my 2000 accord is eating up oil! for the last 3 oil changes i've been missing a quart (changes ever 3-4k miles). it's a fairly new engine, ~78k miles.

i know there's a smidge coming out of the valve cover gasket, but there's not enough grime around the head to make up for a quart. everything in my car is stock, and i dont drive it hard. im not leaking anywhere else (from what i can see), either. the timing is normal etc etc. i recently had to get my car smogged and the numbers dont seem unusual.

should i just ignore the problem and just feed it extra oil every once in a while? i'd really like to figure out WHY it's doing this though. my car is so new, i just dont get it.

 

I personally don't think a quart per 3-4k is good. I'd have it looked at before it gets worse. Honda engines are not known for eating oil. Have somebody help you look for blue smoke coming from the tailpipe.

 

couild be bad piston rings... could be costly

 

half of a quart is considered normal. something about the breakdown of oil, and a healthy engine buring that much during the period between oil changes. i'm not exactly sure though, i didn't read up on it too much at the time. but since my car was new, it was always a little shy of a half of a quart low by the time i changed the oil.

with that being said, i would still say that a full quart suggests a problem. if you have a leak from the valve cover, fix that first and see how oil consumption is after that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by philadd &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">half of a quart is considered normal. something about the breakdown of oil, and a healthy engine buring that much during the period between oil changes. i'm not exactly sure though, i didn't read up on it too much at the time. but since my car was new, it was always a little shy of a half of a quart low by the time i changed the oil.

with that being said, i would still say that a full quart suggests a problem. if you have a leak from the valve cover, fix that first and see how oil consumption is after that.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeah its always best to fix what you know is wrong first, then work ur way from there

 

Check your PCV valve. And also your intake pipe. If it's really greasy there, then the engine is putting out a lot of oil vapors into your intake pipe.

 

^ i'll check them both tomorrow!!

..BUT.. aren't bad pcv valves supposed to just make you idle funny?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FatJoe &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">couild be bad piston rings... could be costly </TD></TR></TABLE>

ouch.. i REALLY hope that's not it

 

im also thinking it might be a high pressure leak.. and only leaks out when im driving on the freeway..

 

if it's a 4cyl, there seem to a fair numbert of them that develop leaks around the rear main seal. look around under the motor and see if there are any other oil spots you can see. if it's the rear main seal, just keep putting oil into it. the labor charge on replacing the RMS will buy all the oil you can burn.

but if the motor is clean other than the valve cover, then it's most likely the rings

 

it seems a tad bit high. Your driving habbit can also consume oil. I know one can drink a qt in an evening driving around at high RPM.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by neona &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">im also thinking it might be a high pressure leak.. and only leaks out when im driving on the freeway.. </TD></TR></TABLE>

sounds like my problem, tubo gsr, just recently built..

I notice about a quart or more of oil loss when i take a 500+ mile trip.. man its really bad, and I dont even drive hard on the trip, just normal cruising and the ocassional passing.... arrgh...

 

if its leaking throught the valve cover gasket then I would start there - but a quart would leave a huge mess around the engine .............