EK45VTi

Hi!

I have a 1996 D16Y7 civic coupe with EX tranny...

Besides that I have only K&N replacement filter and everything else is bone stock...

Here's the thing: I am burning about 0.5 quart of semi-sinthetic oil every 2000 miles... the car has 100.000 miles...

I know most of you people do not treat that as BURNING OIL...

I am using 10w40 oil... If I move on to full sinthetic 10w60 (Castrol RS) would my car burn more oil or less???

Cos I've heard that sinthetic oil is prone to burn rather than semi-sinthetic or mineral...

So what would be my case?

NOW: Shell Helix Plus 10w40 semi sinth
PLAN: Castrol RS 10w60 full sinth

I want to move on to Castrol cos it has higher temperature tolerance and everyone who used it on Honda said that it is makes hell of a difference...

I'm not the kind of guy who likes experimenting with oils so I ask first... cos if I will burn it more than semi-sinth, I will just stay with semi... but if it will make no difference in "burning-area" or even improve to "not-burning" I will change it the next minute...

Thoughts?

Propositions?

Note that I'm in Europe and climate here does not require 5wXX oil...

ek9hatch0WN3R

one thing ive heard from many people (although with oil you never know how true it is) is that if you drive with nonsynthetic oil all the time, its not good to suddenly switch to fullysynthetic. i never got a logical explanation for this, but maybe someone will chime in with this answer too.

oh yeah, and burning .5L of oil is definately burning oil to me.

EK45VTi

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ek9hatch0WN3R &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">one thing ive heard from many people (although with oil you never know how true it is) is that if you drive with nonsynthetic oil all the time, its not good to suddenly switch to fullysynthetic. i never got a logical explanation for this, but maybe someone will chime in with this answer too.

oh yeah, and burning .5L of oil is definately burning oil to me. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes I heard that too... but the thing is, I am not using mineral oil... I am using sinthetic blend... so it won't be a "sudden change"

I also plan too "clean" the motor sludge... first I'm gonna drop in some ATF oil to quickly clean the big sludge... then I'm gonna drop in some 0w oil just to drive 100 miles or so and then I'm gonna seafoam it...

Then after I do all that, Castrol goes in, in a new, cleaned and all softy-pofty-shiny engine...

And I know what you mean by that last sentence... 0.5 quart of oil definitely IS BURNING OIL...

But all the mechanics and people with Honda's say that 0.5 quart/2000 miles is nothing... that i shouldn't consider it as "burning oil problem"...

They say that 1 quart per 1000 miles is a burning oil problem...

I must say that my car doesn't smoke or anything... it's running great, great gas mileage, no bogging, great acceleration (for a Y7 )... everything is great... except those 0.5 quarts/2000 miles

hondainspired

see i've heard 1 qt. per 3000 is normal.... believe me it could be worse... you could be burning 3qts every say... 250-300 miles (aka: my prelude sitting out front)

oh and i actually believe that part of the cause of my major burnige of oil is because i switched to a full synthetic (royal purple) ... which is what i'd like to do on my EJ1 but... i'm afraid to now...

EK45VTi

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hondainspired &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">see i've heard 1 qt. per 3000 is normal.... believe me it could be worse... you could be burning 3qts every say... 250-300 miles (aka: my prelude sitting out front)

oh and i actually believe that part of the cause of my major burnige of oil is because i switched to a full synthetic (royal purple) ... which is what i'd like to do on my EJ1 but... i'm afraid to now... </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, that 2-3 qt/300miles would really hurt my pocket

Well, I am not worried because the car is doing that for last 6 oil changes (since I got it) and through almost 25.000 miles, oil consumption did not change... when I first got it 2.5 years ago, it burned almost 0.5 qt/2000 miles... today it is EXACTLY THE SAME... it's something less than 0.5... 1/3 from the MAX and MIN on the dipstick...

To be accurate, let's say it this way...

