mdk44

My Acura dealer has informed me in writing that it is normal for TSX to usse oil at a rate of 1000 miles per qt. I am sorry but this makes little sense as the car is supposed to be able to go upto 5K or even 10K miles between oil changes. Simple math states the engine will seize. I have googled this and it seems the community is willing to accept this statement and perhaps my inquest with Acura will bear no fruit. My only tangible consolation was with the sales department where I showed what their service department had put in writing and that this cost them a sale as I was in the market for a new car and decided on the Lexus vs Mdx. I think it a sad state of affairs where a car manufacturer can get away with a statement like this with no recourse by the consumer. Now when I go to the service station for Gas I suppose I need to top of the oil on a monthly basis.

I liked my Acura up until this point. Now I sort of wish I did not have it.

PACman

I can only speak from personal experience. Having 85,000miles on my TSX, I've never had to add a quart every 1000miles. Last time I added a quart was after 5000miles from my last oil change. Same with my last ride - a 4-runner with 235,000miles.
What dealership is this?

Simba91102

This seems a general rule of thumb that manufactures use to cover themselves in the event that a customer's car uses oil. I agree that if you're using that much oil, something probably isn't right, but it is an accepted level of oil usage. If you were to poll forum users here for instance, you'd most likely find very few with cars that use that much oil. But there is a small percentage of cars that roll off the assembly line with loose engines that use some oil (although this seems to make little no long term difference in engine longevity) and if you're one of the unlucky ones, then oh well. You made the right choice by going elsewhere since you where unhappy with Acura's stated policy, but I wouldn't be surprised if you asked your Lexus dealer what they'd do if you told them your car was using a quart of oil every 1K miles, if you got a similar response.

moda_way

Go talk to Nissan and ask them what their oil consumption rate is on a Maxima. Its absurd to me that there should be any level of consumption given the suggested intervals of oil changes, but the fact is, my TSX, with all the mods I've done, does consume 2 quarts in 5k miles, roughly 1 qt per 3000 of Mobil1. I've been told oil consumption is higher with synthetics, but I refuse to run Dino in my car, so in the end, I accept the fact that by 5k miles, I will have had to add a qt of Mobil1; usually the qt left over from changing my wife's 01 Civic's oil.

nj2pa2nc

My 06 6MT with almost 39,000 does not consume any oil-I check it on a regular basis. I think that dealer is giving you alot of B.S.

curls

You might find my saga interesting: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...lt+engine+back

Be sure to read the background threads if you have time.

Also, what year is your car, and if it's a 2004, what are the last 5 digits of the VIN#?

moda_way

I hate your posts b/c it makes me want to check a billion things on my car. lol

I'm burning oil, but my break-in was not all highway, nor have I been poor about changing my oil. However, I know your burn rate is much higher than mine.

I'm at 80k miles now and I want to have my timing chain tensioner checked.

LukeaTron

Simba and moda hit this on the head. They state that high number as "acceptable" to cover their asses from replacing a ton of motors. In practice, if you were burning oil that rate, I'm sure they'd look into it (if it's a decent dealer, there are a few perennial bad apples it seems).

The reality of the matter is that all cars burn some amount of oil. It is inescapable due to the nature any lateral bearing surface that requires lubrication (piston rings, valve seals). The distribution of consumption rates across the entire population of a particular design is going to be a normal distribution (bell curve) centered on a low number with a healthy skew away from zero. Most cars will burn very little but a small number will burn at a higher rate. A very, very small number will burn "too much" and these are the ones which Acura would likely replace no questions asked.

Luckily for me, my '04 with >50k miles doesn't burn enough to even be detectable. This is probably the case for 68% (1st standard deviation) of owners.

mdk44, if you ever come back, I'm curious what rate you're burning oil at.

curls

Sorry, sir, for trying to help.

nbtx

The quart per 1000 miles burn rate is the warrantee repair benchmark. If yours is under warrantee and burns more than a quart in 1000 miles Acura will (probably) repair it. The dealer was not clear in his explanation or you misunderstood what he said. A burn rate of a quart in 5 to 6k miles would be normal for a fresh engine.

