dopeboy1

Not according to Acura hahaha 😭

dzionny_dzionassi

Thats why "maintenance reminder" was big fail on Acuras part. Oil being cooked inside pistons and clogging oil return ring openings
Oh and added bonus---> low tension compression rings LOL

Saltyj

Ugh you all make me so conflicted, lol. It just drives so good, I wish it didn't, hahah. I'm checking it out again Monday.

dzionny_dzionassi

I would buy low mileage 3.7 TL. But if it is let say... over 70k I would say no go.

Saltyj

It's at 57. Are you saying at 70 it's just going to crap out? Is that generally what seems to happen?

dzionny_dzionassi

not necessary, but it is at higher risk. Consumption happenes due to prolonged oci intervals, driving style and oil quality.
My suggestion is to use BG EPR (109) as a preventive maintenance every oil change (20 min at idle and 40min at 1200-1400rpms)

dregsfan

While I believe what Thermoguy says, can anyone else verify that the consumption rate for getting the repair is a quart per 3000 miles as he states?

I brought mine in last week to start the consumption test. Everything I've read, both here and as stated in the class action settlement that all 3.7 owners received, is that the oil consumption had to be 1 quart or more per 1000 miles. But the service rep was saying that it's 1 quart or more in 3000 miles. I told him I hoped that was correct, but that it contradicted the what the settlement notice says. I have to bring it back after between 1000 miles to 3000 miles. Since my previous oil change (about 4500 miles) I added 3 quarts, and it was down another half quart when I brought it in for the test. So it's not far off from 1000 per quart, but certainly within the 1 quart per 3000 miles. So which is it?

dopeboy1

I would not believe the 3000 miles. It's always been 1 quart for 1000 miles. Make sure it burns 1 quart for 1000 miles and don't even get involved in thinking it's 3000. In Canada when I was doing it it's the same equivalent 1 litre for 1500 km. Look at this work sheet. Note on the left it says 1 litre, 2 litre, 3 litre. They need to top you up 3 litres (or quarts which are the same) so they want you to potentially drive 9000 miles on the same oil?? And still fail you?? That makes no sense.

Bonz

Upfront, I am sharing this as something that worked “back in the day” and I felt there was nothing to lose with respect to giving it a try. YMMV.

I bought my 2010 used, with it consuming a quart every 1,000-1,500 miles. Acura wouldn’t do an oil consumption test, because of a small weep in the oil pump seal that many folks deal with. So, not having the desire to pay for that repair and still not be guaranteed my car would qualify for the oil consumption repairs, here’s what I did... Keep in mind I had tried running different oils, 5w30, 10w30, 0w40, shortening the OCI dramatically, etc. Things many folks probably do whether the would admit to it or not.

Late last summer and early fall I went to a straight 30 weight oil for about 3,000 miles before overnight temps started to go lower than I felt comfortable with a straight 30w. A straight weight oil has no VI improvers, and my feeling is that is what mucks up the rings on the J37 with longer OCI’s that are indicated if you went with the oil minder as a guide. With that, the detergents can do their job better, IMO with no additional VI improvers in the oil. I am sure the previous owner probably did the longer OCI indicated by the oil minder, as indicated by the varnish under the valve cover when I did a valve check/adjustment.

When I drained the 30w oil and changed the filter, I went with 5w20 for the first time in a long time as it really amped up the oil consumption previously relative to 5w30 and the other oils. The oil weep came back from the seal that wasn’t there running the “heavier” oils. Figured if it was gonna use oil, 5w20 would do the trick, lol.

I want to report that in 2,200 miles, I have used .7 of a quart of the 5w20, despite the oil seal having a consistent weep that leaves a quarter size spot on the driveway over night, every night.

When temps warm up again here in Colorado for the spring, I am going to do another 3,000 mile OCI with straight 30 wt oil and see if I can improve upon the improvement that resulted from the first run of straight 30wt.

Let the flaming begin, lol, but it worked for me and I had no reason not to give it a try.

