I think I saw something on oil consumption before but I can't find it. Anyway, is anyone having to add oil? My level seems to be dropping quicker than any car I've ever had. In fact, I've never had to add oil to any of my other cars.

 

This is a little scary.

 

I have not lost a signifigant measureable amount in 4000 miles

 

At time of my first oil change 8000km (5000miles) I was down about 1/2 L (1/2 qt)

Be sure to check the oil after the engine has been sitting for some time or you may overfill..I normally check the level in the morning with the engine cold.

 

Checking with the engine cold, makes the difference. I had checked my oil after a day of hard driving and saw I was a litre down. It bothered me so the next morning I checked it again and saw I was just off by a 1/4 litre and 6500 km into my first oil change at 8000.

The 16,000 oil change does sound strange, why would you wait that long to do an oil change?

 

Does it matter what kind of oil I add as long as it's 5W-30 non-synthectic? The owners manual says I should use "Honda oil"


My coolant is also low. Guess I need to pick up some "honda premium coolant" now too.

 

I just use any premium 5W30 (I have several L of Castrol XLR 5W30 left from another vehicle that I use)
I am surprised your coolant is low? I suppose you are speaking of the overflow tank being low..that is not too critical so long as the rad itself is full. Remove the rad cap (when the engine is cold) and verify the rad is full.

 

oil consumption is very normal during break in for the kseries motoers in the rsx, and it is also common in the f20c in the s2k. It's not a serious problem, just make sure you check your oil level every couple of weeks.

 

yep, mines dropping faster than any I've ever had.
i'd smelled a slight burnt odor and had thought that it was undercoating on the exhaust or something.
After about 700 miles and my second fillup (I avg 28mpg)
My instinct said to look for leaks and I located one.
Oil pan is wet, checked the filter and it's dry. Dried the pan off before driving it to work the other day and last night it was wet with oil again.
I'm driving my Jeep today, but I gotta get this NEW car to the dealer which sucks !

 

I think there are a few other threads on the subject

 

toddstuh mentioned smelling a slight burnt odor and thought that it was undercoating on the exhaust or something. I can sometimes smell something similar, but didn't yet attribute it to leaking oil, which it might be. Any others out there notice anything like this?

 

None of my Honda products use any oil between changes, including the lawn equipment.

The last car I had that was an oil burner was a 1978 Plymouth Horizon. That car was probably the worst car ever manufactured in a non-Communist country. It was also my last 'merican car.

As mentioned above there have been numerous threads on this subject, try the search feature. Also, it may take some time for the rings to "bed" in, I was cautioned not to immediately switch to synthetic for my Volvo in order to allow the rings to wear just a little bit, I waited until 5,000 miles to make the switch and it now uses no oil at 135,000 miles.

 

After driving the car back from the dealer when I first picked it up I did detect a slight burn odor. The next time I drove it I smelled the same thing but its since disappeared. I think it was just the odor of brand new parts that had not been exposed to normal operating temperatures. However if you've put a good number of miles on your car and you still smell something fishy then you, or your dealer, should really check it out.

 

I'm typically down almost a quart after 3k. I have 86,000 miles on my tsx. I am always low on oil. I used to drive it really hard using mobil 1.

At around 30,000 miles I first noticed it after a night of WOT (wide open throttle). I probably had my car pegged at around 120 for close to 40 minutes racing a GTI. The next day when I checked my oil, it was barely even registering on my dip stick. This on an oil change with less than 500 miles on it. It took 2.5 quarts to get me back to the first dot on the dip stick (the minimum level). I proceeded to run mobil 1 for another 2 oil changes, each time adding roughly 1 quart every 1,000 miles. I finally switched to Castrol GTX and I now get about 3,000 miles before I'm down a quart. I check the oil regularly.

I noticed the very inside of my muffler tips are black. Is anyone else's black? I wonder if I need a valve adjustment, and oil is slipping through the exhaust valves. This would make sense, as Mobil 1 is a smaller oil molecule than Castrol, it would have a better chance of slipping by a loose valve. Otherwise, it's something like a piston ring issue, but I'm really hoping it's valves. How hard are piston rings to replace? Has anyone done a valve adjustment?

 

Did you really have to respond to multiple very old threads? Just post a new thread since these are so old.

 

^^

for searching and posting in existing threads on topic. (Just not in all of them)

 

Your tips might be black because you've been WOTing a lot. When you WOT, extra fuel is injected into the combustion chamber and not all of it burns cleanly and it ends up at the exhaust tips.

 

Well, I haven't WOT'd it in a very long time. After I noticed my oil consumption issues, I stopped beating on my car. I usually shift below 3k now. I can average around 36mpg on my daily 160mile commute (using a little acetone, 2oz per 10gal of gas). I did clean my exhaust tips out fairly thoroughly around 80k miles, and now at 86k they are black again. It just makes me wonder if I'm burning oil.

 

acetone? isnt that bad for gaskets?

 

Well, the TSX has metal gaskets for one. Two, acetone can be bad in excess. If you use too much acetone you can damage your fuel injectors, or other plastic components in the engine that manage fuel and fuel delivery. However, if used in the right amount, it assists in the atomization of gasoline, which "improves" efficiency in the combustion chamber. I say "improves" because I do tend to get 15-20% better gas mileage when using acetone. I make sure to use only 3.5 oz's per 17 gallons, which I carefully measure. I've reliably used acetone in a fleet of vehicles over the past 10 years. My TSX is the only one of my vehicles that requires a quart of oil every 1000 miles. Even my 1990 Ford Bronco doesn't take that much. I also run an 1oz of acetone in my bikes. On my 1975 CB750SS I get around 60mpg with 1oz of acetone per 5gal of gas. If I don't use acetone, I get between 35-40mpg. I attribute this to the efficiency of my carburetors; the less efficient the engine is to start, the more of an improvement you'll see.

Mileage from vehicles using acetone 2oz per 10 gallons. Gas octane varies per vehicle based on minimum octane requirements
4 wheels
1990 Ford Bronco (18mpg which is fantastic for a bronco rated at 12mpg)
1991 Nissan Pathfinder (24mpg)
1995 Acura Legend Coupe (27mpg)
1991 Honda Civic CRX with a Jap spec B16 (34mpg)
1993 Honda Civic DX (39mpg)
1998 Honda Civic HX (56mpg)
2004 Acura TSX (39mpg best, avg 35mpg summer, 32mpg winter)

2 wheels
1975 cb550 (~65mpg no fairing stock gearing)
1975 cb750ss (~60mpg fairing and taller forward gear)
1976 cb750 (~55mpg no fairing stock gearing)
1985 VF500F Interceptor (~75mpg fairing stock gearing)
1998 Honda Rebel (gets over 120mpg with .5oz of acetone, stock gearing no fairing)

As I'm a bit of a gas mileage fanatic, my numbers are more or less accurate. I take the miles driven and divide it by gallons put into the tank. On a motorcycle, the fill line is always changing, hence my approximation marks. That combined with less than accurate tripometers is probably giving me around 5% margin of error. Also note I am driving fairly conservative to achieve these numbers. I coast down hills, and coast as much as I can in city traffic. The 6mt in my TSX works flawlessly. On a bike, it's a bit harder to coast, but sometimes I do pull the clutch in to coast down hills, or, on the rare occasion, ride the slipstream behind a 18 wheeler.

 

jlukja,

If you do not want us to post in the old threads, close them after several months. My suggestion is to make this a new thread after your January 2004 post IMHO.

This thread has good information in it; it’s just in a place where folks wouldn’t expect to see it.