PACman

I've got a fresh engine!

human668

If I remember it right. My 04 TSX user manual recommend an oil change at every 10K miles and provide no information on adding oil.
It doesn't make sense that Acura dealer says "it is normal for TSX to use oil at a rate of 1000 miles per qt."
If that the case we need to add a qt every 1000miles, I don't think our car need oil change.

nbtx

Does that mean you would drive it until it ran out of oil ?? Of course not. The manual tells you to check the oil regularly and keep the level between the add and full marks.
A little common sense goes a long way ...

human668

Hey, I don't have any oil consumption problem on my tsx.

What I mean is that IT IS NOT GOOD when dealer says "it is normal for TSX to use oil at a rate of 1000 miles per qt."

carbonatd

My TSX consumes about half a quart every 600 miles. I check it religiously. 04 TSX 6spd 98,000 miles. It has always done this to my knowledge. I run Castrol GTX 5w30 and Honda oil filters. I am wondering if it's piston rings? My exhaust does have a bit of carbonization around the tips. Anyone else notice this?

5o9

But, is your car fast?

Simba91102

Wow! a quart every 1200 miles? Since new? My 05 has 70K miles on it and has never used a drop of oil between changes (Mobil 1 since the first change and changed every 5K miles)(it's actually getting the 70K service tomorrow and I changed the oil and filter myself 5K miles ago). As I stated in a post earlier, there are cars that use oil and you just got one (and it's still going strong at 98K miles).

nct1596

Yeah, I too, with a 2004 6MT TSX have to add up to a quart of oil between 5k mile oil changes. I brought it up at the dealership, and they told me that the TSX is common to burn 1 qt/3000 miles...so don't know where they got that information.

I've gotten used to checking my oil on a weekly basis and top it up as needed.

And, yeah, I've got quite a bit of carbonization on the tips. I notice that other TSX's that I see also have carbonization so guess it's generally normal?

psteng19

I've had to add oil during break-in but nothing since then. At 25k now.

Lone Starr

I'm burning 1/2 qt per 1k miles on my '06 with 20k miles (mobil 1 since first change). I was told today about the 1 qt / 1k miles limit. I'm having them do an oil consumption test anyway.

nct1596

Does anyone know what it is that is causing the oil consumption?

And are there other 04 TSX owners that use 5w-20 instead of 5w-30? My dealer puts -20 in mine - and when I brought it up that the manual says to use the -30...the response I got from the guy was that they are both the same...but that the -20 gives better gas mileage. Anyone else with the same experience?

curls

The dealer guy is wrong - 5w-20 and 5w-30 are not the same. There is a reason that the engineers call for one over the other... and I'm sure the retard at the dealership doesn't have more engineering degrees and experience than the person who engineers that for Honda.

As for what is causing the consumption, in my case the dealer tech speculated that one or more of the cylinders was slightly out of spec, so even new rings (which they originally tried) didn't help. They fully rebuilt the engine (valve seals, rings, bearings, all gaskets) and it still burned oil the same as before, which meant the block itself was the likely culprit. They then swapped the entire bottom end (block + all internals) and reused my now-rebuilt head, and everything has been perfectly fine since then.

Lone Starr

Am I the only one burning 1/2 qt / 1000 miles in an '06?

crisco

I'm also burning that amount. I just haven't had the time to wrestle with the dealership and set up a consumption test....

SoCaliTrojan

I think the 04/05's used to have a recommendation of 5w-20, and then it was switched to 5w-30 in 06. (When I bought oil for my first oil change, I bought 5w-20 because that is what I was seeing in the threads....but then when I looked under the hood, the oil cap stated 5w-30).

The problem with stating different viscosities for different engines means that the dealerships have to keep a stock of 5w-20 for one engine, and 5w-30 for another engine. By changing the specs so that one engine uses the oil of another engine, the dealerships can save space by only having to stock 5w-30.

At high temperatures, the 5w-20 flows more than the 5w-30. This means that the engine doesn't have to strain as much, so perhaps it might help with gas mileage. But I think I heard somewhere that the 5w-30 is better in terms of the environment (perhaps seals better so that exhaust gasses really have no choice but to go through the catalytic converter instead of escaping through a seal?).

For my 06, I go with what the cap says, which is 5w-30. But I suspect the engineers really intended the engine to use 5w-20 for the TSX's rpm-loving engine.

nj2pa2nc

I take my car for service either at stevenson acura in wilmington nc or lehigh valley acura in emmaus, pa. stevenson uses 5w-20 and lehigh valley uses 5w-30. car seems to run the same and gets the same gas mileage.