2000 Accord burning oil???
 

I have been having an on-going issue with my car burning oil. Have others come across this as well?

Have you gottem an oil tank flush? I'm not sure if thats the correct way in which it is called... but when you go to change your oil (autoshop or whereever) most of thewm offer it... it cost like $60 dolars I believe. When I bought my 96 accord I went to get an oil change and they told me that the oil tank was so dirty that if they put new oil it was going to be no use because it was going to get black and eventually the car was going to burn it. So I did that and I noticed that the car was giving me better MpG. So I don't know if thats the solution for your problem.. but you might want to try it anywayz. Peace

"Burning oil"


What are the symptoms? Smoke out the tailpipe?

Oil Consumption? This is tricky to correctly diagnose because you might be checking it 10 minutes after shut down one time and over night the next. Check it consistently and scribe a line on the dipstick after 3 consistent readings.


If it is smoking, the valve seals might be leaking. Or other more severe problems.


Some shadetree mechanics will pour 1/2 bottle of brake fluid in the oil to swell the valve seals.


If you are interested in "flushing the engine", I have used Marvel Mystery Oil and still do. You need to substitute a quart or 3/4 of a quart of this for engine oil. Run this about 500-1000 miles and change it again. Go another 1500-2000 miles and change it again.

Should see a marked difference in oil color after that. Should also see 2+ MPG increase.


But...an engine flush is probably not gonna cure a oil burning problem or smoking problem. It doesn't hurt to try.

What is the maintenance history?

no smoke, but this morning my oil light started to blink. I put in a quart and it stopped blinking. But i have noticed that it does lose oil. I checked a month after geting an oil change adn it was down a quart.

have you checked if maybe you just have an oil leak somewhere as opposed to burning the oil.

c'mon dont you think that would be the first thing i check

If it's burning a quart a month and you don't have any leaks, it should be smoking like a skeeter truck.

Something's wrong.

My 2000 Honda Accord LX still has 1000 miles to reach its 3000 miles oil change limit, but when I check my oil dip stick it now only has 2mm above the lower mark. Am I burning too much oil? Is this normal? Thanks guys.

It depends on too many variables to be normal or not normal. It's just the way your engine is, either due to not being taken care of very well, from being improperly broken in, or just from improper manufacturing tolerances. If you want to burn less, switch to a higher viscosity oil or same viscosity synthetic oil.

And you're wasting money changing your oil every 3k miles.

If I dont change the oil, but the time it reaches the 3k miles, it will be below the lower mark. Is it safe to just add more oil when it reaches the lower mark even if its more than 3k miles? When should I change the oil? 5000k? 7000k? I live in Walnut CA and what's a good brad of oil that burns less? All I remember was the dealer used a synthetic blend oil (is this the fully synthetic blend?), if this is fully synthetic, can I add a regular oil? Or use the same blend (fully synthetic)?

There is no 'good brand of oil that burns less'. You have to play with it and see, but if you go to synthetic don't go back to dino oil. There's nothing wrong with adding oil, that's what you're supposed to do when it gets low. I personally use Mobil1 5W-30 fully synthetic. I used to burn about a quart every 1.5-2k miles with dino oil and a quart every 3k miles with Castrol Syntec. Now I'm down to a quart every 4k or 5k miles. You should be changing dino oil at least every 4-5k (conservatively) and a high quality synthetic at least every 7-8k (but they can last 15k miles, i just don't trust it for that long).

All dino oils are similiar and all fully synthetic and mixed oils are similiar...I like Mobil1 because it looks better coming out of the engine every 8 or 9k miles than the Castrol did and it burns less, indicating that it's a bit thicker and protects better.

What is "dino oil" :) Thanks much.

conventional oil, or non synthetic.

I just poured 1 quart of oil in my car, and the oil dip stick now reads 2mm above the upper mark. Is this too much? Thanks. Sorry for being so dumb, this is my first car :)

Overfilling is dangerous, as volume and pressure are directly related. Next time go slower. It probably won't hurt anything if you overfill just a little.