Elizhusband

I am not sure as a new member if this will be posted but I am an owner of a 2012 SH AWD TL & I too have experienced the excessive oil consumption & am now battling Acura due to the fact the replacement of the pistons & rings did not result in a fix to the excessive oil consumption. My engine was "repaired at 117k miles which they said was part of an extended warranty program, however I soon experienced excessive oil consumption again. The "new" engine has less than 25k miles on it However this all took place during Covid so according to Acura the warranty on the piston/ring replacement has expired. This resulted in a 2nd oil consumption test & finally a case # being started and a discussion with Honda(Acura). hey graciously offered to cover 10% of a 2nd piston/ring job!! So I get ot pay $500 plus tax??? Are they crazy??
My last conversation has not resulted in any movement. I was told at some point the customer needs to take responsibility for the repairs. I asked "what if the work done by Acura did not resolve the problem"?
crickets!!!
I will be interested to hear if anyone has had success in moving Acura to admit fault to this engine design. My mechanic is adamant that they designed a faulty engine!!
All that aside I love the car, this is my 2nd TL (Had black 2005 6 speed) that I put 225k miles on, wish I still had it!!

mossman77

It is a faulty design and they discontinued that engine for a reason. I wouldn't stress anymore over it and just keep a quart of oil in the car at all times to top off. Look at it this way, you're continually putting fresh oil in your engine, which is good for it.

Army

Well, I’m at 87k miles on my 2009 SHAwd and it’s burning oil. I bought it brand new at the dealership in Colorado Springs, handed it down to my son and just can’t believe it. He’s such a good kid too and he said “Dad, where is the oil going” I said “Son, sometimes you just got to roll with the punches” I called Acura but of course it has been too long etc. It is hard to believe that it has been 12 years but I took such great care of that car. Plus it has all my music in it! I will tell everyone about this and cost Honda and Acura a lot more, believe me. I was a Honda fan, not anymore. Unacceptable.

Mista

So I took my 2013 SH-AWD to Acura this morning for the consumption follow up after doing the 1,000 miles. They tell me it's 1.5 quarts low, they top it off and tell me that that I need to drive it for another 1,000 and come back. Is that normal I thought it was 1 time not multiple?

dopeboy1

I'm surprised that they don't explain it to you but yes it's normal. You will repeat this process 3 times. You can check the oil yourself and return when it's 1 quart low as running it much lower than that cannot be good for the engine.

So you will return 3 times either after 1000 miles each time or after it's down 1 quart each time.

Basically they are going to average it out by dividing the total miles driven by total quarts burnt and only help you if it on average burns 1 quart or more for every 1000 miles driven.

dopeboy1

Although this document is in litre and km it may help clearify what they are doing.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

if you think about it, it's not very science experiment-y....
like, you have to have repeated results to come to a conclusion.

acuratech481

You got screwed IMO. The approved repair if the initial piston and ring replacement fails to fix the issue would be to replace the short block assembly (been down this road). The technician should've opened a case and contacted techline which then they would've been asked to measure the pistons and bores and report back. The DPSM should've been involved as well. Then they should've offered to cover X amount of the total cost of parts and labor. Seems your dealership doesn't value it's customers and just want you out of their hair. Contact Acura Customer Care lol

Although I would like to add that my personal MDX was over the time (original purchase date) per the warranty extension by only a few days and even as an employee they told me to kick rocks (go figure, luckily employee discount on parts is pretty good. But the labor was free (my time). There's no if's, and's, or but's if the coverage offered by the settlement. Very strict. But considering your repair was done under warranty and it didn't fix the problem, and the 2nd oil consumption test proved it was still consuming oil at an abnormal rate I'd be fighting to have it straightened out!

ccowling

I'm thinking of buying a 2014 TL SH-AWD. The engine has been rebuilt as of about a year ago. My question is: is this a design fault so the problem will occur again with the rebuilt engine or does the rebuild solve the issue?

altair47

Change oil when 30-40% Oil life and you won't have any problems. What do you mean rebuilt the engine? Changed pistons and rings?

ccowling

I haven't seen the invoice yet, pistons for sure (so I think rings are a given), and apparently they charged for the timing belt but it was far cheaper for labour to get it done at the time, so he did it.

ccowling

I haven't seen the invoice yet, pistons for sure (so I think rings are a given), and apparently they charged for the timing belt but it was far cheaper for labour to get it done at the time, so he did it.

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altair47

So this is not rebuilt, it is a simple replacement of pistons and rings. According to the factory specifications the J37 engine is not rebuildable.

ccowling

I did get confirmation that it was pistons and rings, a page of other minor bits, some gasket parts but as they were all no charge I can't be sure if they were head gasket serious or minor ones. The previous owner hadn't noted much oil consumption before but was obviously happy for a fairly major redo (since rebuilding is not done, thanks for the info
I did buy the car yesterday. I'll be keeping an eye on the oil for the first 10K very closely but overall the car is nice.
Thanks altair47 for your input.

Robert Zanzerkia

I need advice on the excessive oil consumption issue.
I bought 2013 TL SH-AWD from my daughter at 95K miles.
Unfortunately we were driving only few miles a week so didn't notice oil consumption.
(It's out of 8 years coverage for the Honda repair on this issue).

