Hello there,

I see that a lot of Prelude owners have engine oil burning issue but I am wondering if anybody experienced that same as mine. It's a 2001 model, and I got it new. So far, I put 110,000KM in it but had followed all scheduled maintenance all the time. Anyway, the engine has been burning 1litre of engine oil for every 500km or so of normal driving. I usually kept the rpm lower than 4000 so the VTEC is not on all the time either. I am using 5w30 Penzoil but switched to Mobil1 synthetic without any difference. The engine is not leaking oil, so it has to be burning. It seems to me that the engine is burning oil even when idling, like warming up in the morning. Is there a fix to it besides switching to a heavier oil or just kept topping it up? Will it cost any damages to other components? I used Octane 94 gas and it is running smoothly but if I used Octane 91 gas, there was no power or very low power. Is there any fix to this problem? Thanks!

S

 

What color is your exhaust smoke?


If you put the car up on a jack and inspect the engine bay thoroughly, do you see oil anywhere?

 

The color of the smoke has a tint of blue in it, and it does smell like a bit of burning oil. My mechanic did put the car up and inspected it thoroughly and found absolutely no leak at all. Also, the engine gave out a very distinctive sound that was like a chain of some sort was grinding at low RPM in neutral gear. For example...shift to neutral and let the car glide to a slow stop at redlights. It never did that before either. Will adjusting the valves affect any of these? I remember the car was fine except the engine was not too smooth before I did the 96,000KM service. We changed the spark plugs even though we shouldn't because they were platinum ones. I also asked him to adjust the valves for me. Other than that, I really can't think of any changes in driving habit or whatever that caused this grinding sound and also burning engine oil problem. I didn't change the timing belt at 96,000KM because Honda said it should be done at 168,000km for 97 and up Prelude. I used to own a 96 Prelude SR and it never had any problem like this.



QUOTE]Originally posted by qtiger
What color is your exhaust smoke?


If you put the car up on a jack and inspect the engine bay thoroughly, do you see oil anywhere? [/QUOTE]

 

That chain sound may be clutch chatter from the sound of it. Probably unrelated to the oil issue.



That's a whole lot of oil you're losing. I'm surprised there's only a slight smell of oil.

I would try a 10w30 oil and see what happens. Next few times you top it off, add a bottle of 10w30 and then when you change the oil next use 10w30.


The oil issue shouldn't cause any problems for you in terms of damaging other components, etc... it's the octane thing that has me a bit concerned.

 

Thanks for the response. But I am curious of what the clutch has to do with the noise since I am in Neutral gear. But since you mentioned, I also noticed that if I am in 2nr or 3rd gear, foot off gas pedal and let the car glide, it also made the similar noise too sometimes. I haven't serviced the clutch either at this point.

Yeah, I am very surpised at the amount of oil I am burning too but I only saw the blue tint of smoke when the engine was cold, like warming up in the cold morning. Otherwise, I hardly noticed it. But the power is definitely a big concern to me. I tried Esso Supreme Octane 91 (bad performance), PetroCanada Octane 91 (ok performance) and Octane 94 (which makes me feel like what the car was like when I bought it). I haven't tried Chevron yet. I also used Pennzoil injection cleaner once and it seemed to help a bit afterward but it was only a minor differnece. I used Mobil 1 synthetic 5W30 oil once and it seemed to slow down the burning a bit (probably 800-1000km or so to burn a litre). My mechanic also put a litre of the really thick oil from STP in it once too but it didn't help much.

Maybe I'll try your suggestion and switch to 10W30 on my next oil change. I have been using Pennzoil everytime on this car, should I switch it to another brand? In my old Prelude (4th Gen SR), I always used the Castrol Syntec 5W50.

 

i would say your valves got adjusted wrong, and thats where that chatter is coming from.