'92 EX with 226,000 miles. No oil drips but seeing gradual increasing oil use, now 1500 miles/qt.

3 weeks ago, switched to High-Mileage Castrol 5W-30 oil. Drove it 50 miles and then parked on driveway
same day. Left oil spot. What? I thought H-M Oil was to stop leaks not start them.

So next day, after just 60 miles on the H-M oil, got under it at oil change place and
there was oil 'gathered' ready to drop from bottom of TB cover. Decided on the spot
to drain and refill with generic 5w-30 dino oil from the oil change place.
wiped it all down. no oil drops since. No spills during the changes.

Summary:
1) no oil drips, then
2) put in H-M Oil and it dripped immediately,
3) replaced H-M Oil next day and dripping stopped.
So High-Mileage oil (Castrol in this case) caused the immediate dripping/leaking.
No other explanation fits. No spills during the changes.

Has anyone else had any experience like this? My 1st and last experience using Hi-Mileage oil.

 

I've not heard of HM oil causing leaks.

Older accords have several typical oil leak sources that would drain from lower timng belt cover; rear balance shaft cover seal, forward balance shaft seal, crankshaft seal, and camshaft seal.

I suspect oil leaks will continue.

good luck

 

Did you have any other problems prior to switching to high-mileage oil? Why did you switch?

I've actually never used high-mileage oil myself, but not from any direct fear of problems CAUSED BY that type of oil.

 

Yikes!

I have a '96 EX F22B1 with 240k miles on it now. When we bought the car it had 225k miles, and I switched to Castrol GTX High Mileage 5w-30 immediately to help clean up the engine, and deal with mainly a rear main seal drip. I've been fighting the drips ever since.

I was planning to move to GTX HM 10w-40 on this next oil change in hopes of slowing or stopping the drip, but should I try a switch back to dino oil first? And at what weight?

 

My guess is your engine is going to drip no matter what. That said, you've got nothing to lose by switching to a conventional Group II oil; I'd stay with the 5W-30 grade.

 

I don't think oil weight/viscosity is relevant to increasing/decreasing oil drip frequency.
But, don't know of any data really.

So, if you do switch back to cheap dino oil, like I did, then you would be tester #2 of
does high-mileage-oil-additive-package cause/prolong oil drips past the various gaskets/seals ...
that maybe can be undone by subsequent oil change ...
So doing this is furthering the good cause of knowledge - please report results!

Mine was a new leak, switched back to the very cheapest of dino oils (discussion with the oil change tech 2 yrs ago;
their shop doesn't use name brand oil!), but yours is an old leak.




Good data all around! Let chips fall where they may!

 

Oil weight most certainly should affect drip rates. weight= viscosity. For a given size of opening a thinner fluid should seep through it faster than a thicker fluid.

Viscous fluids in general are thinner at higher temperatures than they are at lower temperatures. In my case I get 1-2 drops every time the car is parked. This means a tiny bit of oil has crept past the seal when the engine was running and the oil was hot. Once the car is parked, as the engine cools down the oil thickens and it stops seeping past the seal. Basic physics of fluid properties.

Now dino oil vs high mileage -- it's possible that you happened to select a dino oil that was thicker than the HM oil you used? Or is synthetic generally more fluid than non-synthetic?

 

In theory yes, oil weight should affect drip rates, however, in the real world there is no measurable difference between an engine with say 0W-20 and that same engine with 10W-40. Why? Because when up to operating temperature, the difference in operational viscosity is so incredibly small as to become irrelevant when it comes to oil making its way out past a seal.

 

Both the HM Castrol oil and the generic dino oil were 5W-30 viscosity grades, if that's what you mean.

 

The grade is a rating based on test results, and the grades are based on adjacent viscosity ranges. So you can have a 20 weight oil on the thicker side that is almost as viscous as a 30 weight oil on the thinner side. And you can have two 30 weight oils that are at opposite ends of the 30 weight spectrum.

Look at the charts on this web page: Motor Oil Viscosity Grades Explained in Layman's Terms

If we assume the threshold from one grade to another is at the midpoint of the cSt numbers, then 30 weight oils can range from 7.45 to 10.95 cSt ... that's a huge variation.

So it is very possible that your dino oil was significantly thicker than the Castrol HM, and that's why you saw the different in drippage.