Ohbebe75

Honda Accord 4cly. with 184k miles.

Just recently after a 5w30 oil change, I have noticed a burning oil smell once my engine heats up. It has been 500 miles since the oil change so I think any oil messes would have burned off by now.

-I have not pulled spark plugs yet, but the plug wires were dry and the tubes are sealed from the top.

-Pulled the PCV valve and it shakes just right, but there is a little oil getting past the pcv valve. I dont know if this is normal? but since it is a cheap part I will replace it soon.

-Compression seams to be consistent and power has not changed. I will do a compression test this weekend hopefully. Is my thinking correct that the rings are probably fine if compression is consistent around 150?

-I have not gotten under the car yet to see if the oil pan is significantly leaking, but would that really cause the smell anyways?

Any suggestions as to what the smell may be coming from? Any diagnostic tips?

Thanks in advance!

holmesnmanny

Most people don't realize that the black grommet that the pcv valve plugs into does wear out and is replaceable. It's about 2 bucks to replace.

double b from wv

its hard to say, but the first thing that comes to my mind is the 5w-30 oil. i know, the manual calls for it, but that stuff's about like water. if your engine has any leaks or blowby, running this light oil will make them more evident.

personally, i run 5w in the winter, but 10w-40 in the summer. take a look at this chart:



anyway, is the smell coming from under the hood, or from the tail pipe? when you smell it, have you stopped and opened the hood to look for smoke or the source? it could be something simple like a leaking sensor or seal, and the oil hitting the exhaust or engine.

Ohbebe75

The smell is coming from under the hood and it seaps in through the air vents inside the car. There is no visible smoke coming from under the hood when I open it with car running.

cetcivic

when you smell oil burning its usually a leak..

oil pan gasket
valve cover gasket
vtec solenoid
oil pump cover on k's

too many places to mention

Ohbebe75

Where is the oil pump location on the accord?

holmesnmanny

True, I was using 5w 30 fully synthetic for a few months and realized it was passing oil by my rings and into the spark plug threads so I switched to 5w 30 high mileage and immediately my leaks were gone.

Not sure what he's using, but if it's regular or fully synthetic I would immediately swap to high mileage and see what that does. Oil leaking heavily into the combustion chamber would foul up plugs fast and cause bad gas mileage.

double b from wv

i mean, if the 5w he's using is still pretty fresh, he might try throwing in some lucas treatment to thicken up the consistency. im a believer in lucas products.

as for the oil chart, even though they are all supposed to be sae, some show different ratings than others. for example, this one shows 10w-30 only protecting into the ~70 degree range.



here's a bunch of pics of sae oil temp charts. you can see that they dont all agree... which i find odd, since an sae chart ought to have set standards to go from.

so anyway, where i live, it gets into the mid 90's or low 100's a few times a year, and since the charts dont agree, i opt for the more viscous 10w-40 in the summer.