How To Reset a Honda Civic Oil Light

in Ownership
Black Honda Civic

Source: Pixabay

The Honda Civic is one of the best-selling vehicles of all time, and to a lot of people, their first Civic was their first taste of freedom. If that freedom includes taking control of your own car maintenance, then you have to know how to reset the maintenance notifications when you replace the oil. We’re here to walk you through how to reset a Honda Civic oil light.

2019-2021 Honda Civic Model Years

Turn the electronics on but leave the engine off. Press the info button on the steering wheel (the lowercase “i” in a circle) until the menu cycles through options until the wrench logo is in the center of the screen. Click the “Enter” button on the wheel to select this choice. With the oil life reading on the screen, hold down the “Enter” button for 10 seconds, and when the next menu appears, use the down button to scroll down to “All Due Items” and hit enter to reset your oil light.


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2016-2018 Honda Civic Models

If your Honda Civic from the 2016, 2017, or 2018 model year has a touchscreen infotainment system, use the screen to navigate to “Settings”, then to “vehicle”, under that go to “Maintenance Info”, then choose “Select Reset Items” and choose “Oil Life”. Luckily, it’s not too much harder to reset a Honda Civic oil light without the infotainment touchscreen.

If your vehicle has the Driver Information Interface, you can use the button on the instrument panel to select the wrench icon, then hold the button for 10 seconds. You should then rotate the button to scroll to “Oil Life”. Once that is selected, hold the button in for 5 seconds to reset it.

If you don’t have the information display or the infotainment touchscreen, the process is the same as prior models. Press the button on the instrument panel until the oil life is selected, then hold the button down for 10 seconds. Once the display is blinking, hold the button down for another 10 seconds.

2015 Honda Civic Model Year

There are two processes for how to reset a Honda Civic oil light on a 2015 model depending on whether or not it has the Intelligent Multi-Information Display. If it does, start the car (not the engine), then press the “MENU” button. Use the “+” button to select “Vehicle Information,” then press “SOURCE” to select it. Choose the “Reset” option and confirm your choice.

If it does not have the information display, use the button near the instrument cluster to cycle through to “Oil Life”, then hold the button down for t10 seconds until the oil percentage blinks on the display. If you hold the button for 5 more seconds, the oil life reading will be reset.


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2012-2014 Honda Civic Model Years

Again, don’t start the engine, but do switch the key to the “on” position in the ignition. Use the steering wheel buttons and press the “MENU” button, then navigate to “Vehicle Menu”. From there, Use the “+” button on the wheel to select “Vehicle Information” and press “SOURCE”. Press that button again on “Maintenance Info”, and when the oil life reset menu comes up, press the “-“ button to select “YES”. The oil light should be reset now.

2006-2011 Honda Civic Model Years

As with the newer models, start the car but don’t start the engine. The process for these model years is quite similar to the process for the newer models without the Information Display. Use the “SEL/RESET” button on the side of the instrument panel to cycle through menu options until you see the oil life indicator. Once that shows up, hold down the “SEL/RESET” button for 10 seconds until the indicators are blinking, then let go. Now press and hold the button until the service code goes away and the oil life is reset to 100%.

1997-2005 Honda Civic Model Years

The process for these model years starts with the ignition turned off. First, press and hold the “SELECT/RESET” button on the instrument panel, then switch the ignition to on while still holding the button. Holding the button down will reset the oil life indicator after about 10 seconds. Once you have done this, you can turn the car off, and the next time you start the engine, the low oil life indicator light should no longer come on.


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1982-1996 Honda Civic Model Years

For the first fifteen model years of the Civic’s run, it had a fairly simple way of turning off the low oil light. Near the bottom of the instrument panel, there is a keyhole for resetting the maintenance indicators. Put the ignition key into this hole and keep it there until the maintenance light turns from red to green. When you turn the car back on, the reminder will be gone, and you can get back to the open road.



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