2009 Acura tsx with 200k+ miles burning a quart of oil a week
 

I have had this car since 2016 and it has been nothing but solid to me but recently it has been burning a decent amount of oil. I’m not sure if it’s because I got a different job that’s an hour drive away instead of my previous job that was just a few blocks away but the oil consumption is quite noticeable now. I’m not sure if it will have any negative impact on the car itself. I’m not a mechanic but I try to do most repairs myself but I recently had a dye test done to see if there was any leaks that would cause it and unfortunately there was no leaks they could find. They told me it was an internal leak caused my worn rings. I have done research before taking it in and had changed out the pcv valve with a autozone one and it didn’t seem to fix anything. I was hopping it would be something simple that I would be able to fix but it looks like it not going to be. The shop recommended I use Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer and I have also read to go one step up on my oil viscosity and that would minimize it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Try your next four regular oil changes with Valvoline Restore & Protect oil. Make sure to change the filter each time too.

Edit: also use this same oil to top off when you start running low - but hopefully you'll notice the oil burning less over time.

would you say to use the correct viscosity or one step above what is recommended?

Use whichever viscosity you normally use.

The 2009 engine had an issue where high oil consumption was due to sticking piston rings, which was covered by a warranty extension and addressed with a service bulletin that required replacing the pistons and rings. I am burning about a quart+ between oil changes* and missed the extension back when all of this came to light. I have a new neighbor who has a 2009 with over 200K and his is not burning any oil so like most things it comes down to the [un]luck of the draw.

*I am not putting as many miles on the car so if I drove it more frequently it could be even more.

So your
 

so your saying there was like an extended warranty that would cover replacing them? I’m sure that was for only original buyers though right? Even so I’m sure I’m way past that point now I wish I would have know there was a problem with sticking rings I just started noticing the oil consumption just recently and I’m a bit over 200k I think closer to 215k but probably started around the 200k mark but I just started noticing it once I started this new job an hour away vs the 5 min drive I use to take.

Ok thank you!

Yes, at the time there was an extension that covered this and no, it was not just for original buyers and applied to the vehicle regardless. Yes, we are both past it now unfortunately but this may help to narrow down what may be causing this since this engine is known to have this issue.

I have a 2011 TSX Wagon and received a letter from Acura extending the warranty and suggesting the problem was with unburned fuel getting past the rings and forming deposits. They suggested using top tier fuel and allowing the car to fully warm up before hard acceleration. I had 60k miles on the odometer and was using about 1qt of oil every 4-5k miles. So, I switched to top tier fuel and also started changing oil more frequently than the maintenance minder suggested @ every 5k miles. You needed to burn more than a qt every 1k miles to get it fixed under the warranty, which lapsed years ago. Oil burning reached about 1qt every 3k miles about a year and a half ago when I tried Restore and Protect 0w-20. There was no appreciable improvement until I recently switched to 5w-30 and consumption immediately improved to about 1qt every 4k miles. Not great for cold starts, but I had to replace my catalytic converter a few weeks ago and chalk that up to the oil burning. A cat should last indefinitely with a healthy engine, but oil consumption or rich fuel mixture can take its toll. Live scan shows good fuel trims, but upstream o2 sensor was trending with the downstream sensor, with no appreciable change in temperature across the converter. I just switched to Mobil 1 ESP (Emission System Protection) oil after replacing the cat because it is low in sulphur, ash and phosphorus all of which can poison a catalytic converter. Changing the PCV valve was a good idea, but all of your short trips probably contributed to ring deposits and wear as well. Those early low tension rings were faulty and the 2011 TSX had a high compression ratio of 11:1. Best of luck.