how often does your car see VTEC?

 

I've done the oil consumption study (ie. oil log ) at my dealership already. In the end, I am content that this is within the 'normal' that the Honda Memo stated and am not planning on letting the dealership take apart the engine to solve this oil consumption problem. It will cost me a few more dollars of oil every year - I just hope that the engine lasts as long as I intend to keep this car.

 

I rarely vtec, once a day if I am lucky. The thing is that it has used oil since day one. However, it would only go through about 2. Litres between changes. Lately, it has been consuming twice the amount. I don't think it is normal for a drastic change like that.

Louie, what rate did your study show? I don't know, if it is consuming that much in the 800kms/Litre mark then I wouldn't be happy with Honda saying that it is fine. If my car had 300 000kms on it maybe but not after only 3 years of ownership.

 

The calculated number was one liter of oil consumed in 1382 km. This would mean I would add 4 - 1 liter containers of oil between oil changes.

According to the Honda Service Letter (issued Jan. 31, 2003)
re : 2000 -2003 S2000 Engine Oil Usage Information

"... Due to the high-performance nature of the 2000-2003 S2000, its engine can consume as much as a liter of oil in 1,600 km when driven at high RPM.
Oil consumption can increase under such driving conditions as high speed, high engine RPM, frequent acceleration, or frequent deceleration using engine braking. "

I definitely VTEC more than once a day as I feel this car is made to handle this. If I feel the urge to do some more spirited driving, I don't hesitate as I want to enjoy this car. However, I don't think I am extreme in my driving. There are numerous guys out there that VTEC with much more greater frequency than I do and they don't consume oil.

I am definitely NOT happy with Honda claiming this is fine. At first, I though my car's engine was not put together properly (ie lemon) and this would explain this amount of oil usage. However, it seems like 50% of owners say that they don't use a drop of oil and the other 50% drinks oil. I don't think that these 50% of the S2000's out there are 'lemons'.

Former:
800 km per liter of oil seems a bit too much so if I were you, I would go through the oil consumption study (ie oil log) at your dealership. At least this will be official documentation if you have future problems. I have pretty well accepted my oil consumption as something I have to contend with.

 

Yeah, that is a tough one. I am not sure what normal is for the S, and there are no real answers as to why or how it burns the oil.
I'lll see what Honda Canada has to say. I still have a bit to gon on the log, just got it topped off at the dealer and now the measurements start.

The engine runs great though, really free and smooth.

 

If you ask me, normal oil consumption should be none for the S2000. There are enough cars out there that demonstrate it is quite possible to have a F20C that is run hard in stock form and doesn't consume any oil. And if you think these engines are high performance, you should see Honda's in-line 4 motorcycle engines. There is no reported excessive oil consumption with any of their bikes and they'll run a higher compression and get about 4000 to 6000 more revs out of them.

Do you know where this oil is going? From my experiences, the list of ways you can lose oil is pretty short:

1. you have a leaky gasket somewhere (like an oilpan or valve cover gasket) and oil is seeping out and making a mess all over your engine.

2. the valve seals are leaking and oil is leaking from the valve head down into the intake/exhaust ports.

3. there is some blow-by between the cylinder and piston rings and the excess pressure is going out the crank-case vent tube, carrying some oil with it.

4. the piston rings are so sacked that oil is moving from the crank case past the rings and into the cylinder.

Any of you guys have oil catch cans installed? If they are filling up, number three could be a consideration. It could be a helpful mod to add a catch can to help monitor your oil consumption. Also, have any of you had a compression test done? A slightly lower reading on one of the cylinders could point out a source of some blow-by (particularily cylinder 4; this cylinder seems to get reports of scoring on the walls because of lack of lubrication; later models got an updated oil jet to help with this problem; maybe they are related?).

Chris.

 

It could be #2,3,or 4 we'll have to see. It is definately not normal. I would accept 2L/5000km but not at its current rate.

There isn't any external leaks for sure.

 

I'm at 51k on the odometer and the car doesn't burn a drop of oil. I'm in and outta the vtec quite often. At least once or twice per drive. I bought the car with 43k on it, so i have no idea how it was broken in or what kinda oil was in it, but i am running Mobil 1 10w30 synthetic now and am on my second oil change. I think on my last oil change i overfilled it a touch, though. Put in closer to 5.5L. The dipstick shows a touch over the full line. Is this gonna be a big problem??

 

I think that different driving styles can have a significant effect on oil consumption, and the note from Honda earlier in this thread indicates that the official view is the harder it's driven the more oil it will consume.

When I say I drive hard, that means that (traffic permitting) at least 50% off all shifts are into VTEC, and probably somewhere in the range of 15% of all shifts are at redline. For example, every day going into work downtown from Springbank via lower Springbank Road to Highway 8, by the time I hit Glenmore trail I will have run it to redline between 5 and 9 times...and I'm generally using engine braking at high RPM all the way down the gears as well. Rarely when I'm driving does RPM drop below 4500, and never below 3500. Fuel consumption is also a good indicator of how hard one is actually running the car; typically I get between 200 and 215 km on a full tank of gas. I'd be surprised if anyone truly driving the car hard like this isn't burning some oil; maybe not a litre every 1500k, but certainly a couple of litres or more between oil changes.

I had a Type R a few years back that showed similar oil consuption; at the track when driven extremely hard, it would burn a full litre of oil in a day, which consisted of perhaps 8-10 three to five lap sessions...on the street it was burning a litre every 1200k or so.

 

Wow, that is pretty hard driving George. Given that, your consumption doesn't seem that bad. I am really easy on mine, barely vtec and it drinks. My next car, I will beat the crap out of and drive it hard has heck.