I just purchased a 2000 Prelude Base. Great condition, 1 owner and all records from service. So first of all, I seem to be burning oil at a fast rate. I know these engines do generally but since I have bought it, I have added over a quart of oil to it. I believe that I have around 300 miles to it so far. Sometimes it's hard to read the dip stick but I am noticing it going down quickly. The oil was replaced right before I purchased it and I believe the oil is conventional 5w30, but I am planning to change to synthetic. Right after I bought the car I got the timing belt job done because it is at 102000 miles. Now in the past week I have noticed a few times that blue smoke has come out of the exhaust. I never saw this happen before, but I noticed it in the review mirror. This would last about 3 seconds before it stops and looks normal. I haven't done a compression test yet, but I have a bad feeling that the piston rings are probably bad. I really cant have that be what it is. If anyone has any insight to this and whatever else I can do to fix, please let me know.

There are a couple of other issues that I have noticed when driving. Maybe someone can help with these. First, the revs hang after I clutch in. For example, I clutch in to shift at the "sweet spot" which i guess is like 3500 rpm and it will stay there and drop slowly and then eventually drop faster. This just makes it impossible for smooth, quick shifts. Then there is the issue with accelerating. It just isn't smooth or linear. Ill be driving normal (just accelerating with traffic) and ill have a delay or surging when accelerating. So I'll shift from 2nd into 3rd, and after releasing the clutch, ill hit the pedal and it wont do anything for a second and then all the sudden it goes. And in general, acceleration is just not smooth. One other thing, in the left front, I notice a knock when I accelerate and its cold. I think its the upper control arm bushing. Please let me know if you have experienced any of this.

 

do you have any oil leaks?

bad valve seals cause some oil burning and bad piston rings cause major oil burning

sadly bad piston rings are more expensive to change since you have to get your block honed

with those miles if your clutch havent been ever replaced, maybe time has come for that? is ignition parts ever changed? have you checkd that throttle cable is properly tight?

 

So there is an oil leak coming from the oil pan. It doesn't seems terrible and I wouldn't think that it would cause me a real loss of oil. It leaves a drop or 2 when I park it. Clutch is fairly new. Spark plugs and wires have been replaced before. Throttle cable is good.

 

I would venture that with that many miles in 17 years, the car was either not driven much, or has been parked for some time.

I would guess valve seals, and obviously fix any leaks. Might be worth either pulling injectors and having them cleaned, or at running a can of BG 44K through the fuel system, it's the ONLY cleaner I would use.

Maybe just check the throttle return spring, and how freely the throttle cable moves. Also the IAC could be sticking and hanging out open too long, might need to be cleaned out.

 

I think it was parked and not driven a lot. My biggest concern is if it was driven without oil in it. But there is no way to tell. The valve cover seals were replaced when I got the timing belt done. I did put a can of seafoam through it recently. But I was thinking of looking at injectors and EGR passages. What do you think about that? The throttle cable is smooth and the spring is fine. I can get it to WOT and back smooth. I guess I'll take a look at the IAC. It idles fine but I guess that could cause the problems I am having? Thanks

 

The valve seals unfortunately involve taking the valve cover back off, along with removal of the cams etc. Much easier than new rings, which involves a full teardown, and basically a complete rebuild of the engine.

Does the car rev up and down fine out of gear i.e. just sitting, or does the throttle hang and drop revs slowly then as well. are there any problems with gear engagement when you shift, or any thing like that?

 

well like I said before the seals have been done so they should hopefully be good. I'm not completely sure if it revs ok just sitting. I know when I clutch and want to go up a gear, it hangs. Shifting and trans are perfect.

 

I think youre talking about difference seals, we're talking about these:



which take a lot more work to change than valve cover related things

 

Okay, so what ones were done for the timing belt service. I saw that they were valve seals. Anyway I don't remember why these seals were brought up. Maybe because of the oil leak? I'm pretty sure thats coming from the oil pan only.

 

are you sure that they werent spark plug seals?

seal kit #1 should be changed when doing timing belt job since its possible that they have some wear also

 

So here is the invoice from the job I had done.

 

A good rule of thumb when doing a timing belt job is to replace the surrounding seals (OEM) within the area since it's already opened up. Cam cap, cam seal, front main and balance shaft seal.