I recently purchased a 2000 Civic EX with 95K original miles. It has 105K now since I've owned it. The car is completely stock it's never seen race or track or whatever kind of aggressive driving. I only use it to travel out of town, school, and work. The people who owned it before me was an older couple they have service records etc from Honda.

Anyway, it seems to lose oil. It doesn't leak anywhere and to my knowledge it doesn't burn oil. I've had buddies drive behind me and I've gone WOT and no blue smoke nothing. All the plugs look great etc. I'm using Castrol Syntec blend 5w30 and the oil is 1000 miles old. The oil was to the 2nd dot on the dip stick. I went for a 300 mile trip and checked the oil when I got to my destination. It was just above the 1st dot on the dipstick. I filled it till it was up to the 2nd dot again before I drove back home. So all together I probably only driven the car for 600 miles going there and coming back. When I came back I checked the oil and it's just below the first dot. How did I lose that much oil over a 300 mile period? I lost about a quart of oil if anyone is interested.

Does that seem normal to anyone? The oil has only been in the motor for about 1500 miles. It doesn't burn oil, doesn't leak oil, the plugs look great, and the car runs awesome. Just don't know where all that oil is going.

 

Basically, you HAVE to be losing oil from a leak or through the engine burning it. Oil doesn't dissapear lmao. Is there any black **** on your back bumper? These problems suck. Do a leakdown too. There isn't oil in your water is there?

 

Well its one or the other, unless you put magical disappearing oil in your motor.

It may be a slow burn that maybe is not visible to the naked eye, that is possible.

If its not that, it may be leaking internally:

<U>Bad headgasket: </U> If your headgasket is shot, it can leak oil into your coolant flow, may explain your situation, the 2 may be mixxing, and if coolant were to be mixxed into your oil system, it def would not register on your dipstick, water doesnt stick to it.
Since you claim there are

1.) no external leaks
2.) Not burning it excessivly

my money is on the head gasket being shot and leaking your oil away into your coolant, and vice versa.

 

I'm using genuine Honda 50/50 mix coolant and I'm looking at it right now it there doesn't seem to be any traces of oil in it. There's no slug like crap in there the tank itself looks brand new nothing on it. I haven't washed my car for a couple weeks now and the back bumper is as clean as the day I washed it. Trust me, I've look everywhere there's no traces of oil dripping anywhere. I looked up the chasis nothing just dust and dirt here and there, but no signs of oil. I'll probably do a compression test and a leak down test to really know what's going on.

Yeah I'm thinking the same oil just doesn't dissapear so obviously it's going somewhere.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 97Ej6mike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well its one or the other, unless you put magical disappearing oil in your motor.

It may be a slow burn that maybe is not visible to the naked eye, that is possible.

If its not that, it may be leaking internally:

<U>Bad headgasket: </U> If your headgasket is shot, it can leak oil into your coolant flow, may explain your situation, the 2 may be mixxing, and if coolant were to be mixxed into your oil system, it def would not register on your dipstick, water doesnt stick to it.
Since you claim there are

1.) no external leaks
2.) Not burning it excessivly

my money is on the head gasket being shot and leaking your oil away into your coolant, and vice versa.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think if your headgasket was blown that bad...the car wouldnt run very well at all. The OP said it ran fine.

Either when you checked it, the oil hadn't dripped back down into the pan all the way yet, or it's burning it slowly. slow enough on the street that you can't really see it. When you get on the highway, your oil temps go high. Maybe it's just burning off fast when you get on the highway. Back in the dizzle, my EF burned oil. it would burn a **** load on the street...i'd fog you up. But on the highway..it was like 1 qt per 100 miles or so.

 

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

I think if your headgasket was blown that bad...the car wouldnt run very well at all. The OP said it ran fine.

