My fiance has a 03 Honda Civic LX and the last two times we have brought the car to Pepboys for her oil change, they have commented that the Oil level was really low. I have been watching her oil level since then and have been checking it every month. This is the pattern I'm seeing ...

1.) Oil Change at Pepboys
2.) I check the levels next day to make sure everything is cool
3.) I wait ~ 1 month and recheck the levels.
4.) The first two months the levels are fine, but somewhere in the third month she looses ~ 1qt of oil. No oil stains in the driveway, engine bay looks clean, no noticeable blue smoke from her exhaust.

Why would her car be fine for two months and then all of a sudden lose 1qt of oil in the third month. This is the second time I have seen this happen with this car and can only assume it's burning the oil ... but why the weird pattern?? Any one ever seen anything like this before??

Nick

 

It's probably slowly consuming it the whole time and you just dont realize it. Look underneath the car and see if it's all oily. I had a honda that you really couldn't tell it was leaking oil, but if you looked at the oil pan it was covered in it.

 

1qt of oil every three thousand miles is considered acceptable.

 

It's burning oil.

Normal.

Try switching to a 5W-30 instead of a 5W-20. Get her into the habit of checking the oil level periodically and adding as needed.

 

Have you checked the level yourself right before you take it to pepboys? Are they checking it hot and you are checking it cold after the oil drains back to the pan? Could be any number of things.

BTW Hondas are pretty easy on oil. You can easily go 4 months or even 6 months between oil changes if you don't mind checking the level once a month and topping off as needed.

 

^Thats true. Hondas need to be checked after being run warm and 3 minutes of cool down time.

 

It doesn't really matter. There are slight differences in level, but it's not going to cause an entire 1 quart discrepancy.

 

I can understand the car burning some oil, but what confuses me is that I religiously check the oil level(car is cold), and the oil level on the dipstick doesn't change for the first two months. It's only within a span of about 3 weeks on the third month that we start loosing a quart or more of oil.

 

Well, I don't consider an '03 to be old, but it's very possible that there's other circumstances surrounding your oil loss. Maybe you just drove more in higher temperature weather the last month of the three; that will make it easier for the oil to escape. I would check your valve cover gasket, any other top end rubber parts that are involved with that and if you have a PCV re-route check that for oil vapor. Lots of vapor would be a sign of bad rings, but I doubt your car has bad rings.

Just a theory, but since I've owned a lot of cars with persistent oil leaks, I think a lot of leaks tend to exacerbate themselves exponentially simply because they allow the amount of air in the crankcase to be greater. Once it gets warm, the air expands and it's easier for oil vapor to get out of small leaks.

Next, jack the car up and clean the heck out of the engine, including the entire oil pan. I would suspect an oil pan leak before anything, but that's just from my experience in upstate New York (lots of salt and snow in the winter; aluminum/steel interfaces rust fast). Drive the car for 1000 miles and find out where it's coming out. I bet it's just a rubber part like the oil pan gasket. /end

 

Think I'm going to try stepping up to 5w30 and maybe using one of the High-Mileage Oils like Mobil1, Penzoil or Catrol.

 

just because you cant see blue smoke doesn't mean its not burning oil.