i have a 99 civic si whichs burn oil. i have to put in a half a quart in it every three days or so depending on how hard that i drive it. anyways how do i tell if it is the pistons rings or the valve seals. how should i go about testing to find out the problem.

 

Do a leak down or compression test on it.
You can rent a compression tester @ auto zone (free)...be sure to follow directions, if you dont know what youre doing (bet you dont!)
Compression: http://www.c-speedracing.com/h...t.php
Leak down: http://www.c-speedracing.com/h...n.php

If you do compression, take pressures of all 4 cyinders and write the values down.
Pour in a cap/teaspoon of oil into each spark plug hole and redo the test.
If the compression goes up, its rings. If not, its valve related.

Compression test are easy and free but a leak down test is far more accurate/detailed.

 

yea i already did a compression test on the car. and got the same numbers across the board. so i was just wondering if that then canceled out rings or not.

 

bump

 

Like I said, if you did the test twice, and it didnt change any values, after adding a bit of oil...its not your rings