I have a 1999 Honda Civic EX. I brought in for an Oil Change in Nov 2011 at 117,938 miles. At the time I had a small oil leak (I noticed small amounts on my driveway) and the service dept said they couldn't figure out where the leak was, but just "monitor" the situation.

I brought my car in today at 119,333 for its first oil change since Nov 2011 and the mechanic dude said I was at 1 qt (appx) of oil. He suggested that maybe I should try Penzoil High Mile 5W30. .

Couple questions.

1-Did I damage my engine by driving it to 1 quart (Again I drive low miles on the week-end to the store, maybe a 30 mile drive here and there..I average 300 miles a month.)
2-There is definitely small oil stains on my driveway, nothing excessive..everytime I mention this to the mechanics they say its not unusual for older cars too leak small amounts of oil..they say it would be expensive to do an extensive analysis on the issue and just wait until the problem gets worse if it even does.. Do you agree to wait ?
3- Should I be concerned that I went thru 3 quarts of oil over 1,400 miles..

 

Yes

Take it to honda brahh

 

are you indicating to panic or proceed to monitor ?

 

Panic that's a lot of oil

If your only seeing small drops in your drive way it could be leaking and burning the oil

 

spray it off and investigate. Does it smoke any?

 

simple trick to see if your burning lots of oil.....stick your finger in the tail pipe if your finger is real black than your burning lots of oil if its just a spot or real light than no but i think your burning

 

it should'nt be leaking regarless of how old it is, if there is a leak somewhere it means that something needs service, try cleaning up your engine bay as much as you can from there you could start ruling certain things out as possible origins of the leak, it does'nt take a certified mechanic to locate a leak (this is why some people get raped with huge bills, they don't know what's leaking they just want it fixed) most parts like gaskets and seals are fairly inexpensive and does'nt take too much to change them out

 

If you want to investigate this yourself you have to first buy some Simple green and de-grease the entire motor. Avoid directly spraying fuse panel, alternator, starter, battery, and wires. Let it all dry up. Fill your oil to the full mark and run the motor, go for a drive.

Common places are the Valve cover, VTEC solenoid gasket, spark plug grommets, oil pan gasket, front seal, rear main seal, oil plug, cam seal, distributor gasket.

 

sounds like ur burning a lot of oil, also sounds like u have a lazy technician lookin at ur car. go in there with ur sleeves rolled up and get angry and say wtf u mean u cant find the leak thats what i pay u for!!! it doesnt cost an arm n a leg to find leaks, just some cleaning and watching/checking known problem areas wich any mechanic should be familiar with. Thank god im naturally mechanically inclined in a world that relies so heavily on mechanical devices

 

You know your car has a leak and yet you dont keep an eye on your oil level?

 

More than likely you are needing a seal of some sort replaced. I had a couple that needed replacing and only a small oil leak. I didn't have that kind of loss though. The reason why more oil was not on the ground was because it was all on the underbody of the car. From the back of the engine block all the way to the fuel tank. It was coated HEAVY with oil and dirt under there.

If they can't find the leak then take it somewhere else.

 

Ask them if they can do a dye or a smoke test too.

 

Find out where the oil is coming from before your next post is "my car blew up".

 

Maybe do a compression and leakdown test to make sure your not burning oil. That's a lot of oil to be gone I'm pretty sure you'd notice if it was from a leak

 

Here is a picture of where it is leaking from..where is this and any reccomendations..

Note I had an oil change yesterday so the above px could represnt residual, but I put a piece of cardboard underneath my car overnight and this matches exactly where the previous spots I found on my driveway are coming from..If you drew a straight line from the front tire to the other front tire this is where the oil is leaking from..Since I am not familiar with the parts underneath the hood I am unsure what piece of the car the attached picture represents...

Also, on the opposite site I notice a very slow drip of a clear liquid that looked like water..could the clear leak be freon.. Note I have not had the ac on recently...

Thanks everyone as you can tell I am a newbie, but trying to learn

 

Clean it up and check. Better yet, as was suggested above, add some UV dye to the oil.

 

freon would leak in a vapor state. but could be the ac drain condensation line

 

First off determine if it a top end leak or bottom. Open the hood, check under the distributor, check by the valve cover check the vtec solenoid area, then look below where the the transmission dip stick is, is wet or oil stained?

Next get in on a lift, look by the oil pan or near the trans, is it wet?

 

Either it's leaking from the drain plug, or the oil pan itself. You have to clean it up 100% and then watch it.

Also the water is most likely coolant and is leaking from your waterpump. When was the last time the timing belt/waterpump was changed?

 

I brought it into my Honda dealer today since I couldn't find the source. He told me there is no oil leak. He told me who-ever did the oil change last week-end did a bad job and over-filled my pan. When I told him there are oil stains all over my driveway and challenged him something must be wrong, he got testy and said just get my oil changed more frequently or buy a new engine...

He did mention that if he can't see any sign of an oil leak it might be burning off.. What does burning off indicate...If it is burning off then does indicate an engine problem..

Any suggestions if I bring it to another mechanic in trying to help me resolve the issue or should I just get oil changes more frequently.. I will try the dye test though..

 

Change the oil yourself. Go to the store and buy 5w30 motor oil. These cars take 4 quarts. Get a Honda oil filter.

Take note of the level the day you do the change. CLEAN the entire engine bay, and look for leaks, and check level daily.

If you don't want to do anything on your own, bring it to a Honda dealer if you have no interest in doing what we are telling you to do.

 

Ok...this past weekend I put in 5w30...so I will continue to monitor it..and clean it off real good tomorrow..Im a newbie so I guess I just needed a couple good online jump starts to encourage me...I changed my own headlamps about 6 months ago..that was the first thing I think I had ever done on a car..shucks prior to last week-end I could idetify the oil pan from the gas tank..

So I will continue to try it out on my own and keep everyone posted..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPXuU...eature=related

 

Oil pan gasket is surprisingly easy to do, if that is where your leak is coming from.