If I do not top-it off, from change to change (4500 miles), the level drops from MAX to nail-above MIN mark on the dipstick... so in 4500 miles it does not burn the whole quart... cos the difference from MIN to MAX on the dipstick is 1.1 quart (1 liter)

ErMaK

Maybe you should go back to a non synth type oil.

dantastic

running 10w40 and stilll burning a lot of oil? something's gotta be outta whack... i really wouldnt run anything heavier than 40wt... just seems too thick

EK45VTi

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dantastic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">running 10w40 and stilll burning a lot of oil? something's gotta be outta whack... i really wouldnt run anything heavier than 40wt... just seems too thick</TD></TR></TABLE>

1 quart of oil on 4500 miles is A LOT OF OIL??? Should I be concerned?

I also must say that majority of that mileage are very short trips... aprox. 4 miles a trip...

So my day would look like this:
morning - cold start + 4 miles to work
5 hours cooling
4 miles back home to lunch
4 miles back to work
4 hours cooling
4 miles back home
and sometimes 6-7 miles going out for a beer

Should I be worried?

Cos in 25000 miles oil consumption did not change... it is exactly the same...

It's not smoking... it's not leaking... runs great... great gas mileage... everything seams fine

00Red_SiR

Synthetic oil tends to be burned/consumed more in an engine that already uses some oil because it isn't as thick in it's natural state as a conventional oil is. That property is one of the things that makes it so good for engine protection because you can use a heavier weight oil like 15w40 (synthetic), for higher temperature protection, but still have excellent cold startup protection of a lightweight oil (0w20). It's commonly known that if an engine burns oil using a conventional 5w30, that if you switch to a thicker/heavier weight of oil like 10w40 the oil burning is reduced because the oil doesn't flow past the rings or oil seals as easily as light weight oil does. Oil additives on the market that help reduce oil burning such as the Lucas product are as thick as molasses because thicker oil won't leak as easily as lightweight "thin" oil. So to the original poster, if you were to use a conventional 10w40 oil in your Honda, your oil consumption would probably be reduced compared to running the same weight in a semi-synthetic.

Your running a stock Honda engine and you're worried about high temperature protection? Where exactly are you in Europe that a 10w40 semi-senthetic wouldn't be more than adequate protection??

This is a common misconception out there about oil types. This opinion came about from an older engine that may have been prone to burning oil or had oil leaks around some seals. As I said above, because of synthetic oils properties of being "thinner" than a conventional oil, it would leak more and be burned more in that same engine, therefore there would be no point in using it. On any other normal engine that's in good condition, you CAN switch oils like you can switch gasoline grades at the pumps. The car will use whatever you put in it just fine.

Man this is overkill....if you've changed your oil on a regular basis, you're motor will not have any sludge in it. Oils have cleaners/detergents in them to help keep the engine internal areas clean naturally and semi-synthetic/synthetic oils are known for their natural cleaning ability when used regularly. Unless the car was neglected maintenance wise, you'll just be wasting your time and money trying to clean it any further.

Your car is not really considered to be burning oil at that rate in a Honda with the mileage you have on your car. My car is 4 years old with only 26000 mi/42000km on it and if I drive it at high rpm a lot I will use the same amount of oil that you do between oil change intervals. I run full synthetic oil which may contribute a little to this but if I drive the car normal with only average high RPM use, I don't use any oil at all.

I give you credit for being up on your maintenance and concerned about the best possible operation of your engine but really, you're almost borderline obsessive...lol

EK45VTi

Well, I am not obsesive but I love to learn about my car...

You said that this cleaning engine is overkill... well, I know I changed oil properly and OEM filter EVERY time but I do not know how the car was treated by his previous owner...

I am planning to drive this car for longer period cos for me it is the best looking Honda that this amount of money can buy... so I want my engine to be as smooth as possible... I do not want to spend money on stupid repairs like blown headgasket because for example I "forgot" to change coolant for 6 years and then I had to deal with acid and not coolant anymore...

That happened to my friend with his Clio Sport... 60.000 miles / 5 years with the same coolant... coolant started to turn into acid and ate his headgasket...

