IndyTodd

Hello everyone. First off, I absolutely love my RL! Interesting story - it used to belong to an Indy car racer before I bought it from the dealer with 30k miles.

My car has 115K miles on it now, which I thought was low mileage for a Honda motor. Okay, so here is the thing. I randomly checked my oil the other day and it was two quarts low! I remembered the last time I had my oil changed, the guy told me it was a quart low. Never had lost any oil before that. Two quarts is an awful lot of oil to go missing, and I still had 30% left on my oil life too. What's confusing is that there is not a single drop of oil in my garage. Has anyone had a similar issue?

beekermartin

Does the 2006 have VCM? I don't know what year they added it.

I would monitor it closely to see how much is burning every 1000 miles. The rule of thumb is burning a quart of oil every 1000 miles is considered acceptable. I had a brand new 350z that burned a quart every 1000 miles and Nissan told me that was normal and they wouldn't do anything for me. I disagree with that theory completely. I've owned many high mileage cars that didn't burn any oil.

Regardless, if you are burning a little bit every 1000 miles or so I wouldn't worry about it. Just check it every 500 miles and top it off if it is low. If you are burning more than a quart every 1000 miles then I would consider that excessive and assume the issue is an oil ring on one or more of the cylinders.

IndyTodd

No VCM here. But I can get 30+ mpg if I drive her really easy, which is pretty darn impressive for SH-AWD.

The weird thing is that there is no oil coming out on the ground, so it must be burning it right? I changed the PCV vavle, but it didn't look particularly bad (there is no PCV hose on these to gunk up, which is weird).

beekermartin

Most likely it is blowing by the rings. If it isn't burning much I wouldn't worry about it. My wife's pilot burns about a quart every 3000 miles or so. It has a 155k on it and no VCM. I just keep an eye on it and top it off when needed.

BDoggPrelude

My RL burns about a quart every 1000 miles. Dealership says it's normal. It burns less oil than my Prelude did.

IndyTodd

Is there anything else I can do to help slow leaks besides changing the PCV valve? I just seems weird that it went from leaking zero oil to half the oil within a year.

When I noticed the oil was very low I put Sea Foam in there, ran it for 30 miles, and then drained it. Then I put half a quart of Lucas Stop Leak in it, along with platinum high miles synthetic oil. I made sure the oil was at the top of the crosspattern so it will be more forgiving.

rlerman

With oil life of 30% remaining that means you've gone roughly 5000 miles. I believe it runs about 7500 miles from 100%. Two quarts would be acceptable, but it still seems high. Could it be that whoever changed your oil last time didn't fill it properly? Last time I changed my oil, I had only burned about a quart, and I have 100k. Do you notice any excessive smoking from the exhaust, particularly on acceleration, I think they would indicate valve guide wear.

IndyTodd

It never smokes or anything that I've seen. Runs like a top, except I am hearing a vibrating rattle every now and then (motor mounts?). I just checked the paperwork, and at 105,000 miles I had the timing belt and water pump replaced, as well as tuning the valves, and applying new valve cover gaskets. There is no oil around the cover gaskets that I can see.

Perhaps I am just over paranoid about this since it is my first car over 100k miles. I just expect this car to last 300k miles.

beekermartin

Top off the oil to the upper mark on the dipstick and write down the mileage. Check it every time you fill up. When it is down to the lower mark figure out how many miles you have gone. Add oil until it is up to the upper mark. If I remember correctly it takes @ 1 quart to go from the lower to the higher Mark. Once you know exactly how many miles it takes to burn a full quart you will know how serious of an issue you may or may not have.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

what oil are you using?

IndyTodd

I did have regular oil. I had an aversion to synthetic oils until recently. But I always changed my oil regularly, and followed the recommended service.

This time I bought Penzoil Platinum with the high end synthetic filter. And I put half a quart of Lucas Stop Leak in it.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

I'm a fan of the lucas product, I also use rev-x.

I would get a good oil, mobile 1/amsoil (keep in mind that the synthetics may find leaks) and just monitor the oil level... but don't obsess over it.

IndyTodd

I was changing the fluids, and noticed that the transfer case was covered in dirty oil. I was thinking this maybe is from my oil leak. There is a plastic cover under the case normally, so the oil may never reach the ground. There was also a dab of oil on the motor oil drain plug, but I couldn't tighten it tighter.

I'm worried that the motor oil on the transfer case means my rear main motor seal is where the leak is? I've read on here that this is a common problem on RL's. I guess there isn't much I can do about it. I did spray engine degreaser all over the transfer case to clean it up, so I'll be able to tell if it gets new oil on it.

sj993

If there is oil around the drain plug, it could be the beginning of an oil leak at the oil pump. The o-rings on the oil pump might be going bad causing it to leak. It usually won't leak on the the ground until it becomes pretty bad, but it will be wet around the oil pan/drainplug area.

My rear main started leaking a while ago, if you see oil/tranny fluid around the access cover then it probably is. Had to pull the tranny to replace those seals.

IndyTodd

I figured out that there is supposed to be a crush washer (oil drain plug "gasket") on my drain plug, and the stupid idiots at Jiffy Lube tossed it, which is surely why I noticed oil seeping from the drain plug. I don't think it would have seeped enough to splatter all over the underside of my transfer case though.

The stuff on the transfer case was black and gritty, like super dirty motor oil. It didn't look like ATF. Granted, it could have just been sludge, since there is no shield over the transfer case. However, I think it was most likely dripping down from the top front of the transfer case. Is that where the rear main seal would drip? My tranny was pretty clean.

I'm interested to know if this matches your experience, and also what made you decide to pull the tranny and fix it. I keep hearing that you don't have to necessarily fix it, but just keep adding oil regularly. And also, how much work/money did it cost to fix? I have a uncle with his own garage, but dropping the tranny still sounds like a big deal...

rlerman

I'd clean all the oil off back there and see how it looks at the next oil change. RMS failure is NOT common on 2G RLs. A missing crush washer will let a lot of oil out, and could be your issue.

sj993

rlerman is correct, the rear main seal isn't a common issue on these cars. In my case, it was leaking very badly so I didn't have much choice but to fix it. Interestingly, the prior oil change it wasn't leaking at all, the next oil change it was everywhere. I switched to mobil1 synthetic awhile back with no issue so I was very surprised to see it leaking like that.

I'll try to find a picture and upload it for you but another possibility with your transfer case is the passenger axle seal could be leaking as it sits right above the transfer case or it could just be leftover residue. Since you cleaned it up, I would just keep an eye on it.

IndyTodd

Many thanks guys. I'm going to give it some time. Hopefully it is just the washer missing from the oil drain plug (along with a "normal" amount of leak/burn), and not the main seal or anything major. I love this car so much I can't imagine what life would be like without it lol. I can't believe my RL is only worth $10-15k at this point though, since it drives like a dream and is still ahead of its time with technology and refinement*.

*Why don't all cars have single click window up/down controls on all windows, for example? It's like Acura read my mind, and thought of everything I expected from a car.