2003 Civic Si Oil Consumption

I found the engine 2 quarts low one day. I was using 5W-20 on a 9765 mile
engine. No visible oil leakage. No weird codes in the computer, and the
compression test was within normal limits. The vehicle is 100% STOCK.

Was the engine designed to consume small amounts of oil under high RPM, full
power use?

 

There are people who claim zero oil consumption but I've never seen it -
I'd consider 0.5Qt per 5K miles excellent and Honda, and most other mfrs,
will not consider it faulty at even 1Qt per 1K miles. Your owner manual
tells you to check oil level at every fill-up but I do it every 2 weeks or
so.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

 

At less than 10K miles, your engine is still breaking in. It WILL use oil
at a much higher rate when the rings are still seating. It will also get
substantially lower gas mileage.

Hown many times have you had the oil changed, and at what mileage was your
first change?

--
TeGGeR®

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First oil change at 4759, then again at 8000 miles. 1st change was 5W-20,
second was 5W-30, but I am going back to 5W-20.

 

Oil consumption will be high if you use engine braking at high rpm.

 

youre safe w/ 5-30 also.

 

All engines will consume some oil, especially at high rpm/heavy load.
5W-20 isn't going to help that, but two quarts sounds like a lot
unless you haven't checked it in 6000 miles. I assume that you left
the break-in oil in the car for at least 3000 miles and you have
changed the oil at least once.

Keep a watch on it, don't let it get that low again. If it is more
than 1qt/1000 miles, Honda should rebuild it.

 

Should I interpret this to be that you have driven your SI very hard yet
have not checked or changed the oil in almost 10,000 miles? If you are
frequently hitting "high RPM, full power" then your engine is being used, or
abused, under at least "severe service" conditions.

Read the part of the owners manual about checking the oil and about changing
the oil. That is an expensive engine and you are probably limiting it's
useful life.

John

 

2 quats is excessive! Especially after the engine has only undergone about
2000km since you last oil change. My 98 Civic burn .5L every 5000km. In the
winter, oil consumption would probably be Zero, if it wasn't for my crazy
driving style (regular redliningg and dowshifting into 6000 rpm, for serious
braking). Now that the weather is getting hot, I think my consumption might go
up to 1L per 5000km (assuming that I contiune with my aggressive driving).
Considering that my engine has Over 170,000km, I'm not concerned about the minor
oil consumption. If I had to choose from minor oil lost vs increase chance of
engine failure, I'd go with the oil loss.

If you were missing 2L of oil in your Si, you should have noticed some signes.
e.g. Noicy engine (valve noice) and tempertature gage would be lightly higher
then normal and Vtec would not work. I would check the oil once more, on a level
grade to insure it isn't over filled.

Pars