Either when you checked it, the oil hadn't dripped back down into the pan all the way yet, or it's burning it slowly. slow enough on the street that you can't really see it. When you get on the highway, your oil temps go high. Maybe it's just burning off fast when you get on the highway. Back in the dizzle, my EF burned oil. it would burn a **** load on the street...i'd fog you up. But on the highway..it was like 1 qt per 100 miles or so. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah it runs perfect. I would let it sit for at least 5 or 10 minutes before I start checking. If I'm driving in the city I can go about 3500 miles before I would have to start filling on the oil. But If I'm on the highway like going on a trip for example that 300 mile trip. It tends to lose quite a bit of oil. I was just curious if everyone thought it was normal or not.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by D16SohcVtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Yeah it runs perfect. I would let it sit for at least 5 or 10 minutes before I start checking. If I'm driving in the city I can go about 3500 miles before I would have to start filling on the oil. But If I'm on the highway like going on a trip for example that 300 mile trip. It tends to lose quite a bit of oil. I was just curious if everyone thought it was normal or not.</TD></TR></TABLE>

not "normal". it shouldn't burn oil. there's something wrong with it. Maybe valve seals or rings. hard to tell without testing for compression and leakdown.


It is, however VERY common.

 

If it isn't leaking, and you're checking the sump correctly (i.e. on level ground each time), then you're burning the oil. There is nowhere else for it to go.

Burning very small amounts of oil during each combustion cycle will produce little to no smoke, but those combustion cycles add up quickly over time. Your car doesn't have to be billowing smoke to be burning oil at a high rate. The lower the oil level drops, the faster it will burn off as well. D-series oil control rings tend to seize up a lot and cause oil to enter the combustion chamber.

I've seen a lot of D16Y8s in particular with massive oil consumption problems and other oiling issues. The only ways to solve it are by either installing another used engine, or having the existing engine overbored and rebuilt with new oversized pistons & rings. Occasionally you can get away with just a hone and new rings, but don't count on it. Some machine shops also do crappy work and the engine still consumes oil after a rebuild - so make sure you get machine work done at a shop experienced in imports and/or Honda/Acura vehicles.

 

Have you replaced your PCV valve? Mine got stuck and burned a 1/2 a qt. in 30 miles. If you haven't you might want to replace it.

 

mine does this as well, but i know its getting kicked out the exhaust cause there is black specs all on the bumper. what would that suggest?
The plugs always check clean.

sorry to jack but similar question?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Malakai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">mine does this as well, but i know its getting kicked out the exhaust cause there is black specs all on the bumper. what would that suggest?
The plugs always check clean.

sorry to jack but similar question?</TD></TR></TABLE>

I remember you. You dont have a cat do you?

Either your car is burning oil or running rich ...or you have no cat.

 

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

I remember you. You dont have a cat do you?

Either your car is burning oil or running rich ...or you have no cat. </TD></TR></TABLE>

X2, thats not oil, it woudlnt leave soot, thats carbon from richness.

 

i got the same prob with my civic. no smoke out of the exhaust, spark plugs are clean, and no leak spots where ever i park, but when i checked my oil level it was about 2.5 qtz. short.

 

I'm going to try and go ahead and replace the PCV valve and see if that helps. I never really knew that they PCV valve had to be changed every so often. But does having a PCV valve that is going bad or is bad cause more burning of oil?

 

If the car had 100k miles on it, and the entire time it wasn't being driven hard, and was getting natural oil, then you switched to synthetic blend, that's when you opened the can of worms.

There was probably a lot of carbon build-up sitting on your piston rings, and getting into tight crevices. Synthetic, or even synthetic blend oil is known to flush out that build-up that once helped your rings make a tight seal against your cylinder walls. This is really only remedied by another 12k-15k miles of driving with the new type of oil.

There are probably other culprits, sush as small gaskets (probably not your head gasket), etc. It may also be leaking oil from the pan, even if you don't see a puddle under your car every morning. Park your car on a hill, with the front of the car elevated, and let it run for 8-10 minutes (don't let it overheat...) with some white paper towels under the pan. Check for stains, even small ones.

If you notice anything, replace the oil pan gasket and the crush washer on the drain plug.

 

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

I remember you. You dont have a cat do you?

Either your car is burning oil or running rich ...or you have no cat. </TD></TR></TABLE>

My exhaust system is all stock. When i got the car it was running regualr oil. I switch to syn for a bit but figured not worth it and went back to regular.

Now i do kno my main rear seal is leaking a lil but could that really cause that much oil loss? N i still dont know about the black spots on the bumper. If i was running rich, wouldnt you be able to tell by the plugs?