I gave the car to my other daughter who lives in NY.
Last week she was here in NH and complained about engine noise.
Checked oil level (nothing on the dipstick).
I had changed the oil in August 2021 with Mobil 1 (15K miles oil) and Mobil 1 filter.
We filled it up and sent her to NY.
2 days later we check the oil level and it's empty.

There is no visible leak but I will have the mechanic check it out and do oil change tomorrow.
What corrective action we can take to reduce the oil consumption?
1) I have read about revving the engine to clean the carbon build up?
2) Add any special oil to reduce consumption?
3) Anything else?

Thanks
Robert

mrphilipanderson

1. Use stp pro intake valve cleaner.available at autozone
2. Use sea foam in crank case per instructions.
3. change oil afyer 100 miles.
4. switch to pennzoil ultra platinum 5 20
( on Amazon)
i got the oil consumption fix and it still consumed oil. Afyer about 5000 miles. But this process makes it not drink a drop of oil.
The collective amount of idling directly effects effect how much carbon builds up on pistons which is the cause of the consumption.

trust me. This works.

altair47

It sounds like BS, I can’t find a single video on YouTube that someone washed stuck oil rings like that. What was your consumption before flushing? Are you sure that oil consumption has not disappeared due to a change in oil viscosity?

Army

I added a bottle of the slick 50 but in reality I don’t think there is a darn thing we can do. My 2009 has 96k on it and I put in about a quart every 500-1000 miles. Quite a bummer. Sad for me as I bought it brand new and babied it. Beyond infuriating. Go to a dealer and explain it to the GM and see what they can do. I would imagine you have to replace the piston rings. It’s obviously a design flaw of some kind.

mrphilipanderson

Call it what you want to. HE asked us what has worked for us. That is what worked for me. After countless conversations with Acura techs, and written correspondence with engineers... The compression rate of our engines is high. This produces carbon. read The letter from acura explaining the WHY of the oil consumption was due to CARBON being stuck on the rings and oil NOT returning to the case but being burned off. Did you not read your letter?!? And lastly NO, there was no change in Viscosity. My car has ALWAYS taken 5w20 it says it in the manual, it says it in on the oil cap. Its 2012 TL Advance SH AWD. Also The reason Pennzoil works for MY car is because inherently its made from natural gas so the BASE oil does not have the potential for deposit ingredients in the first place to clog or stick your o rings like regular CRUDE OIL does. STP intake goes directly into the chamber to help loosen gunk. Seafoam added to the crankcase help to dissolve the gunk. And the pennzoil ultra platinum, Not the regular platinum (MUST BE ULTRA PLATINUM) keeps it clean and can handle extremely high compression rates minimising carbon, the result of high compression in a combustion engine.

I can only speak about MY CAR, this works like a charm for me. You are more than welcome to try it. Or you can keep searching for a fix like I did...for years.

altair47

Nak nak, wake up, the oil rings are clogged with combustion products of oil, not gasoline, the compression ratio has nothing to do with it. In your opinion, J35Z2(never had a problem with oil consumption) on RDX has a normal compression ratio of 10.5, but TL with 11.2 is extremely high from your words? Seriously? Perhaps you mixed up the word redneck, not engineer. My engine consumed oil and was saved by Dimethyl sulfoxide.
.

mrphilipanderson

I think you made the mistake of thinking I wanted to engage in a futile battle over oil consumption. hahahahah no thanks. I have other battles to fight. You have your solution, I have mine. Your opinion and antics are insignificant to what has worked for my car.
My concern and attention is solely at helping the guy who asked. I gave my feedback, give yours and get over it. I know what the letter from Acura said....on MY paper, about MY car. I know the repairs that were made on MY CAR. I won't entertain you arguing for the sake of arguing about nothing.
What I do know is I wont be trying any of YOUR suggestions....why? Because My oil consumption issues are no more.

altair47

Still, apart from words, you have 0 evidence. Here is a video of how Dimethyl sulfoxide works, Sorry that is in Russian.

dzionny_dzionassi

Not sure about your battles, but you are giving bad advice. I will not go in to great detail with you, but nobody is flushing brand new oil scrapper rings after piston re-ring. It is common to burn oil after piston re-ring ( for couple thousand miles depends on engine operation). I am sorry, but your hypothesis is very faulty.
Also SEAFOAM WILL DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HARD CARBON. It did not work on your car, it is in your head.

