I drive a 98 Accord Ex 4cyl stick and I have been increasingly losing oil. There is no oil spot under where I park at my house. So I figure it is a leak that only happens when I'm driving, or I am burning a shit ton of oil. Today, I added 1 quart. The last time I added oil was about 800 miles ago! 1 quart in order 1000 miles?!? I am only at 138k and I drive aggressive but no racing or anything. I am taking it in two weeks for an overdue timing belt and am now going to have them look at this problem. What do you think they will find? Leaky valves?

 

1 quart in 1000 miles is a very small leak. put ur hand under the distributor and see if there's any fresh oil. usually thats the hidden spot. other then that, most common one is valve cover.

and timing belt at 138K?
did u have it done at 90k?

 

My valve cover gasket is leaking slightly. I never see 'fresh' oil around the seal, only ----- ok, I just went up to take a picture of the leak, so I can post it. And it looks worse than I thought. I didn't get the timing belt done at 105k like I was supposed to, so now that I have my tax refund, I am getting done. Still, though, 1 quart every 1k? Normal, for even a slight valve cover leak? Also, I know I can replace the gasket myself, but do you think I should just have the shop do it when they do the timing belt? Thanks. Here's a pic of the leak:

 

I couldn't tell you for sure, but when I bought my my 99 Accord the owner told me as a disclaimer that it burned through about 1 quart every 1500 miles or so. I bought it nonetheless because I couldn't find any leaks and there wasn't an excess of soot on the exhaust pipe. I actually got him down $1000 more because of this mystery oil problem. Well, I've driven the car for two years, put 30K miles on it and I'm only down about a half quart by the time I change the oil (which is usually between 4-5K miles). I have no idea why he was having the problem because I never have and I haven't done a thing to it since I've bought it. My theory is that aggressive driving might contribute to it. Doesn't having the VTEC engaged constantly consume a minute amount of oil? If you were gunning it all the time it makes sense it would consume some oil. Just a theory. Try to drive more conservatively and see if the problem persists.

 

I have the same issue as xpragmaticx. My 00 Accord EX (4 cylinder, 141K miles) burns about 1 quart every 1000 miles. The Honda dealer told me that this is normal on high mileage Accords.

I just top it off every 2nd or 3rd oil change.

Question: if it burns 1 quart every 1000 miles, then it'll burn 3 quarts when it's due for an oil change at 3K miles. My Accord only takes around 5 quarts of oil anyway, so I'll only have 2 quarts left at my oil change. Is that normal?

 

buy a new valve gasket set and this:
http://www.neverseezproducts.com/gaskseal3.jpg

 

CLEAN THAT MOTOR! once the motor is clean you can definitely find where the leak is. burning oil at 100k isn't exactly normal nowadays. i'm at 115k & it purrs like new; i got a t-belt & valve job done last year so i got all new seals, too

 

I'm not seeing the kind of oil consumtion mentioned here. I'd say I routinely go through a half quart every oil change, which is normally 4-5k miles. I keep the RPM's pretty low though.

 

That's nothing. lol.

I go through at least 3 quarts of oil between changes. I've gotten as little as a single quart of oil back :yikes:

 

I am going to replace the valve seals and write up a whole tutorial on it with pictures and all. I found a few tutorials on civics, but none on an Accords. I would like suggestions from people who have done this before. Should I just go ahead and take the head off and replace the head gasket, or just replace the valve seals with the head on? I plan on doing this next weekend, and the tutorial will be up shortly after that. BTW, I replaced the valve cover gasket last month (w/o using gasket sealer) and have had no leaks since. (I still am burning oil though ) Any suggestions are appreciated.