I have owned my car from 30k to 32k miles. I run Mobil 1 synthetic and have noticed that in the 2k miles I have burned a qt. of oil. Is this normal? The car burning oil with only 32k on it? Thanks

J. R.

 

It is normal for our cars to "burn oil". The more time that you spend in VTEC, the more oil you will consume.

If you were using a lighter weight oil than 10W30, then I would expect the engine to use oil. I have heard of people using 0W30 with no oil consumption problems, but my engine used a similiar amount of oil as yours, when I tried 5W30. Mine used at least a quart of oil every 1000 miles during the break in period, but once I change the break in oil, the consumption stopped. It doesn't sound like a problem.

What weight oil are you using?

Good luck and welcome to our club,
Bob

 

That is normal with 30K miles or 1K miles or 5 miles or 50K miles....

 

I don't agree that losing 1qt of oil in 2k miles is normal, especially with only 32k miles on the engine. The oil loss should be NO more than half a quart between changes ....at most. My engine loses NO oil at all between changes and I VTEC fairly often. A quart of oil loss at 2k miles is excessive to me. I would start to look at the oil choice, proper viscosity, intervals, valve stem seals, piston rings.

 

It's considered "normal" to Honda for 1qt every 1K miles.

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

You however are one of the lucky ones, in that your engine doesn't seem to use any oil. Most of us are not that lucky, however.

These engines are not what I would consider a "normal" engine and oil consumption is part and parcel of driving these engines. There is no need for alarm, this is normal oil consumption.

 

I think what's more important is, whether or not your car's oil consumption has suddenly changed.

As seen, some cars hardly burn any oil, and some burn a quart every 2k miles.

So if your car has always had a similar consuption rate as this for oil, then no, nothing is wrong.

If your car, before this time, has NEVER burned oil, and now suddenly is burning a quart every 2k, then yeah you might have a problem.

 

I think that Wisconsin S2k has a very good point.

It may be a bit of a problem, since the owner of this used car just recently bought the car. If you know the previous owner, you may want to ask him his opinion on the car's oil usage history.

 

I have about 20k miles and my engine still burns oil. I notice that when changed from Castrol GTX to Redline syn oil, the consumption increased. I burn anywhere from a quart to every 1400 miles to 1800 miles. I thinks some of the oil are getting suck out from pcv vent into the intake manifold and burn during the combustion. It's just my assumption, because our exhaust are alway's cover with black soot. I know another reason is that our engine tend to run rich and thus will also cause the tail pipe to be cover with black soot.

 

I use a quart every 1k miles or so. But then again I VTEC once or twice a week.