jonsanow

I need some advice
I have a 2004 Honda Civic Ex with the 1.7l vtech my wife and I have owned it since it was new. It has been maintained well and not driven hard. Car has 160,000 miles on it and is consuming oil pretty severely. At the rate of about 2quarts every 1k miles. Engine oil when changed looks normal and the car doesn’t overheat at all. It has ran low on oil a few times where the CE light came on before we knew how much oil it was consuming. The last time I changed the oil I did notice fluid and lil had come out of the coolant reservoir tank so I am sure it has a bad gasket. I am thinking of doing new head on it but the mechanic I took it to was worried it could have an issue with the block because of how much oil it is going through. So my biggest question is could just a bad head gasket and possible head go through that much oil. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

BrotatoChip

The common head gasket failures on these engines do not cause oil consumption. It will actually cause the coolant reservoir to fill up and eventually overflow as coolant in the engine is replaced with combustion gases. I don't think this is your issue.

2 quarts every 1k miles is quite a bit. Are you sure it's not leaking a significant amount of oil? Usually the most oil consumption I see in other Honda engines is around 1 quart every 1k miles, and that is on 200k+ mile engines.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

oil rings collapsing from carbon build up is also common.
either leaking or burning oil badly.

FRSam

How frequent were your oil changes and did you use conventional or synthetic? What sort of driving do you do? Do you let the car warm up adequately before driving?

Oil consumption, as previously mentioned, is pretty normal with these cars. Mine would leak about a quart every 1500-ish miles at 200k, but I also bought from the original owner who also did synthetic oil changes every 3000 miles. Even then, it burns a ton.

The oil is bypassing the piston rings, which is in your engine block. Replacing the head there would do nothing. If you’re keen on fixing it, an entire engine would probably be the best course of action.

jonsanow

Oil has been changed about every 5k miles recently it was a little more as I have been adding oil so more frequently. And for the last 50k miles it has been changed out with Mobil-1 synthetic but last couple times was with the Costco Kirkland synthetic. Like I said I do have oil that looks like it is in the coolant. So I know I probably have a head gasket issue. Could the major consumption be the piston rings. We have owned it since new and has not been driven hard. Just weighing options of putting money into it or getting rid of it. Has been a good car and besides timing belt/water pump has only had an issue with the alternator.

I have not seen any oil spots below the car did a while back but had a leak in camshaft plug. Changed that and visible leak went away.

The car very rarely gets warmed up to much before getting driven but do not live in that cold of a climate. I live in Oregon. It passed our emission check last year as well but they just plug into the obII port.

FRSam

Oil in the coolant would be very strange given that's not a symptom of head gasket failure for these cars. Not saying it isn't a bad head gasket, but that's not a normal symptom, unless maybe the engine's just been way overfilled.

I prefer doing my oil changes more frequently, but that's probably not a cause for concern.