Please help a poor college student with my 99 Honda Accord. It has mysteriously gone through 1 quart of oil every 800 miles consistently since I bought it at 33k miles. Now it is at 95k miles. Very disappointing for a Honda. Even after a warranty-covered engine “top-side” rebuild it does the same. No visible smoke out the tail pipe, and no oil where I park it. Warranty is now over, and Honda says they will do no more repairs. Where could this oil be going? Engine oil gnomes? I want to stop winning oil consumption competitions with my friends!
Also, could this have anything to do with a “shuddering/sticky” engagement of my clutch (5-speed), and the occasional “oily” smell coming in through the vents, and the loud clackity-valve-sounds when the engine is cold?
It’s possible that it could be burning oil past the piston rings and the catalytic converter is catching the smoke.
A leak-down test could be performed and this MAY give a definitive answer about the rings. This should have been done initially when an oil consumption complaint was made.
If the engine is leaking oil around a rear main seal then this could cause a sticky clutch problem and a burning smell from oil residues. One would think the bellhousing area would be oily or dark to some extent.
I would not blame Honda for a bad engine at this point. You bought the car used and if the original owner thrashed it during and after the break-in period this means the owner was the problem, not the car. The same goes about overheating. It only takes one overheating episode to ruin piston rings and you have no idea if this happened with the original owner or not.
The clacking sounds like excessive valve lash, which should be inspected on a regular basis.
Given the fact that someone has been into the top end I would suspect they did not adjust them properly. If the valves were not adjusted properly, then one wonders about other areas also.
Just a few questions. As to this “warranty” top end job, did Honda Motor Company cover this or did the dealer cover it? There’s a difference.
When you say Honda will not cover it any more do you mean the Honda dealer or Honda Motor Co.?
Thanks for replying! The top end rebuild was covered by “Honda Care” which is their warranty program for their Certified Used Cars. They claimed to have done a compression test, which they got supposedly satisfactory results from, so they did not work on the bottom side. It was probably a bad move to buy the car off someone else’s lease, but I was in too much of a hurry to buy a car to do any good research that would teach me that. But now I know.