Hi Guys...

Having an issue with my oil level on my 94 accord lx. Car has 285k miles. about 2 wks ago i changed my oil. I normally use castrol gtx 5w30. Walmart was out so i grabbed castrol high mileage 5w30 which said it was a syntheic blend. Everthing was fine for about a week. Then one night on my way home from work i noticed my oil light came on. Immediately pulled over and checked oil. Nothing on dipstick. This car normally burns a quart or so between changes so i always keep a couple quarts in the trunk. Well i dropped in about 2.5 qts and proceeded home. Next day on my way in to work light comes back on with less than a mile to go so i didnt stop. Once at work i popped the hood and crawled around underneath looking for leaks and found nothing out of the ordinary. After work before i hit the road i checked the dipstick and it showed slightly overfilled. Decided to limp it home and before i hit my driveway. ..guess what....oil light again. Check dipstick and very very low reading.

​​​​​​​So i figured the synthetic blend oil i used may have had some kind of detergent or something in it that may have freed up some gunk that has now clogged something up. Decided to change oil and filter again after the car sat overnight i drained out 6.5 qts ...yikes. . i also removed valve cover fully expecting to find the head overfilled with oil and gunk blocking an oil port or something. Nothing found. The oil holes were actually alot bigger than i was expecting...may 10 or 12 mm with nothing obstructing them. Surprisingly it was alot cleaner than i expected with 285k miles.

So after that oil and filter change everything seemed ok for a week or so. Now having the same issue. Oil light coming on and no reading at dipstick. Let it sit overnight and by morning oil level looks correct again.

Anyone run into this before? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

​​​​​​​N0lan

 

Just a suggestion, pop the oil fill next time and be mindful for any excessive pressure or vacuum when you do. Also check to see if your oil level starts coming back. That is definitely some strangeness going on though.

 

You're losing oil, 285k miles you are bound to have this issue if its the original engine. Is 6.5 qts the recommended lvl for your specific engine?

 

1. Verify the car is parked on a level flat surface. Dipstick is located at the front of the engine, if the car is leaning slightly either side it can greatly affect how the oil level appears to be. Gas station pump islands are usually graded, they may appear 'level' but are usually not.
2. Verify tires are all the same size, properly inflated. A low tire may cause the car to lean slightly and create the same as #1.
3. Allow the oil to drain down from the head(engine off) before checking the level, checking immediately after engine shut down will show the level to be low, so will checking the oil level with the engine running.
4. Verify the oil pressure switch at the back of the block, above the oil filter, is not leaking. If it is leaking, even slightly the pressure differential across the switch will be lost and it will behave like there is no oil pressure. Actual fairly common for the oil pressure switch to leak/fail in this manner.
5. Beg/borrow/steal a proper oil pressure test gauge. Connect it to where the oil pressure switch attaches and monitor oil pressure while driving, watch for pressure drops or spikes, this may indicate a problem with the oil pump or pressure relief valve.