Hey guys and gals; this is my first time on this forum. I thought I'd try this out in an attempt to help my sister-in-law find out what's wrong with her '96 Accord. It's a 4-cyl., 5-spd. with 114K milles on it. Several months ago, she found her oil level to be THREE quarts low, . That's 3/4 of capacity, judging from the info. found in the owner's manual. She always takes care of the car, has all recommended services done on time, and has had her oil chaged regularly for many years. The oil light on the dash didn't come on until she was that low on oil. (Defective sending unit you think?) Since this was the first unusual incident ever with this car, she simply assumed that she was 'shorted', the last time she had her oil changed. Then, last weekend, she discovered it was 3 quarts low AGAIN, . NO WARNING LIGHT THIS TIME! Consumption seems to be about 1 qt./1K miles. This doesn't seem dreadful, but why all of a sudden? Why is there not even a wisp of smoke from the tailpipe? (It doesn't leak anything.) How bad do you think she has hurt the motor? I did a search before posting here, but it only talks about an issue like this, with much newer models (2003-2005). Thanks for any help with this issue...I'd like to help her save this thing, if it's not too late already.

 

As for the loss of oil, I can give something to check. I have an 89 LX that was having almost the same issue, a qt of oil gone in less than 500 miles. No leaks of that size, no oil in the coolant, no smoke....check the much over looked PCV. Finally pulled it on the 89 and the plunger was gone. I came to this finially after seeing a puff and just a puff out of the tailpipe when I was in the interstate and quickly had to let off the gas. Never did find the plunger, hope the oil filter got it as that was over 40K mile ago. Sorry for the long story..check the PCV.

 

I would just replace the PCV valve and you can try different oil. If I run synthetic in my 95 it will go through a quart per 500 miles and with conventional a quart per 1000. On my 2003 the oil light never came on even when it was pretty much out of oil. It never smoked either. A quart per thousand isn’t the end of the world and still is what Honda considers normal. If the PCV doesn’t help just check and add every thousand. I think the PCV being the cause of oil consumption without smoke is more a symptom of the newer systems where the PCV is no longer in the valve cover but in the side of the block. On my 2003 it is screwed into a bracket on the side of the block.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I did check the PCV valve while puzzling over the engine compartment last week. It sure seemed to move quite freely, so I left it alone. It blows me away that these cars don't smoke at all, while consuming this much oil, and it seems absurd that the oil light isn't triggered, long before the engine gets this low on oil. I've already instructed my sister-in-law to start closely monitoring the rate of consumption, so that we can do exactly as you suggested, kris; (dump a quart in every 1,000 or so). Maybe I'll change the PCV too, even though it seems okay. Thanks for your reply as well, 'poorman'. I'm trying to prevent my 'sis' from becoming a 'poorgirl', due to a melted motor.