2001 Honda Civic Lx?

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Hi guys,my 2001 civic lx has 170,000 miles and is running great but has started leaking oil. Oil pan is wet and oil is leaking behind the timing belt cover. Mechanic suggests starting with the oil pan $200 to do it. I got a feeling a seal under that timing cover is bad.... dont know what to start with. Car has only seen quaker state green bottle 5w20 all its life. Is high mileage worth a try. Im confused and dont want to get ripped off. I thank you for any advice you may have!
 
Originally Posted By: mrjlube
Is high mileage worth a try. Im confused and dont want to get ripped off. I thank you for any advice you may have!


Back in 2008 you started a thread with this post so you are familiar with HM oils:

Originally Posted By: mrjlube
I have had 2 escorts go over 200,000 miles on maxlife 5w30 and am thinking of changing my 2002 focus over to it. My focus has 87,000 miles and has been on motorcraft since new. my plan is to keep this car until it dies. My ? is will it hurt to use maxlife in a car with no leaks? What is your opinion on the stuff?

Thank you all so much for your time. Have a great weekend
cheers3.gif



Depends on how bad the leak is and if you want to or can spend the money to fix it. If the leak(s) are real bad the best solution is to fix it with a new seal. If it's weeping then HM is worth a shot.
 
My daughter's 2001 Civic had similar symptoms which I mistook, maybe like your mechanic, for a leaking oil pan gasket. I changed that out, but it still leaked, with the wet area still on the oil pan.

On one of the Civic websites, there was a discussion where several owners also thought the pan gasket was bad but after changing it, it still leaked oil.

Someone there suggested (doing this from memory, so my apologies) there is an O-ring on an oil line that is the more likely culprit. The O-ring isn't expensive but seemed to be a PITA to correct; a few hours if I recall correctly, and in about the area you suspect. I tried a few high mileage oils to no avail. For O-rings, my understanding is high mileage oils aren't that effective.

Given her car had about the same miles as yours but she was planning to trade it, we agreed buying oil at $3-4/qt. was a lot easier. That said, if you plan to keep the car a while, as a Civic with 170k is about mid-life, you may want to get that fixed just to eliminate the annoyance. The oil loss was not bad, maybe a quart in 2000-2500 miles.

Your diagnosis sounds more like what's going on vs. the oil pan gasket. IDK if you have to remove the oil pan to do the O-ring, but if you do the pan gasket would be replaced anyway. Maybe see what your mechanic wants to do that.
 
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Since it has a timing belt that needs to be changed on a periodic interval, you can always replace it at that time (along with the timing belt and water pump). And if the timing belt is due to be changed anyway...
 
Originally Posted By: clinebarger
Camshaft oil seals are notorious for leaking on Honda engines. So is the oil cooler O-ring (If equipped)


Yep. But luckily it's a very easy fix.

OT: I inherited a 2005 Civic with less than 30K miles, these D17 engines are easy to work on.
 
My 01 civic started leaking from the box the PCV screws into. Look there too. It's removable, but I believe the intake needs to be removed to do so. I fixed mine once when I did the head gasket at 200k, now at 315k miles, it started again...
 
Oil on the bottom of the engine everyone wants to say oil pan gasket, but it usually ran down from somewhere else. The crank and cam seals are suspect-- would have to remove crank pulley and timing covers to check.

If the car is automatic, the transmission will be well into it's "borrowed time" stage of life. Honda has never had a good automatic but the 2001 one was one of the worst.
 
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