Should I start to worry? Civic is losing oil somehow

[TridenT]

So, when I go to change my oil... It maybe pours out half a gallon. <2 liters, basically. This is usually after 5,000 miles these days. Full synthetic (Mobil 1).

The oil change calls for about 3.5 on my 2000 honda civic ex. So, ... I'm burning oil or leaking it out somewhere. I try to maintain a clean engine bay and underside to see if I can tell if oil is being lost. It's still difficult to tell. I'm usually not looking until I've already got oil everywhere from unscrewing the oil filter. Also, my oil changes tend to be done in a pitch black driveway at night now. Hindsight.

Any recommendations on things I should check for next time? I'm not the best judge of what a normal spark plug looks like. Last time I remember thinking, "My car is leaking oil? Bad seals? Please don't let it be bad rings. Please." And it was probably a normal plug.

No real performance issues. Gas mileage is within a normal range. I've had this issue for over 10,000 miles.

 

[someone16]

The car is so old I wouldn't bother trying to find a fix for it. Just make sure to keep your oil topped up in between your oil changes. Running the car with <2 liters of oil probably isn't a very good idea.

 

[Zor Prime]

Check the valve cover gasket ... oil pan ... distributor. If it's not one of those, it's likely a seal on the engine itself. If it was the valve cover you'd probably have oil burning off the engine when the engine warms up, though.

If you don't have even a hint of blue smoke coming from the tail pipe I doubt it's the engine using it up for you.

 

[Jimzz]

Clean/replace the PCV valve. Also try a high mileage oil like Valvoline maxlife.

 

[pauldun170]

So, when I go to change my oil... It maybe pours out half a gallon. <2 liters, basically. This is usually after 5,000 miles these days. Full synthetic (Mobil 1).

The oil change calls for about 3.5 on my 2000 honda civic ex. So, ... I'm burning oil or leaking it out somewhere. I try to maintain a clean engine bay and underside to see if I can tell if oil is being lost. It's still difficult to tell. I'm usually not looking until I've already got oil everywhere from unscrewing the oil filter. Also, my oil changes tend to be done in a pitch black driveway at night now. Hindsight.

Any recommendations on things I should check for next time? I'm not the best judge of what a normal spark plug looks like. Last time I remember thinking, "My car is leaking oil? Bad seals? Please don't let it be bad rings. Please." And it was probably a normal plug.

No real performance issues. Gas mileage is within a normal range. I've had this issue for over 10,000 miles.

Clean/replace the PCV valve. Also try a high mileage oil like Valvoline maxlife.

The loss rate you are describing on a 13+ year old car is nothing to get too worried about. Your loss rate of 1/3 a quart every 1K, while annoying is within normal range for burn rate on many new engines (for Honda, its around 1 quart every 1000miles)
Having said that, since this is something that just recently started when was the last time you replaced the PCV valve? (as Jimzz mentioned).

You could just have some old valve seals that finally gave up the ghosts and your car is burning oil.
Not the worst thing in the world and you can safely live with it.

You should also check your oil on a more regular basis. You should not wait until oil changes and this holds true for ANY car. Old or new.

 

[tortillasoup]

Replace PCV valve, and also next time before draining the oil, look at the dipstick. I believe the different between the "FULL" mark and the "Low" mark is suppose to be 1 quart of oil. So if before you drain the oil, the oil is at the "Full Mark" then you're not really losing any oil. I don't know if you're doing oil changes yourself but if you are, you're suppose to add oil into the oil filter when replacing the filter.

 

[tonyfreak215]

Hondas are notorious for burning/losing oil; even when new.

1 liter per 1,000mi is within normal range.

Just make sure you check it regularly.

 

[sdifox]

Just carry a quart and top up whenever. I would,t bother with full synth on a civic, instead get high mileage formulation.

 

[Zenmervolt]

As others have said, oil consumption up to 1 quart every 1,000 miles is generally considered to be not worth tracking down because the fix is usually expensive and the amount of loss is small enough that it won't present a threat to the engine (unless you're an idiot who never checks his oil level between changes).

While a faulty PCV valve may be a culprit, generally this would also show up as your oil dipstick popping out of its tube with regularity (as the excess crankcase pressure would push it out enough to allow venting through the dipstick tube). So look for that symptom as well.

ZV

 

[996GT2]

Try switching back to conventional oil. On a car that old, synthetic may take too much gunk off the seals and cause leaking. There's not really much of a benefit to synthetic anyway unless you really want long oil-change intervals or do a lot of driving in really cold weather.

Since you're changing the oil every 5k miles anyway, there's no benefit to using Mobil 1, especially on a Civic.

Hondas are notorious for burning/losing oil; even when new.

I've actually heard the exact opposite, at least for Honda's inline-4s. None of the 3 Accords I've had consumed a noticeable amount of oil in between changes, and one of them had 190k+ miles on it by the time it was sold.