"Doesn't burn a drop of oil" ??

[JohnBrowning]

No, I do not think people are lieing becuase I happen to have 5 vechiles in my house tht burn no oil as mesured by the dip stick on level ground between oil changes. Four of them are Toyota's and one is a Buick.

I think it has to do with engine design and maintence and some luck of the draw. I think all manufactures make some engines that burn some oil and some that use so little you cannot see it on the dip stick. Then their is also the possability of fuel diloution issues as well. Then you have break in techniques and usage in the field.

 

[Tom_T]

I wish my cars burned MORE oil than they do. I could go for a little controlled leakage past the stem seals and into the valve guides. How about a little drink for the top ring too. I don't want a blue cloud following me down the road but would like a little something in those areas. Are they just totally dry?

 

[Aldaris]

Well, my Lexus LS400 with 245k miles is the only car that I have ever owned that has not had any discernable oil consumption over a 4k mile interval (longest yet), and I've owned 7 other cars prior.

 

[John B]

Your rate of oil consumption is about the the same as my wife's 07LX.I really don't think it is an issue with the 1.8L engine with the mileage yours has.It might improve,but if not,it is not a big deal.....just top it off.
As an ex-owner of a VW Golf,trust me,you can drive yourself crazy worrying about what is "normal" oil consumption and dream about orange dip sticks.Das Golf consumed a quart of oil every 3K miles,from new until traded in at 97K for the Civic.The Engine was one of the only components in that POS that never had a problem.Different engines consume oil at different rates depending on temp.,viscosity and driving conditions.That is why you will never find a car maker make a reference to "normal consumption".The usual is anything under 1 quart per 1K miles is with-in specs.They cover themselves with the "check oil at every fueling" passage in the owners manual.
As an ex-mechanic with 25 years in the trade I really can't find fault in the 8th generation Civic,and belive me, I have cast my critical eye on it.So enjoy your new car and don't worry,it is what it is
There is no such animal as an internal combustion engine the does not consume some oil.....It would seize up if it didn't.

 

[06VtecV6]

I have a pretty new car with the only oil changes you see listed below. After the factory fill, as you can see below, I used Mobil DC 5000 for 5k-ish OCI and it burned a half quart. Wow, a shocker.. a brand new engine on OCI #1 and we have oil usage...After that came 2 consecutive OCIs with Mobil DC 7500 and that burned about the same half quart per 5000-5300 mile OCIs. To this day, I wonder what does it say about the oil or car or both when one burns oil in a car. To me, a car burning oil when its brand new points the culprit to be the oil, IMO. Now I am not trying to condone one oil or the other and that is not my mission at all, only learning and well being of all our cars. When I used CP Motorcraft after these DC oils, I didn't burn but a few ounces and that was late in the OCI (last 1000 miles) unlike the DC which burned within the first 1000 miles(and then a little up to 1/2 quart). Following the MC was PP and M1 and BOTH of those burned the same way as the earlier DC..about a half quart. Hmm disappointing to say the least as we are paying a premium and not getting squat for our dough. Now that I am back to CP, it is not using oil right off the bat the same way the MC did. All I can say is I still don't know if it's the car or the oil or both but we shall see with this OCI. Personally, this being a different CP product, I hope to improve from the few ounces I burned with the other CP product, MC. hope that helps.. just trying to say that a brand new car burned more oil using Mobil dino/semisyn products, Pennzoil and Mobil 1 full synthetics and quite a bit less using CP. I hope to join the No Burn club with this OCI which would give more weight to the argument that it could be just the oil itself especially when it comes down to HOW MUCH it will burn if it burns anything at all.(as some have said above. I hope to make it zilch with current OCI and prove oil is the culprit when a car burns oil. Now what does it mean if one does and another doesn't I don't know other then it has to be good all the time you would think.

 

[rationull]

Interesting discussion.

buster: thanks for the link.. I probably should've done a web search before asking about the low tension rings.

John B: What kind of oil do you run in your wife's LX?

06VTecV6: Thanks for the background. So you've had little to no oil burning with Motorcraft 5w-20 and Conoco Super All Season Synthetic Blend 5w-20 I assume. From the PDSs it looks like those are both thicker than Mobil DriveClean and Exxon Superflo.

So if it is the oil that's causing the burning I guess it's still up for debate whether the burning is a bad thing, a good thing, or a neutral thing.

I've got 4 or 5 k miles to go before my next oil change so I guess I've got some time to ponder but at this point I'm thinking I might be running about a quart of Superflo and the rest MC or similar.

 

[06VtecV6]

Quote:

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Interesting discussion.

buster: thanks for the link.. I probably should've done a web search before asking about the low tension rings.

John B: What kind of oil do you run in your wife's LX?

06VTecV6: Thanks for the background. So you've had little to no oil burning with Motorcraft 5w-20 and Conoco Super All Season Synthetic Blend 5w-20 I assume. From the PDSs it looks like those are both thicker than Mobil DriveClean and Exxon Superflo.

So if it is the oil that's causing the burning I guess it's still up for debate whether the burning is a bad thing, a good thing, or a neutral thing.

I've got 4 or 5 k miles to go before my next oil change so I guess I've got some time to ponder but at this point I'm thinking I might be running about a quart of Superflo and the rest MC or similar.

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The MC burned the least of them all so far however I am only about 200 miles into the Blend OCI and will have to wait until the end of the OCI to see how much as in whther it will continue losing the least of the bunch as in an ounce or two or will it improve on the previous. I mentioned, the MC burned towards the end of the OCI possibly indicating base oil or APs or both may be depleting??

 

[mechtech2]

I never notice any oil loss at all in my Ford ZX2.
I know it should use some as a normal engine function, but it is evidently a miniscule amount.
This car sees all sorts of conditions, and a lot of high RPMs.