Jim2301

Mr Philip, From a hydrocarbon and engineering point of view your multi-faceted approach makes little sense. You claim it works, others say "No way". If it does work for you on a long term basis then "great" and I'll be the first one to admit that you're clearly more intelligent that the engineers and marketing folks at Honda/Acura.

Readers, look at it from a common sense point of view. If ANY of Mr Philip's recommended remedies were even remotely successful then Honda/Acura would almost certainly have gone the "treatment route" rather than the extremely costly (money and reputation) program to replace engines and extend warranties. We can be relatively certain that Honda/Acura explored all reasonable alternatives before going down the replacement/extended warranty road.

Me? I'm betting on Honda/Acura's VERY expensive approach as the better alternative. They know their engines and they know the cost/benefits of the various alternatives studied. We may not like their approach/decision but it was very likely better than the "treatment" option.

Steven Maslauskas jr

Man this is terrible I went to the Acura dealership in Seekonk Massachusetts and they told me to take my oil consumption test at my local Honda dealership and when I was finished with it I'm miserably failed and when the Honda dealership called the Acura dealership to let them know that I'm miserably failed the consumption test the Acura dealership said that they would not honor my test due to it being done at a Honda dealership instead of the Acura dealership. But the manager Sean Nunley at the Acura dealership in Seekonk Massachusetts seriously dead-ass told me to go there I'm to take the oil consumption test at that dealership since it was closed and so so much closer to my house then the Acura dealership which was an hour and a half away from my house. So long story short is they never fixed my pistons and rings = is it too late for me to do something about it????? And if it is not too late for me to do something about it what do I do exactly just call the Acura dealership and tell them that my Acura TL 2012 is consuming so much oil it's not even funny like I seriously have to put one quart of oil in my car like one time every month it's ridiculous it's so seriously unbelievably ridiculous how bad my car is consumed in oil and yes I most certainly already have my engine checked for all and any type of oil leaks and there are no oil leaks whatsoever in my engine what that has to do with my engine. Can somebody please help me out with some helpful information and let me know what I should do from this point on it would be greatly appreciated???

mrphilipanderson

I would speak directly to the GENERAL manager of the dealership and let him know what happen and ask HIM or HER to allow for an Oil consumption test.
I would also let him or her know that the Service Manager there at the dealership told you to go to honda without explaining that the test would not be valid. So he wasted your time and your money.
Tell him you value your car, and the acura brand and you hope that This deaserhip would give you an opportunity to do the oil consumption test. Schedule an appointment.

mrphilipanderson

Thank you for your contribution.

mrphilipanderson

Thank you for your contribution.

Steven Maslauskas jr

Oh my God I only wish my engine look like the one on the right LOL I'm having the worst oil consumption problems I think in this entire feed read the last message on this page that's me

mrphilipanderson

Its funny how there is so many self proclaimed engineers here. Post your certificate with your name on it. And a photo ID. And a video in russian? Seriously?
I still call Bull$h!t. What worked for me is still working to this day. And based on your re-ring theory its not common for oil to continue to burm. Do you not understand what O-rings do?
if you do Post it here...the specific function of oil control rings. And don't copy and paste cause i'll check for plagiarism.

A bunch of buffoons that learn a few tech words and suddenly they are experts. hahahah. Heres my list of demands.

• Engineer Degree
• Acure Tech Certification
• An English Video supporting your claims
otherwise eat sh!#.

Steven Maslauskas jr

Man this is terrible I went to the Acura dealership in Seekonk Massachusetts and they told me to take my oil consumption test at my local Honda dealership and when I was finished with it I'm miserably failed and when the Honda dealership called the Acura dealership to let them know that I'm miserably failed the consumption test the Acura dealership said that they would not honor my test due to it being done at a Honda dealership instead of the Acura dealership. But the manager Sean Nunley at the Acura dealership in Seekonk Massachusetts seriously dead-ass told me to go there I'm to take the oil consumption test at that dealership since it was closed and so so much closer to my house then the Acura dealership which was an hour and a half away from my house. So long story short is they never fixed my pistons and rings = is it too late for me to do something about it????? And if it is not too late for me to do something about it what do I do exactly just call the Acura dealership and tell them that my Acura TL 2012 is consuming so much oil it's not even funny like I seriously have to put one quart of oil in my car like one time every month it's ridiculous it's so seriously unbelievably ridiculous how bad my car is consumed in oil and yes I most certainly already have my engine checked for all and any type of oil leaks and there are no oil leaks whatsoever in my engine what that has to do with my engine. Can somebody please help me out with some helpful information and let me know what I should do from this point on it would be greatly appreciated???