To properly check the level the car should be warmed (cooling fan comes on at least twice) and then shut off. Allow 5 mins or so for oil to drain back into the pan. Are you doing this?

I only check them in the morning when its park overnight in the garage. So what you're saying is, I should start the engine and let the cooling fan start and shut off and then wait for 5 mins before I check the oil? Is this the proper way? :)

Yes that's what I said. Checking it in the cold will give you an inaccurate reading, plus all of the oil (except for a fine film) will have come off of the upper parts of the engine.

OK thanks so much. :)

My Wife's 2000 Accord Burns Oil Also
 

A month and a half after she purchased the car, it was down 4 quarts. Good thing I caught it!!!!!! We have had the dealer track the oil consumption. The original dealer says that is normal. My response was that I had not fallen off the turnip truck yesterday!?!?!?! We then had the local honda dealer track the oil consumption to document the problem. My wife also purchased the extended warranty. As a side note, it turns out that the warranty does not cover replacement of piston rings.

The mechanic at the honda dealer noticed the PCV valve was an after-market replacement. So, he installed a honda part. He stated that he has seen a half of a dozen hondas burn oil when an aftermarket PCV value is installed. Unfortunately, this did not remedy the problem.

We have had a compression test. It showed the cylinder compression of each piston to be within specs. and all four compression readings were within 5% of each other.

One other note. With the catalytic converters, you will not see smoke coming from the tailpipe. The CC scrubs the oil out of the exhaust. However, eventually, you will be replacing the CC because it will plug up.

SO, the saga continues............

For all of those who are burning oil, what grade of oil are you running?

If piston rings don't go bad during the first 10k miles, they'll only go bad because the vehicle was improperly broken in or maintained. It's not something that should be replaced. The manufacturing tolerances on them are ridiculous.

Don't tell me you drove the car around with a quart of oil in it...

If a PCV valve clogs, yes, you'll burn more oil. It's a very simple valve so an aftermarket part shouldn't matter a bit.

IMO the dealer is taking you for a ride if they haven't given you a bit of useful advice. How much are they charging you for all of this? Stop going to them, check the oil yourself every other gas station stop, and use 5W-30.

+1

Ideally, check your oil while your car is cold.

-1 :p

The engine should be allowed to reach normal operating temps, then shut off and sat for 5 minutes to allow excess oil to drain to the pan. Then you'll get an accurate reading. Oil expands and contracts just like any other liquid so you'll get inaccurate readings unless it's at operating temperature.

My 2000 Accord burns oil. When I ran the dino oil it would burn about a quart every 1000 miles. I switched to Syntec 5w-30 and it dropped significantly down to about a quart every 2500 miles. From what I've read and heard I think I might switch to the Mobil1 brand.

I would recommend it after going through exactly what you have.

Unfortunately, I was remiss in my oversight of maintenance on my wife's car. Since I was busy at the time and the we had only had the car for less than two months, I did not monitor the oil level. It came to my attention when she asked why had all the idiot lights come on?

The Honda tech said the problem is not with a clogged PCV valve. A clogged valve will have the effect of forcing oil out places where it should not come out (ie back through the throttle-body). The problem stems from the fact the internal spring mechanism is weaker than Honda specs. This allows the internal valve to open too far and for too long thus allowing more atomized oil vapor to be re-burned.

I do use 5W30 Pennzoil and have since my wife purchased the car. Now I check the oil in that car at every opportunity. My suspicion is that the car was poorly maintained by the previous owner. And now I am paying the price.

Good post. I did not know that about the PCV valve, I'll only buy Honda from now on :thumbup:

If you're up to it, it might be worthwhile for you to take the intake manifold and cylinder head cover off to inspect for excess carbon build up. If there's lots of sludge on the underside of the cover, it means that the oil was run too long or too low and you probably have a lot of sludge in the pan. The only way to remedy that is to take the pan off :(

Oil Issue
 

Thanks for all in info everyone. So if I am to understand, if I was to switch my oil from 10W30 to 5W30, will this stop my oil burning problem for the time being?

Won't stop it'll just slow it down