 

[Colt45ws]

My Cavi burns a little. Maybe a 1qt in 5k under light use. But if its used at high speed (70+) it burns more oil. I went through a little over a quart of M1 in 1000mi of hard use on a trip..

 

[RogerKlugerAus05]

In over 40 years of car ownership, many new cars, some used and many, many miles I have never had a car use any oil between oci.
Roger

 

[buster]

Quote:

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I could go for a little controlled leakage past the stem seals and into the valve guides.

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Yeah that is the thinking. It's actually a good thing.

I do think break-in is a factor also.

 

[Pablo]

Quote:

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In over 40 years of car ownership, many new cars, some used and many, many miles I have never had a car use any oil between oci.
Roger

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That's amazing. Great record. I'm all over the map - some zero, some 1/2 qt per 3K since new. What kind of cars? Oil? OCI?

Of course not including my first car: 1971 Datsun 510 (before the L1800 implant) drank like an Aussie (just kidding

) and smoked like a China factory manager.

 

[SargeGTO]

I agree with Buster on this one. A major factor in having a car that burns oil and one that doesn't is how you break them in. I abuse every new car I buy the first 500-100 miles and have never had a car burn a drop of oil. I "gun" them from the stop light....I floor em getting on the freeway.....and then let off quickly to get the back pressure in the cylinders....in other words...I drive em like I stole em day one.....So IMHO it is how you break em in that is the major determining factor if you have a oil burner or not.

 

[nascarnation]

We have a Saturn Vue with the Honda 3.5 V6 which runs 5000 mi OCI on Motorcraft 5W20 and doesn't seem to lose any oil at all. This engine has 50,000 miles.
Also the tail pipe on this car is as clean as the day it was new, which is pretty impressive IMHO. This engine is the one with no separate exhaust manifolds but the cats are bolted right to the cylinder heads.

My old Sat 1.9 was losing a quart in well under 1000 miles but doing a few OCIs with Mobil 1 0W40 and "GC" green seems to have improved this significantly - less than a quart in 2000 miles. This car has 130,000 miles.

 

[hooperswish1]

Quote:

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rationull, how did you break-in each of these cars? Putting heavy load on the engine early, with several WOT runs is a good way to full seat the rings.

Fuel dilution is another problem that can cause oil consumption not matter how well the car was broken in. Normally, the fuel in the oil will burn off along with some oil causing some oil consumption. Some oils mask it and it stays in the oil, showing the oil level at full when it's really not.

High rpm driving also causes oil consumption in many engines. Oil consumption can be a good thing too in some instances.

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That is what I was wondering. It seems like some people might think-Hey, my rig burns no oil. zip.-When in reality, they have a fuel dilluted cesspool that is eating up their engine.

 

[defeated]

Maybe better is expected from Honda, but my Monte sometimes needed 1/4 to 1/2 quart for the first ~20,000 miles. The dealer told me a little consumption was normal, but I was dismayed since my old ex-rental Grand Prix never needed topping up. Now we're at 75k two years later, and I haven't had to add any since about 4 OCIs ago when we tried PP and experienced a little of that consumption. It seems like he just used a little more oil during break-in. Do you have to add a quart every single oil change?

 

[John B]

Hi rationull, the last OC I used Castrol Syntec 5W-20 because of results from using it in my Element.The next OC I will probally revert to dino,maybe MC or Honda's branded Exon/Mobil brew.I have always found Syn consumes at a slightly higher rate than dino.I agree with Buster that engines with low tension rings will have a higher rate of consumption,but temp.,brand of oil and driving conditions are a big factor.Also I find most consumption happens toward the end of an OCI,if you are changing oil at 3K miles it won't show so much compared with an OCI of 5K miles and above.Also by-products of combustion will give a false reading.I have often heard the complaint "My car never uses oil,then we went on a trip and a quart dissapeared" They just vapourized the fuel,water and other contaminates in the sump.The addative package also wears out the longer the oil is used.
Stop worrying there is nothing wrong with your motor.The K20 engine in the SI consumes oil at a rate that would make your head spin (Especially before 20K),it is just the nature of the beast.You are better off adding fresh oil with additives during an OCI

 

[John B]

A foot note to my last post...
Auto enginers base oil consumption on fuel used not on mileage.
Oil Consumption Test;
a)Top off oil to max,top of fuel to full and record mileage on odometer
b)Keep record of gas used until one quart of oil is consumed
c)Divide miles by gallons of fuel to get average MPG of FUEL used
d)Multiply miles X 4 to give miles per GALLON of OIL used.
e)Divide MPG of FUEL used by MPG of OIL used and multiply by 100.
Example..If you consume a quart of oil in 3000 miles,that is a gallon used in 12000 miles and your average MPG of fuel is 30 so, 30 divided by 12000 = 0.0025 x 100 = 0.25
A result between 0.2 to 0.3 means the engine is in fine mechanical condition,the lower the better.A result of below 0.2 is usually found only in stationary motors( generators etc).There is not IC engine on the planet that does not consume some oil,they all do,but all the factors in all the previous posts determin the amount

 

[Sienna Driver]

From what I heard all cars use oil more or less. The reason oil level appears to be stable is that moisture replaced oil. That's why after a very long trip, the oil level drops more noticeably, because moisture got evaporated due to constant high temp. Ford or GM i don't remember which, even had a TSB regarding this issue. I learned this from a radio talk show called Goss' Garage.

 

[CBDFrontier06]

This doesn't really explain how my mother's Accord made the 2600 mile round trip from Wyoming to Florida and back without the oil level budging. Some engines just don't use a noticable amount...something I attribute to good valve seals and high-tension rings.