My girlfriend got an 02 Civic LX over the winter. When she took it to get inspected they pointed out that the oil pan gasket was bad. I didn't have time to do it and frankly didn't even have the manual yet so the shop did the job. The leaking gasket was clearly broken and looked new. You could see that the exhaust bolts under the engine were new. Fast forward three months and the new gasket is broken and leaking oil like mad. It was replaced by a different branch of the same company. I was there this time and spoke to the tech who did the job on torque specks and such. He used a Fel-Pro gasket. It's been three months and the gasket is trash again. She was loosing a quart of oil a day. It's hard to imagine that everyone who has touched this gasket is a complete moron. Could there be an issue with the pan? Are Fel-Pro gaskets for this application known junk? Any other ideas? The car only has about 75k and is otherwise in pristine condition. Well, I did replace the rear cam seal. Man, that's sure a stupid design. Easy and cheap job though.

 

My 01 D17A car has a aluminum pan and looks like Hondabond or RTV only. Is yours a steel pan?

 

Try an OEM Honda pan gasket, Ive had issues with aftermarket gaskets on Hondas before.

 

Use an OEM Honda oil pan gasket and use Hondabond as instructed in the service manual.
If your pulling the oil pan off, it would be great time to replace oil pump oring while your in there.
And be sure to use liberal amount of MAF cleaner on that socket and sensor you unplugged.

 

D series oil pumps don't ever need replacing. Even when you rebuild the motor. Builder that was in Honda Tuning a few years back said he wouldn't bother replacing the oil pump on a d series build unless the original block had over 300k on it. Can't remember the shop off hand but I always thought that that was amazing.