instalher

hey guys, i drive a 03 civic lx sport. the car has 270000km on it or 168,000miles..now i have done all oil changes faithfully if not over the recommondations with castrol/ then at 120000km switched to castrol high mileage. each time i change oil filters. with fram double gaurd. now its not unusuall for my car to get 7-10 oil changes per yr..well last month i was working on a customers car who ownes a garage.. he said he would give me the oil change for nothing for helping him out.. ok i says.. i pick up my car an noticed some noise from the motor. upon calling him back his tech tells me they put in castrol syn. instead of my usual oil.. i was told by him its better, and if the tick annoys me to add lucas oil aditive to thicken up the oil.. ummm no. so now its been 1000km. and the car is sluggish, hesitates under load, bad gas mileage. so i bring it in and he says my o2 senser is covered in black and shot and i am down 2 liters in the engine!!! now i ask him how this is possible.. his answer is the car is so high mileage that its just the way it is. so now he is charging me for a new o2 senser and oil change( my oil). and tells me the motor might be shot.. thats why all the oil is gone.. befor this the car never burned any oil at all and the o2 was tested and found to be perfect.. any ideas guys....

j00fek

double seal on the filter? is it leaking on the ground? check your tailpipe for burnt oil

clogged injectors maybe, when was the last time you ran a bottle of lucas fuel treatment or seafomed?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

something is wrong with the way they did it. i know oil change is about as simple as it gets, but most people dont spend the time to do it right. if the car was fine before you went in, then its something they did. o2 sensors dont just go bad overnight, neither do motors. and certainly synthetic will not cause a problem. im at nearly 100k and just switched to synthetic last change with no issues. car felt the same and very slightly smoother. going down the same hill every day i was holding a few mph higher than normal and the engine feels like it is working easier with less friction. hardly a difference, but still noticable if you pay attention. no way would switching oils cause the issue you have. they prolly forgot to add enough oil, or they put in a really thick weight like 10w30.

instalher

well now that they have put in castrol high mileage the car on cold morning starts ticks (lifter) for about 20 sec. and its still kicks and hesitates under load.. they want 1500 for a rebuild and they will warranty it.. or i am very good freinds with a honda auto wreaker.. he can get me any motor i want installed for 500.... so if i go with another motor which one should i do?

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

stick with the lx motor, it is better all around for everything except racing. make sure you get the best match to what you have (with or without egr valve, auto or manual, etc). there are different sensors and stuff. try and get an engine for 01-03 otherwise 04-05 use different ecu and oxygen sensors among other things. best is to find the exact engine for your year and model. make sure about the egr tho. if too many things are wrong, your current ecu wont work properly.

instalher

thank you for the tips.. save on imports has lots of under 50.000km motors so i will just take one of them..

MindBomber

Aside from not putting enough oil in, I'm trying to figure out what someone could do wrong during an oil change. I know a guy who worked at a quick change place who put coolant in a motor and destroyed it, but that was intentional. I'm seriously trying to figure out what could have caused this, I don't want to destroy my engine during a change.

Remove drain bolt, drain oil, replace drain bolt, remove filter, replace filter, remove oil cap, add oil, replace oil cap, check dip stick.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

i remember reading a site with thousands of jiffy lube complaints and i dont remember specifics, but there were alot of complaints about blown motors. i guess you can add too little oil, and not oil the filter, then the level will be below min and if it burns oil, it will destroy the motor. you can also put a bad drain seal washer and it will be dripping til the next oil change, i know our accord will leak with metal washers but be perfectly dry with nylon. some shop forget to tighten the bolt, i mean there are all sorts of things you can mess up easily that will cause serious damages.