Took my car in today due to CHK ENGINE light. The code they pulled was VTEC failure.. He said the oil was 1 qt low and that would fix it.. Is that true?? I dont want to get onto the VTEC if he probably only patched a serious problem.

 

Entering VTEC requires a minimum oil pressure. I'd assume being 1 quart low would have an effect. I'm sure someone else has a more technical answer though.

 

yes low oil can cause vtec to either hiccup or not work, since there wouldn't be enough oil pressure. i suppose it's possible that a DTC could be thrown when this happens.

 

You should check your oil level more often, at the very least you should check your oil every month. One quart low is not good for any condition.

 

One quart low won't cause your VTEC to stop working nor will it induce a CEL because 1 qt low will not affect your oil pressure. Your CEL is because something has gone wrong with the VTEC solenoid or the VTEC pressure sensor or there may be a restriction of oil in and out of that area (VTEC filter screen perhaps?). It could have been something as simple as a connection gone bad in the wiring harnesses. As long as the oil sump is drawing oil, there will be pressure and oil getting pumped to all the right places. You can be down 2 qts and still have good pressure. You can be even down 3 qts and still have good pressure if you are just driving smoothly and not sloshing the oil around (don't ask how I know). It takes more than this shortage of oil before the sump starts to suck air.
As far as being one qt low, this would be the lowest mark on the dipstick. If the level never changed from this, you could drive till the next oil change. One qt. low (or anything above that up to the "full" mark) is within the acceptable operating parameters of most domestic engines. This is where you "add" some oil. This is not where the engine begins to suffer.

 

Really? So the F20/F22 is more tolerant than a B18C5, for example then? (I am seriously asking here, I would like to know, I'm NOT being sarcastic at all, thought I would clarify)

The reason I ask is my buddy has a 97 ITR, and he'll throw a CEL when running at an HPDE, but only when we are going clockwise, events have all been at the same track, then once he swapped to a baffled pan, the CEL's went away completely. He always runs his oil at the bottom lip of the top mark on his dipstick (the B18 dipstick has two holes in it for high and low)

 

We are talking the difference between a longitudinally mounted engine vs a transversely mounted one. The "slosh" facter on these types of engines are vastly different. The oil pickup on S2000 engines is nearly dead center at the front of the pan. Any lateral manouvers of the car would not take a lot of oil away from the pickup. Whereas, in a transverse mount, lateral g's can.
I've run this thing down to 2.5 qts remaining (again, don't ask). It never turned on the oil light nor did it turn on the CEL. (If it were not for a fluctuating oil pressure gauge that was floating around 50 psi, I would have not suspected anything was wrong.) Only low or no oil pressure will do this and a heavy "slosh" factor will (like on a transverse mount).