeating the steps a few times if it fails to reset In fact in my experience with the maintenance light reset procedure is I never seem to get it on the first try.

Chevrolet maintenance light reset

The interesting part about the reset procedure is that they use the wide open throttle switch to actually reset the maintenance reminder.

The procedure is to follow. You sit down in the drivers seat as if you were ready to drive. Prepare to push the throttle pedal completely to the floor three times.

The first step is to turn the ignition switch on but do not start the engine. Then push and release the accelerator to wide-open throttle three times within five seconds.

If you are successful, you will see your change oil light flash several times and then go out. Again, if this doesn't happen, you can repeat the procedure.

There is no harm or danger of flooding the engine because the vehicle is fuel injected and you are just opening the throttle plates.

Also Note that you do not have to smash the pedal to the floor. Five seconds is plenty of time to perform the reset procedure!

Honda maintenance light reset

These steps cover most Honda and Acura models from the model year 2000 to present day.

With the engine off and the key out of the ignition push and hold the select/reset button on the instrument panel. Then insert and turn on the ignition switch to on (not start) while holding the button down for about 10 seconds.

The maintenance reminder light will flash and then go out which indicates that it has been reset properly. If the light just stays on and does not flash go ahead and repeat the steps until this happens.

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