for the past week or so i thought i smelt burning oil but my buddy n my girlfriend said their was no smoke coming from my exhaust so today my dad was following behind me and when we got to the light he said he smelled buring oil coming from my car.... So i opened the hood check the dipstick and i was a quarter away from the center of the dipstick.... im due for an oil change in about 300miles... should i be worried?

 

A quarter away from the center of the dipstick. That's like a logical problem, if the level was 1/4 away from center it could either be 1/4 quart low or 3/4 quart low.

In either case, top it off, and wait until it starts smoking visably. When you can see it, rebuild the engine.

 

How Many Miles are on the car, you migh have a bad PCV valve and that could be causing you to use a little bit of oil.

 

i have 64547 miles

 

if youre burning oil (in the preliminary stages, anyway) you wont see any smoke while driving... If you stand in the same spot with the car running, it should be visible. Easiest way to check is to let your car run in the garage for a couple minutes, it'll be obvious.

 

Bad PCV valve means oil burning? My 96 civic burns about 1.5 quarts every 3k miles. BTW I got about 198,000 miles. But shouldn't a check engine light go on when a PCV goes bad?

 

There is no CEL for the PCV valve. The PCV valve is just that, a cheap little one-way plastic or brass valve, no electronics.