I know that our cars drink oil on a regular basis, but I'm beginning to worry. My car drinks a constant quart per 1k miles. I check my oil about once a week and usually add about half a quart every two weeks or so. I'm just worried that it may be more than normal oil consumption. I've also noticed that the car seems to run rich on start up, if your standing outside the car at startup you can really smell unburnt gas, and theres more smoke at startup that expected from a honda. The car is still under warrenty so I'm wondering if I should bring it up when I take the car in for service next time.

 

Yeah mine consumes about 1 litre of oil for every 1000km driven. At first I thought it was a major issue so I phoned up the Honda Canada and the fella assured me that it was perfectly normal as long as the car was consuming under 1.5L for every 1000km.
Btw mine is a 2001 model and I've heard about how the 00-01 consumes more oil than the 02-03. Are you using synthetic 10W-30 oil?
A lot of ppl who bring their Hondas to the dealership for service maintenance get their cars filled with the wrong oil. When I say wrong oil I mean by not following what the recommendations of the owner's manual. The book clearly states that the car should be filled with 10W-30 synthetic oil problem is most honda service departments don't know about that...............
I've actually gotten into arguments with 2 service assistants at 2 different Honda dealer locations over which engine oil to use for the S2000.
When I told them to use synthetic 10W-30 oil they keep insisting that I was wrong and they go on adding how they have worked for Honda for over 10 years and Honda has never recommended synthetic or 10w-30 oil for any of their cars!!! Can you believe that!!! The worst part is they kept hinting that I am not a mechanic and I have no idea about what oil to use!!!
Of course both arguments ended with the assistants apologizing to me after I showed them the owner's manual. My point is don't trust your dealer to service your car properly..............most of them don't know jack about S2000s........

 

The first 4000 miles My engine consume about close to two quarts of castrol GTX dino oil. The next 2500 miles it stop consuming oil. So, i made the switch to Red Line synthetic oil. After the switch it started to consume oil, almost half quart every 700 miles and i don't even Vtec as much.

 

Not sure if it's the same for the S2000 but I know for the Integra and SI, Honda says anything over 1 qt/1000 miles is excessive and your rings probably need to be replaced (assuming your valves are ok). However Honda won't let the dealer do rings, so they just swap in a whole short block. My Integra was at 1.1-1.3 qts and they did the short block, another guy I know with an SI was right at 1.0 and they would only extend his warranty, no replacement. This is not a quick deal, the dealer will track it for ~5000 miles and it has to be consistant over that time. BTW, the guy with the SI, now how less oil consumption.

Jeremy Lucas
Team Honda Research
Kumho-Cobalt-Comptech

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bunjimobile
Yeah mine consumes about 1 litre of oil for every 1000km driven. At first I thought it was a major issue so I phoned up the Honda Canada and the fella assured me that it was perfectly normal as long as the car was consuming under 1.5L for every 1000km.

 

Whoa... 1 quart every 1000 miles is a lot in my opinion. However, like other people have mentioned, Honda will say it's within spec.

My car runs on Mobil 1 10W30, and eats about 1/2 quart every 2000 miles.
My WRX runs on Mobil 1 5W30 and consumes about the same amount.

Some consumption is normal, especially with synth.

Ummm... the car shouldn't be "smoking" at all. If it's cold where you are, you might be seeing condensation, but there shouldn't be any smoke. If it is indeed smoke, what color is it? If it's black... well, there's your missing oil.

 

Consuming one X per thousand miles normal? Ok and as for normal levels, honda told me 2 X's was normal after driving the car and checking the level 20 minutes later, is this ok?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bunjimobile
Yeah mine consumes about 1 litre of oil for every 1000km driven. At first I thought it was a major issue so I phoned up the Honda Canada and the fella assured me that it was perfectly normal as long as the car was consuming under 1.5L for every 1000km.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by heffergm

 

i have a 2002 S2000, when i bought it there were about 35,000 kms on it (roughly 21,000 miles). the car was well cared for since new and now still only has 62,000 kms (or roughly 37,000 miles).
i take the car to an accomplished and sensible mechanic, who owned a 2003 model since new; he also maintains 4 or 5 other S2000's - none of them burn a tablespoon of oil between changes, and neither did his. mine on the other hand is burns just a hair less than the manufacturer's "allowable" 1500 km benchmark (approximately 900 miles).
i have heard whispers about this being a factory problem, and certainly there is strong evidence to support that, just within the realm of the shop my mechanic owns. it's not a problem under hard acceleration, but rather when engine-braking down a hill, or during periods of idling.
i consider this a b*llsh*t deal, coming from honda. i've owned other honda and acura products, and none of them burn any oil. i realize this is supposedly a "high performance" automobile, which of course is why we all own them - but there's some hokey-pokey going on in my opinion. who in their right mind would expect a honda to perform that poorly - ??!!!
i've gone through the dealer's little dance of "measuring comsumption" to determine if performance is within their ridiculous benchmark, but what a bunch of whanking nonsense.
anyone else out there got anything to add / report / suggest ???