Unfortunately he is one of those guys "do not touch it until it brakes" so after 1 month of smoking and burning coolant his engine finally died...

So I'm gonna give my car the best maintenance I can afford cos I worked a lot and saved a lot to buy it...

And you said your car burns oil in heavy duty... well, same thing here... if I drive it normally all the time, it won't take a sip of that oil... the level on the dipstick won't even move from MAX...

I am talking about hard driving: short trips, over 4500 rpm very very often, redline every now and then...

See, here were I live there is not so much traffic so you can floor your car whenever you want... and the good thing is that you can see cops 2 miles away and you must be a big idiot or blind to get pulled over for speeding... roads are in good shape, so why not... and I think it's healthier to drive the car over 4000 than sufocating it below 2000 rpm...

00Red_SiR

I believe you said that you've owned the car for the last 2.5 years which is certainly enough time to have gotten rid of any sludge that was left over in there from the previous owner. Changing your oil like you have will have taken care of that naturally so again I seriously wouldn't worry about it. I am meticulous myself when it comes to maintenance and looking after my cars but believe me, as long as you keep up with your normal maintenace schedule like you've been doing, and using quality oils etc, engine flushing is overkill and will serve NO purpose.

It would be the same as waxing a car that's already been waxed on a regular basis. The car will look good when it's done, but it's not gonna look any better than it did before because it has been waxed regularly regardless of whether the last owner even washed it, because since you had it you've maintained it.

4thgen92accord

on high mileage engines, even tho 100k isnt much at all to me, switching to synthetic will def. cause it to consume more oil. funny, we just had a big lesson over oil and synthetic at tech. college

TGrant

no no no no
you can switch back and forth between synthetic,blend,and conventional as often as you like

4thgen92accord

LMAO. Yea you CAN, but that doesnt make it right now does it?

TGrant

if you are burning oil try a heavier oil(maybe high mileage) because what you are suposedly burning would be slipping by your rings

TGrant

yes it does make it right the only thing that you cant do is use synthetic during break in because your rings will never seat right

EK45VTi

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 00Red_SiR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I believe you said that you've owned the car for the last 2.5 years which is certainly enough time to have gotten rid of any sludge that was left over in there from the previous owner. Changing your oil like you have will have taken care of that naturally so again I seriously wouldn't worry about it. I am meticulous myself when it comes to maintenance and looking after my cars but believe me, as long as you keep up with your normal maintenace schedule like you've been doing, and using quality oils etc, engine flushing is overkill and will serve NO purpose.

It would be the same as waxing a car that's already been waxed on a regular basis. The car will look good when it's done, but it's not gonna look any better than it did before because it has been waxed regularly regardless of whether the last owner even washed it, because since you had it you've maintained it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, I'm learning more and more... I didn't know that I can get rid of the sludge (if any) buy just changing oil properly... I thought that Seafoam is for that and stuff... I know that oil has detergents but I didn't know it will eat away the sludge...

As for the previous owner... I doubt that he neglected the car cos the body of the car is just perfect... the interior is like NEW... all parts that were changed were Honda parts and not some shub-dubi aftermarket crap (i.e. timing belt, water pump, tensioner, filters, brakes and so on)...

So if he cared about the body and interior, I doubt he would neglect the engine... but I wanted to be on the safe side...

Like I said, I want to learn about my car...

Thank you!

00Red_SiR

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KKVTi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Well, I'm learning more and more... I didn't know that I can get rid of the sludge (if any) buy just changing oil properly... I thought that Seafoam is for that and stuff... I know that oil has detergents but I didn't know it will eat away the sludge...
</TD></TR></TABLE>

Seafoam when used in a crankcase is primarily for a car that has been neglected in the past with regular oil changes. If you had bought your car from a guy that didn't maintain it properly, an engine flush might be required depending on how bad it is and that's the main purpose of a flush. Detergents are just that, cleaning elements that continually clean while they are covered in oil so it's only natural for it to constantly remove any sludge that was there and prevent it from returning.

You're welcome