I know the s2000's are known to burn oil, especially the ap1s (mine is a '00) but it seems like mine burns excessive amounts of oil. About 1000-1500 miles ago the oil was exactly to the high point on the dipstick but I just checked it and it was about half way between low and the bottom of the dipstick. That's a lot of oil for only about 1000 miles. I did some research and it looks like there are two possible reasons: piston rings which are very expensive and would really suck, or the PCV valve which I am a little confused about what it actually does. How am I supposed to tell if piston rings or PCV valve is bad? Also are there any other possible explanations for why so much oil is being burned? The car runs great, it just consumes oil.

 

Have same model as you

Check for rings via a compression test

It's not the PCV that's the problem it's the baffling in the valve cover.

An upgrade would be a 04-05 cover and 04-05 PCV.

Mobil 1 seems to burn a lot in some cases switch to castrol and fill it up.

1qt per 1000 miles seems about right honestly it all depends how much you're in vtec

 

That's about 1.2 quarts I think, you aren't to the point of needing refreshing quite yet as long as it doesn't get worse. You might want to try changing oil brands, maybe a high mileage oil might be worth a try, like Castrol's.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually use Castrol high mileage right now because my car is right at 135k miles. I'll definitely look into the valve cover. Is this very expensive and labor intensive? Is it something I could do if I'm fairly handy? I'll look into the compression test too to check for bad piston rings. Any idea how much that'll run me at the local shop? Thanks again!

 

The tool for checking compression is about 40 dollars if you can change spark plugs you can check the compression.

Honestly the amount isn't that crazy IMO if you drive the car hard

 

Taking the valve cover off is pretty easy. While you're in there, you could check the valve lash clearances to see if they need adjustment.