So my LS has been burning oil, 1qt/1000 miles, (car/motor have 71k miles)...so i take it to Keyes Acura in Van Nuys, CA today to have them check it out under my extended warranty. mind you, the service there is great, and the guys are pretty cool, i put my stock intake back on, and took off any "unstock" items under the hood so it makes it more obvious how "stock" my car is...

after waiting 4 hours in the service room with my gf....here's what i find out...

"We had our Head Mechanic look at your car all morning...he knows these cars in and out. He's been here 14 years and has seen it all."

- Compression test: cyl 1 - 170 cyl 2 - 175 cyl 3 - 172 cyl 4 - 170
(optimum for LS is 170, so they tell me)

- Piston tops are clean ... "We used our cylinder camera, like the ones they use in hospitals, to check out your piston tops, and saw nothing out of the norm"

- No leaks of any kind were found



Does anyone know why else i can be burning oil? I'm thinking my main bearings are going out...

On my way out, the service guy (pretty cool guy, not typical service punk) tells me that they need to "tear down" the engine, which means no car for me for a week and a half. Dont know if that will be covered under warranty, so i told him "i'll be back after finals"

What do u guys think? thanks for any replies

 

take it out, drop in a B20 and sell your b18b to someone

 

I think it's covered under your warranty as your car is still burning oil and you have a warranty to cover such issues.

Are you driving your car particularly hard or anything? If so, that could cause some oil burning -- but it doesn't sound like you're an idiot so you've probably thought about that and ruled it out of the equasion.

 

what grade oil are you using?
maybe try something different, but a quart every 1000 is a lot
compression numbers are good as well
hmmmmm gotta think about this one

 

I got the car with 27902 miles on it. From until about 5k miles ago i was using Mobil Synthetic 5w30 making changes 3k-5k, using different oil filters ranging from OEM Honda, K&N 1004, or OEM 02 civic/RSX.

I made the switch to Castrol Synthetic about 3k ago cuz the local Kragen ran out of Mobil. I decided to check my oil to see how the Castrol was holding up after about 1500 miles, and thats when i discovered the burning...there was barely any oil on the dipstick. then after that, i switched to a non synthetic 10w30 castrol drive hard formula thinking it could have been just the synthetic stuff or the lower weight.

Well after running 1000 miles on the 10w30 non syn, i'm on the bottom dot on the dipstick, which was 2 days ago. I guess whenever i was in between my oil changes, i never really checked the oil levels since whenever i drained the plug, there was always a "significant" amount of oil coming out. Stupid me...

Anyway, i do drive my car aggressively, but nothing as to be "hard" (i dont take it to redline daily, maybe like once every few days...i shift at 3000-3500 otherwise) on the motor...

 

have you tried going back to mobil synthetic?
its seems to me going from synthetic to non and switching brands might have some kind of affect on your engine (for some reason i dunno)

 

if you cant figure it out there is a shop taht i take my car to in the general area where you live. It is called Steves independent honda/acura. Take it there and i think most likely they could figure out what is wrong, and they are reasonable price wise. They are on lindley just south of parthenia in northridge, if you want more details, let me know.

 

that's about how much oil I lose but I've got 217k miles on my engine.

 

Paolo,

I'm also have been burning oil for the past few days. It seems I may have a bad valve seal and you may also.

 

I dont think that only valve seals leaking could burn that much oil in only 1,000 miles. Because leaking valve seals let oil drip down the valve when you turn off the car and in the morning when you start your car it will have oil in the cylinder and blow blue smoke for a little. Valve seals alone will not burn that much unless there is nothing left of them. I burn about 1 qt./1000 mi or more and i think i need new rings and valve seals b/c i blow smoke when i get on it. Hopefully crosshatching isnt a problem too.