Problem & Fix: Excessive Oil Consumption in 2003-2007 Honda Accords w/ 2.4L DOHC

[Yury]

+1 on pcv valve. in my prelude just replacing it reduced oil consumption from 1l/1000 km to half of that. So, yeah, it can **** that much out. I also remember getting oil in the intake that stopped with a new valve.

and...please don't take your car to Midas and the likes...just dont These types of places are barely qualified to pump tires.

[subsurface1]

I just wanted to say that this thread has been very insightful. I just purchased a 2003 Honda Accord, 2.4L, with 115,000 miles, and it has consumed 3 quarts of oil in 5 weeks. No warranty, yada yada. I just did a top end piston soak to see if that clears things up, but I have my doubts.

Looking forward, can you guys recommend better oil control rings? I plan on buying the Honda OEM versions from the dealer, however, I'm not so sure they are the best to go with. Are the OEM ones going to start doing this again? Is there a better alternative in the aftermarket?

Thanks in advance....

[ssam390]

I have a 2003 Honda Accord with over 170,000 miles. It has been eating oil for about 4 years now. Now I put in one quart every weekend. When I use engine treatment with oil change, it slows for two weeks or so and then it is the same.

I had the head cleaned and it is good on gas now but no luck with oil consumption. I guess after 200,000 miles I will not care anymore. I bought it new in 2003.

Two years ago I drove it without oil. So I got it fixed and head cleaned. I replaced the chain, the guides, the tensioner, the cam shaft sprocket, serpentine belt. 4 of the valves were bent. I had to replace 4 valves instead of 16.

Mechanic suggested to use 10W30 instead of 10W20? Will that help in oil consumption?

Thanks,
Sam

[rszappa1]

I have a 2007 with 170,000 on it and it does not use any oil..... I still use 5w20 and change every 5,000 miles...

[ATR]

115k here and still not much oil consumption. maybe 1qt per 5,000 miles...
My secret is castrl syntec or pensoil platinum 5w20. I always found in both my 99 civic and my 06 accord that using synthetic oil from the standard dino oil helped quite a bit.
Some of those in this thread may indeed have a leaky seal or something else that may need proper attention though (take it to a honda mechanic!).

[MADART]

Because of the relative infrequency of this happening it kind of sounds like a break in problem more than an engineering one.

Has anyone that has this problem had their engine apart and the bores checked for glazing?

Many people treat their engines badly in this phase due to bad advice. Spinning the engine up to higher revs under light load (lower gears) is the way to go, not babying the engine at low revs and lugging it, which causes excessive heat and glazing.

The wrong oil (synthetic usually) in the first 100 miles along with lugging the engine (too low revs under load) will certainly glaze the bores and cause excessive consumption.
This becomes more noticeable after the break in oil is changed out around 1k.
Glazed bores will also not show up in a compression test.

Engines like the Honda with close tolerances which develop power and torque higher in the rev rage are particularly prone to this. The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade motorcycle engine redesign in 2008 was another case where many owners faced this same problem, and as said, just gave up and sold the vehicle and it's problem on. Honda was not helpful in this case either.