So, my 02 accord is still burning oil. I can't figure out where, aND I'm done looking. It runs great, no power loss, no lights on... only smell it when I'm idling. No puddles or even a single drop under the car overnight. Still registers full on the dipstick every other morning. I'm stumped, but I'm not sure I want to put any more money into chasing it.
It's just under 170k miles, and I drI've 60-100 miles a day. At this age and mileage, I could probably sell it on Craigslist for $1200-1500 or keep driving it until the end. With this knowledge, how long do you think I havebefore this becomes a problem? If it's possible, I'll keep it until spring and replace it, but I don't want to blow up the engine next week either.

 

From what you've said, it doesn't seem to be burning the engine oil. I don't see how if you have no leaks or show a loss of oil. How often do you smell it? You might be smelling something else but not engine oil.

 

Yeah if your burning oil even just a little bit you should see some form of blue smoke and should be a noticeable loss between oil changes on the dip stick. I'm pretty sure burning oil though if that's truly what's happening here at idle would be valve seals.

 

I smell it when I am idling after the car is warmed up. Idk what else it could be. It's definitely a burning oil smell. I thought I had all the old stuff cleaned up from when I changed valve cover gasket. Don't know what else to think now.

 

Sounds like you have oil leaking onto your exhaust manifold or exhaust pipe, and burning off. Could be valve cover, distributor(I think the 02 still has one) oil pressure switch or maybe VTEC seal. Find the leak(Look at the exhaust, and youll see the evidence of burnt oil on the manifold or pipe, you may have to crawl underneath the car. Although it is interesting, youre not losing oil level.

 

I'm guessing if it's a leak, it's an extremely small one. Valve cover isn't leaking although I still have some going into the #1 spark plug well. I don't think that's where the burning smell is coming from though.

 

There is a difference in smell between burning and leaking onto the exhaust. Burning just has a odd foul smell. Leaking onto the exhaust is such a strong smell it will make your eyes burn and water. It could be a very small leak onto the exhaust and still let off a strong odor My 90 ACCORD has a very small oil leak through the aftermarket pressure sensor I put on it a few years back. A sensor from Honda should fix the problem.

 

Noticed i could smell it today when I turn on the front defroster inside the car, and pretty much immediately went away when I turned it off. Got back to work and left ithe running, opened the hood to look for smoke. There's none. I'm about to spray a bunch of degreaser on the back of the engine to get all the old stuff off it.

 

You sure it's oil you smell and not coolant? Could be a heater core leak if you're smelling coolant.

If it is oil, it could be a tiny leak. A few drops of oil is enough to make a mess and if it gets on the exhaust, smell horrible.

 

Ummm, yeah. Definitely not coolant. I put 200 miles on the car today, and only smelled it once for about ten seconds when I was stopped at the end of my driveway. It sat a lot of other times earlier in the day, and at one point I was waiting on my wife for about 20 minutes with it idling and never smelled it.