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I bought my 2006 civic LX at 103,700 miles. It was in the middle of the oil change cycle, so around 107,000 I changed the oil myself with

Mobil 1 full synthetic 5W20
Extended guard filter from Fram

Since then, I have driven ~8000 miles at the end of which I promptly changed the oil again.

Towards the end of those 8000 miles, I took a 500 mile trip from Mississippi to Texas and was carrying my bicycle on trunk mount rack. At the end of the trip, I noticed that the chainstays on the bike were covered with black soot since they sat around the tail pipe. I have never noticed this before with this car.

When I changed the oil, it looked black pouring out, but thin film of it still showed some amberness, so I don't think it was completely broken down.

I didn't exactly measure if any oil was lost, but the black soot makes me wonder if:

1. Is the car burning oil
2. Is 8000 mile interval too long for this oil and it was way past time for a change.

Any advice would be appreciated. I just bought this car and I plan to keep it at least until 250K unless it starts burning oil.

Thanks folks.

Edit 1: I should note that my first oil change (around 107,000) showed no signs of oil burning. And I have been getting pretty good gas mileage (between 32 and 38mpg)

 
Rep Power: 518

Tailpipe soot is normally from fuel, not oil.

The only way to tell if the engine is "burning oil" is to see if it is low and being consumed unusually rapidly. (UNLESS it is billowing clouds of blue smoke out the tailpipe.)
You already missed. You SHOULD be checking fluids every time you fill the gas tank....then you would KNOW how much or how fast it uses oil.
(Same for coolant. Most of the cars need the reservoir topped up every time you change oil.)

Did the drain bucket FEEL like about 4 quarts came out when you changed the oil?
If so, then it's probably fine.



Oil consumption is designed in to every engine, no matter if you realize it or not. No matter if you can see it or not.
Oil consumption is normal and acceptable if within certain parameters. Your concern should be to keep oil in the engine, add more as needed.

If the engine used one quart of oil per every 1000 miles, that is considered acceptable (even if it is not desirable). If you don't refill it regularly, it will run out of oil and leave you with a paperweight.
This actually happened with my sisters 05 Chrysler van. Holds 5 quarts. Uses 1 quart every 1000 miles. Drove it almost 5000 miles without checking the oil. Freekin empty, barely enough oil to fill the filter by the time I got it.

Once an engine has been run super low on oil, they tend to consume oil even faster. Rings are lubed with oil splash. If the oil is low enough, insufficient lubrication happens, then accelerated wear of those parts. This doesn't heal itself.



8000 miles can be fine, depending on conditions.
You can follow the maintenance minder as long as you use proper oil. Sooner is ok, but I wouldn't go beyond what it suggests.
Depending on how you drive, it can let you go 4000 miles to over 10,000 before it tells you to change oil.





Extreme examples: Change oil, reset the reminder.

Drive across the country 3000 miles non stop each direction until the reminder pops on. You might get 12k before it comes on. Very low stress for the engine and the oil. Oil probably would still look pretty golden too.

Hope you checked the oil every once in a while. Add if necessary.

Same deal, only do some "soccer mom" driving. Cold start, go only 3 miles, shut it off. Never get the engine fully warmed up. Repeat ad nauseam. (This situation is extremely hard on oil and engines.) The reminder MIGHT let you go 4k, tops. Oil WILL be black.


Color of the oil is not a true indication of oil condition.
Oil turns dark as it does its job.
Dark color is mostly from holding contaminants in suspension.

The M-1 is good oil.

I'd recommend changing the ATF often (assuming an automatic trans). Every 30k, minimum. More often might be even better.



Sorry, I seem to ramble this morning.
HTH

 
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Dear Ezone,

Thank you so much for taking time to give me proper feedback. I come from a 8th generation corolla that went through two engine changes and the third one still burns oil. So I am overly cautious about my oil consumption.

A couple of things I would like to clarify:

1. I do check oil level pretty regularly. When I did my first oil change at 107,000, the discarded oil filled up an entire gallon of milk, and the dip stick was always full.

2. Before I took the 500 mile trip, I checked the dipstick and the lowest two chambers were dry, so I filled it up with about 1/2 qt of oil. So thats about 450mL of oil consumed in 7500 miles.

3. I always go by the maintenance minder. Both oil changes were done within 5% oil life remaining notice. It makes me wary though that the minder does not make a distinction between regular and synthetic oils. I thought synthetic oils could easily go up to 10000 miles.

4. I drive very conservatively, never redline it, and I accelerate slowly, no sudden movements. I baby my engine .

5. When I bought the car, I changed all fluids out myself. Coolant drain and refill, automatic transmission fluid drain and refill; and power steering flush. So all my fluids are within 12000 miles at the moment.

I will keep an eye on the dipstick. I wish they made a better dipstick. The reading area is very small. It was much better on my corolla (about an inch and half).

Once again, thanks for your time.

 
Rep Power: 518

In North America, the term is nearly meaningless. The term is all marketing.
It takes a lot more to determine if an oil is truly sufficient for your needs.

Reread my example soccer mom scenario in my previous post. That sort of situation is extremely hard on oil and engines, no matter what your choice of oil is. Fuel dilution doesn't care about your oil. Fuel dilution in sufficient quantities can and will eventually damage lubricated surfaces.

Some 7th gen cars said you could go 10,000 miles on an oil change, with "regular" oil. It's in the owners manual.

The maint. minder system is designed around a model, there is no actual sampling of any oil by the computer. It's use depends on the owner using a proper spec oil.

Not bad at all.


I just hate the fact that it is orange. Hard as heck to read when the oil is clean.

OTOH the plastic dipstick makes it easy to tell if the engine has been overheated severely. It becomes about 4 inches long, that engine is a goner.



Please note: Your engine block is covered for 8 years/unlimited mileage for cracking causing coolant loss. Don't sweat it unless it actually happens. It's a really small ratio, like less than 5% of the cars do it...IMO.