My friend has a 99 lude vtec 5 speed, and it burns like a quart and a half every 1000 mi and Its suppose to be still under warrenty but Honda says this is "acceptable" and they wont fix it. What the hell is their problem. Is it just the shop he went to or will everyone say this? No he does not beat it up at all. He is hardly ever in VTEC.

 

5th gen.. hmm... valve seals was the problem in someone i know's 5th gen.. try checking out all the seals in the car..

 

Mine does, as well..... it is an acceptable aspect of the motor's engineering. You don't have to be in VTEC very often to burn the oil. That is the inherent design of the engine. Every Honda dealer will tell you the exact same thing, and you WILL NOT get an new engine or have the problem fixed. Don't worry..... just make sure you change oil every 3,000 (don't follow the book @ 7500), and keep the level at the top dot. Think about this... if my engine at 62,000 miles had damaged seals, valve seat problems, or poor compression, it would not run like the day I bought it, and further more, my e-check would have been alot worse than a CO emissions of 3.5 with a limit of 78! It's just the way they designed it.

P.S. -- Use 10w-30, synthetic..... it's a little thicker cold than the recomended 5w30, but burns a little less.

 

Something that I've noticed is the more miles the car has the less it seems to be burning. My car would burn a 1 1/2 between oil changes and now I'm down to about a 1/2 quart with 50k on the motor. I've seen enough posts of the H22 burning oil that nothing seems unusall anymore as long as there's no smoke or leaks.

 

yeah but adding 3 or 4 quarts between oil changes is not what should be expected. The oil has been changed every 3,000 mi since the day he drove it off the lot. It has never burned a drop until about 50,000 mi. It has not gotton worse but he took it in and they did admit there was somthing wrong with the engine and were ready to rebild it but Honda didnt give them the ok.

 

Well, if it's that bad, there is certainly a problem..... I burn about a quart to a quart and a half every oil change. And come to think of it, it hasn't burned as much lately. Right around a quart. But no doubt, if you are using 3 or 4, damn!!! That's almost the entire crankcase full! How many miles are on it now? Of course, if it's out of warranty, Honda will not do anything (unless there were noted abnormalcies during the warranty period, and the owner had the car service religiously at Honda dealers only.... they have a thing called a "good will" program.) I had the "good will" work for me..... my tilt wheel lock was bad, and they replaced it out of warranty for no cost because I took my Prelude to the dealer for all routine services.

 

The car is only at 61,000mi on it. But yeah the car was still under warranty when it started to burn but it was deemed acceptable. Not hardly I think.

 

I have 42,000 miles on my 2000 prelude. I burn about 1/4 of oil every 3000 miles.

I used regular oil until 9000 miles on the car and then started to use mobile 1 10w30.

I can see a trail of smoke when I push it hard into the VTEC realm. And then that no drop of oil in my parking lot.

The 2.2liter engine does take MORE oil than my friends Dodge Ram 5.2liter V-8 engine!! I assume most of the additional oil in the Honda engine is used for cooling. But for why it "burns" more oil then any other car I know ... I have no idea.

Did your friend switch from synthetic to regular or vice versa at any point? I heard that switching to synthetic in higher mileage cars can induce more leakage ...

 

No switching from one oil to the next. Has always used regular oil, but oh well as long as the car runs good then the oil will have to be still added.

 

If the car is under warranty....probably not unless he went with an extended warranty, he should make some reports to the dealer abotu this. If the dealer has a history of complaints he'll stand a much better chance at getting any future work for free.