My wife has a 2016 Honda CRV that keeps losing oil. She damaged the oil pan a couple of years ago. She noticed noise in the engine and took it to the dealership. Incidentally, I was away on a business trip and would have looked at the oil. They told her the oil was very low and replaced the oil pan. Since that initial diagnoses she kept losing oil. The dealership told her the initial oil lose caused damage to the seals and the engine would need to be replaced. I think the engine could be repaired. Can’t the engine be rebuilt and repaired? Suffice it to say, I’ve work in IT for 30 years and don’t work with cars. The extent of my knowledge has been oil changes, replacing brakes, batteries, a few starters, etc…
By the way, we’ve not noticed oil leaks in the garage or burning of oil while driving. It just seems to lose a quart of oil once a month.
The engine may have been damaged when it was run low on oil, and it’s now burning oil.
The reason you don’t see smoke is because the catalytic converter converts it to carbon dioxide and water.
Do you have any idea how much oil is used over a 1,000 miles?
Tester
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It is unlikely economically feasible to rebuild the engine. A low mileage used engine is probably your best bet. By any chance did you previously file an insurance claim for the damaged oil pan? Definitely a long shot, but technically this was caused by a collision.
I’ve not looked at oil lose after 1000 miles. It’s interesting you mention the catalytic converter because last October it was stolen at our daughters wedding. It was at night at very large park. She had been there several hours. We were told the 2016 Honda CRV had two catalytic converters and since our state didn’t require more that one and it was not under warranty he could just weld a pipe to replace the catalytic converter. It was probably a mistake but we took the much cheaper option, at the time.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t caused from a collision and we didn’t file an insurance claim. She hit something in the road. I’m not sure that would constitute a collision.
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Assuming you have normal collision/comprehensive insurance it would be covered. It couldn’t hurt anything to talk to your insurance agent and see if there is a way it can be covered.
depending on how much your deductible is, it might not be worth going through insurance.
Hi Thomas:
Can you tell us how many miles you go before the engine is down 1 quart? (e.g. 500, 1000, 2000, …)
Also, has the rate of oil loss been the same since she hit the oil pan a couple of years ago?
I’m afraid you’ve done a number of things wrong here, to be honest.
First, letting the engine get very low on oil can easily damage it, as others have said. The engine noise is an especially bad sign. You should have monitored it very closely after the oil pan incident.
Second, you should have submitted this under your insurance. It probably would have been a comprehensive claim, which often has a lower deductible and which typically doesn’t affect your rates like a collision claim would.
Third, it’s a federal violation to tamper with the emission control system, regardless of any state laws. I strongly suspect that removing a catalytic converter falls into this category.
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As far as I know, there is only one engine which cannot be rebuilt–the Dodge/Chrysler 2.7L V-6. However, for a relatively recent model, such as yours, this would not make sense. A working used engine from a junkyard would be cheaper. The time when it does make sense to rebuild is if it’s a very old car, and finding a working, used engine would be difficult.
Can’t speak to the legalities, but it seems unlikely that cat modifications are to blame for the oil loss. What you should do at this point depends on whether the engine was ever run with no or very little oil. If it was, the current engine is toast, soup to nuts, so the best solution is to install another engine, likely that would be a used engine from the junkyard. But it could be a used rebuilt engine from an engine rebuilder. There may be new engines available which are compatible with your car too. A Honda hobby club website might know. Also, you could surf over to the Summit Racing website, see if they have anything.
If engine was never run with no or very low oil levels, you need to hire a well recommended shop to do tests to determine where the oil is going. Leaking out onto the ground, or being burned inside the engine, etc. In many cases that sort of leak problem can be solved by repairing the existing engine.