Hey all; was driving my '01 yesterday on the highway...pull up to a toll and hear the car making a clanking noise, sounds like a diesel. I pulled off at the next exit where (proof that God drives a Honda) there was a Honda dealership. Master tech comes out and says he's seen this before, it just needs oil. Takes it round the back and manages to put 4 (!) quarts in it. Clanking noise still remains...they're keeping it. I'll find out what it is tomorrow, but I'm nervous. Been searching and found the short block replacement thread
(https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8051)
which I'm freaking out about...
I'd had the oil changed about 4k miles ago and of course hadn't checked it since. I do VTEC alot. It was driveable from the gas station where I pulled over to the Honda dealership...is that a good sign? No check engine light or oil light came on, and I was at 8kRPM on the highway right before I heard the noise...so Vtec was engaging. No warnings or anything. Should I expect the worst?
Thanks.

 

This little oversight may cost you. The manual recommends you check the oil at every gas fill. Using 1 qt of oil every 1000 miles is not unheard of.

 

What's the oil warning light for on the dash? Low oil pressure? Shouldn't it have come on?

 

It's possible oil pressure wasn't low enough to trigger a light.

As xviper said, this little oversight may cost you.

Hopefully everything turns out all right for you. Good luck.

 

Thanks. I have an aftermarket warranty, so depending on what the dealership says I'm going to try to claim it. What bothers me is that I'm not usually negligent...I check my oil every couple thousand miles, I'm very good about servicing it, don't overrev it etc. Guess it's a lesson learned. I'm freaking out about how much this is going to cost me.

 

that's a "No oil pressure" light, as in nilch, zero.. if that comes on you're in big trouble, really fast.

It's a good idea to check your oil every second fill-up or so. Sometimes after flogging it hard, you'd be surprised how much you might be able to burn.

If it is the shortblock problem coming to bite you, eek.

 

Would the car run if there was something seriously wrong?

 

AFAIK, it blinks if oil pressure drops for a bit

And my s2k goes through about 2 quarts every 1k miles , which is pretty normal as far as I can tell

 

I don't remember exactly what the number is that is the "cut-off" for the oil light to come one. I think it's something like 10 to 15 psi (in that neighborhood). You can be down to 2 qts (maybe less) and still be able to generate the needed oil pressure to keep the light off. However, with only 2 qts of oil in your engine, this may be enough if you were to be just driving sedately around. During higher rpm running or when heat buildup is at its highest level, 2 qts will not be enough to contribute to any beneficial heat holding capacity and there may not be enough oil to feed the oil pump compared to what it's pumping out during vigorous operation.

It will keep running until the lack of oil has caused significant engine wear. Engine wear results when a small amount of oil has to do the job of the "normal" amount of oil. That "clanking" noise may be the first sign that metal to metal contact has produced irreversible wear (bearings in particular).

This might be considered too excessive. You should have the car looked at. IMO, 1 qt every 1000 miles is about the bottom end of acceptable. Once the consumption gets to around 1 qt every 500 to 800 miles, there should be reason for concern.

 

If your car sounds like it's a diesel than the first question that should be asked is what grade gasoline are you putting in? If it's anything less than 91 then that would cause a "knocking" effect. Since the engine has such a high compression ratio, regular grade gasoline just won't cut it.