Well ive had this 95 Civic Dx since about the begining of march, and it just recently been loosing oil. About 1/2 a quart a week or about 300 miles. Now its not leaking off the valve cover, and there are no oil spots on the ground. Now when i look at the oil pan there is oil on there suggesting oil is leaking from there. Now since there is no oil on the ground could a enough oil be leaking out to notice this much of a lose of oil? Now its very possible its burning oil, but the exhaust is clear and smells normal. Please let me know if you have any suggestions, I would rather not rebuild since im broke so any help would be awesome..thanks alot

 

Clean the area on the pan that is dirty and see if it re-appears. How many miles are on the car?

 

It has just over 153000, I know its alot but the car runs great, so Im hopin its the pan gasket but there are no leaks onto the ground.

 

any smoke?

 

valve stem seals like to go bad on the 1.5s

 

no there is no smoke, from the engine, and as mentioned before the exhaust is clear. its just weird that it didnt go low untill almost a month after i bought it.

 

Dude your valve cover could still be leaking. Sometimes what happens with them is if they have been previously overheated to the brim the valve cover can warp and reguardless how many times you replace the gaskets it will still leak. It just may not be noticeable enough near the gasket. You also may want to check you oil pan plug and make sure it is properly tightened. Sometimes the threads wear and although it seems that the plug is fully tightened it isn't and an excess of oil builds up on the bottom of the pan. I know from experience. A funny way to prevent this from happening, believe it or not, is if the threads are worn, try applying a few layers of teflon tape to the plug. Therefore plugging the oil that once could seep through those unsealed threads. It will be somewhat effective and the process easily repaeted every oil change.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slambedcivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">valve stem seals like to go bad on the 1.5s</TD></TR></TABLE>

thats what happend to my d15 around 150000, it burned oil and you could see black smoke sometimes out of the exhaust

 

how hard are they to replace?

 

the head SHOULD come off, but doesnt always have to. but its not exactly quick and easy

 

your rings are prolly bad, i know mine does have smoke come out until WOT then it comes out in plumes. I just keep refilling oil until i can get a better engine.

 

Oil usually burns, not while idling, but on initial take off and hard exceleration and the like.

I've seen other threads like this on other forums. Dont think they ever got to the bottom of the problem though.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turner7205 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how hard are they to replace?</TD></TR></TABLE>
Hmm fairly difficult.. keeping in mind all the other work.
While you have the head off, might as well rebuild it. Replacing the seals are pretty easy, once you get the springs off though.

 

Well I should have mentioned that sometimes you can smell oil, and when I go to investigate I see smoke coming from either the exhaust manifold cover or under it. Now the valve cover seal swells up with oil but doesn’t seem to leak any. I just had my timing belt changed and i dont know if he used a sealant, now if the VC was leaking that much I should be able to see oil coming out right? I have not had time to take off the manifold cover but if I were to what might I find? Some may think head gasket, well I know the coolant is green as can be and the oil on the dipstick is normal. Now when I remove the dipstick smoke comes out of the dipstick tube, is that normal or is the oil burning because its to hot, I use Valvoline 5w30. I have to retract my original quote saying the oil is going about ½ a quart a week more like almost 2 weeks and about 640 miles or so would be my guess, and I do mostly highway driving. Someone had mentioned valve seals, now the spark plugs were pretty much oil free as well as the hole in which they are placed. The inner side of the tail pipe is pretty black but the bumper doesn’t have really any residue. So if any of this helps you feel free to suggest something.



Modified by turner7205 at 5:56 PM 4/4/2005

 

Hmmm.. You might have some worn out crank/rod bearings. Worn bearings also cause smoking and oil consumption. Unfortunatly, the only way to tell is to take off the oil pan, and the main caps.

 

if smoke is coming out the dipstick tube it probably means it's coming into contact with your exhaust manifold and burning off into the air?

 

you mean the oil is coming out of the dipstick tube? that could be but there is a rubber seal on the handle of the dipstick so i dont know. If the bearings were worn could the car run as well as it does? Also where does it smoke if the rings are worn or bad?

 

Yea, car will still run alright, unless the bearing issue gets really bad. If rings are worn it probably smokes more. What I think could be happening is worn bearings are causing some smoke, but the smoke is getting sucked back in to the engine though the PCV valve and combusted, hence no noticable smoke out the exhaust.
I'm just pulling that out of my *** though, Im not really sure without seeing it first hand or more information.

 

Well i hope thats not the issue lol, could the VC be leaking even though you cant see the oil actually coming out? Has anyone had the problem of valvoline oil burning off??

 

anyone else?

 

That usually occurs when you have bad valve rings. What Happens is when the car is still cold the rings have not expanded enough so you lose some oil and then it burns. So if you let it warmup initially for a minute or so you should burn less. An average start of about three minute warmup should put you in the clear of no or very little oil burning. I know from experience.