You didn't say so I would point out that leaks can consume significant oil. Potential culprits are valve cover seals, distributor oring (if you have a distributor), oil pump cover gasket, forward balance shaft seal, camshaft seal, crankshaft seal, and oil pressure sensor.

good luck

 

Hi

The car is coming up to 100000 km, or about 60000 miles. I'll have had it 3 years this Christmas and there has never been a problem with oil until about 3 months ago. So whatever it is, it went from full off to full on over a very short period of time.

I rule out any leaks around the engine. For the amount of oil that's leaking I'd expect to see at least a few drops on the ground around where I park. And the engine compartment itself shows no signs of oil either. But the tailpipe remains slick with oil, so it seems pretty clear that it's blowing through the exhaust system somehow.

I had the car serviced - it was a big one too ($500) - and I'm guessing (hoping?) Richmond Honda would have said something if the plugs were fouled up. The same visit was the first one where I pointed out the low oil level. Maybe that's being too optimistic!

I had a Volvo 850 which had exactly the same problem years ago. Turned out to be something in the crankcase vent - which I take to mean the PCV valve. So I'm hoping that's what it is in this case. But I can't actually *find* that yet and the city's on strikeso no library to go and look it up.

Slow and steady wins the race

Cheers

Rod

 

How expensive of a fix is it if there is oil getting on a spark plug and the compression in that cylinder is low. Do you just have to change out the piston ring or what?

Can I get a list of what parts would be needed? I had oil on a spark plug recently but my engine runs fine, I'm 75% sure it's a bad seal on the valve cover though.

 

There are several ways oil can get into combustion chamber: valve stem seals, piston rings, and intake manifold via PCV valve. You can get an idea of the valve seals by looking at the tail pipe first thing in the morning while someone starts the car - if you get a poof of smoke it's a good indication. Piston rings and cylinder condition - compression test. PCV: just remove it, if it's loaded with oil sludge and will not rattle needs replaced. One more thing: hi rings blow-by will cause PCV to work overtime, so a compression test would be nice.

In your case, engine being so green, I'd opt for the latter, but one never knows... I'm saying "green" because mine just turned 120K miles and hardly burns any oil when I drive normally, but if I step on it then I lose up to 1/2 quart in 3K mile oil change interval, regular 5/30 Castrol.

finch13... it may be a scored cylinder or worn rings, so the repair cost will vary accordingly.

 

Finch.. if the oil is on the electrode.. it is either valve seals, or piston rings
if the oil is on the spark plug tubes, it is upper spark plug seals ,located on the underside of the valve cover OR lower rocker arm seals ,located under the rocker arm assembly

 

Well it's been a while since I updated this post. Since the end of July the car went through an additional 2 litres of oil (5W20) and it was below the bottom of the dipstick again this week. The car was due for its oilchange anyhow, so I took it into Honda. It had a "Hot Oil Flush", plus they inspected and replaced the PCV (my suggestion, but the credit goes to PAHonda for that) and I had them put in 10W30 oil as well (thanks to tkundert2 for that one). Since all those bits of advice, I've just been driving and monitoring the problem. It actually seemed to go away for a while, but came back in a very short space of time. The teck reported that the PCV was sticky, so I'm hoping that was the root cause of the problem.

Anyhow, just keeping you up to date, and I'll post one more time in a month or so after I've had a chance to see if the problem has cleared up.

Cheers all!

/axelrod

 

Actully i wouldnt change to 10w-30 oil, enless your car has high miles. Because 5w-20 is a much thiner oil then 10w-30, you could possibly wear you rod bearings pre-maturly because between the rod and the bearing its like 2 10s of an inch of clearance, enless you car has high miles then these passages are going to be bigger because of wear. Putting a thicker oil wont stop it from leaking, the only difference between 5w-20 and 10w-30 is how that act in cold and warm weather. And the only difference between normal SAE oil and Synthetic is the additives, like anti-rust, higher detergent, and anti-sludge..there are more im just listing a few examples.

 

OK, so here's an update which will close the thread: I've been measuring the oil since the car was serviced 2 months ago. It has been dropping slightly since then, but it's WAY better. I only changed two things in that service, the PCV was replaced and I had thicker oil added. The service tech mentioned that the old PCV was sticking when he replaced it and so it seems that was the most likely cause of the drain. After 2 months I took the car back into Honda where they did a free inspection. They reported a 0.3 litre (about a half pint) drop in oil level over the 2 month interval, attributing this drop to "blow by" which is higher on a manual transmission (my car) than it is on an automatic.

Just wanted to post this final update instead of leaving this thread hanging.

Cheers All

Axelrod

 

Thanks for the follow-up! It sounds like it's working pretty normally now! Keep us in mind if you're bored or something else happens.

 

Follow what deserthonda is saying and find the cause of this. He earns his living working on Hondas. It is unusual for things to go southata "young"60,000 miles but I suppose stranger things have happened. Also, since you are in Canada, I would think twice about going to 10W30 with your low temperatures.

EDIT: OK I came in late on this one and didn't check page two prior to posting but I still still stickwith what I said above. Try 5W30 instead of 10. It will be more appropriate for the lower temps.