Tedverseti

Hey guys, I just wanted the forum's opinion on my situation. Before I start, I will say that I've been up and down the internet, but haven't found anyone with a solution to my exact problem. So here we go. I own a 2003 EX Sedan. Got it at 97,xxx last March. It's currently at 117,xxx. My timing belt service was done at around 107,xxx.

1) I did my regularly scheduled oil change back in February. Filter & 4 quarts of oil.

2) Sometime in March, I get a CEL. Get the codes read, all 4 cylinders misfiring. Hard start, slow acceleration. The plugs were suggested to be changed. Got some NGK Iridiums and changed them, since I haven't done the plugs anyways since I got the car one year ago. Didn't fix the CEL. Took it to a trusted shop that I go to for big jobs. They fixed:
- My EGR being unplugged somehow
- My thermostat being unplugged as well
- Car needed two quarts of oil.

The oil issue stuck out to me, but the CEL went away after that.

3) FF to two weeks ago. Mid April. Car is occasionally hard starting again. Slow acceleration when changing gears. So, CEL comes on again about 5 days ago. Same codes. Bring it to the dealership just to see what they say. They claim my plugs are fouled & that I shouldn't have used the NGK Iridiums (Bullshit. NGK is what comes from the factory) & that I need dealership plugs. $25 a pop. So I said no. There's no way that I just changed my plugs and they're fouled out with carbon build up already. Even if I had used shitty plugs, they still shouldn't foul out so quickly.

I understand that it could be valve stems or rings, but the car isn't smoking and the shop didn't catch that when I took it in for the first CEL (they know their stuff though. They did my timing belt and caught an oil leak that wasn't even visible), so I'm ruling that out. The oil is going somewhere though. I also understand that all 4 cylinders misfiring could be the cat, but in this case, the oil shouldn't be burning off so quickly because of that. I'm having a knowledgeable friend come by today and do a compression test, but any suggestion guys? Anybody else had these same exact symptoms and found a fix?

(SN: My A/C compressor is bad. Idk if that has anything to do with anything, but I'm waiting for the parts to come in Tuesday before I fix that)

mikey1

this is probably not related to your problem but 4 quarts of oil is too much,

if its not leaking oil then its burning it, simple,

your problem is most likely stuck rings,

how much is it burn roughly?....lets say per 1,000 miles?

these cars can burn a heck of alot of oil without seeing any visable signs out the tailpipe

Tedverseti

I would roughly estimate that it burns through almost 3/4 of the oil it takes initially. Just did a compression test. My numbers in order were: 165, 150, 160, & 165.

Tedverseti

That's what the new plugs I recently put in looked like when I took them out to do the test.

mikey1

are you saying its burning 2-3 quarts every 1,000 miles????????

mikey1

hard to tell from that pic, but those plugs do not look too bad, they dont look like they are to the point that they would not even fire/spark

ezone

Plugs look fine to me right now.
No yours aren't the same as the stock NGK (would have been PZFR6F-11), but I don't see a good reason in the pics why those would need replaced.

BUT the plugs shown were not installed tight enough.. I can see a couple of the gaskets have not been crushed. (the two in the middle)

Plugs that have been correctly tightened will have the gaskets squashed flat.
Possible contributing factor to your misfire? Probably not but IDK...
The plugs as pictured don't appear to be related to or causing misfire codes.....

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As Mikey stated,
4 quarts is too much: 3.5 is probably closer to correct. The engine may try to push out excess.

Establish how much oil the engine consumes and how quickly it consumes it.
For example a quart per 1000 miles is perfectly acceptable, even if it is not desirable.
However it is your responsibility to check oil often and regularly, and add more oil when needed.
If you don't, you will get to pay "the tax".

If you can keep up with the rate of consumption, that is good. If you forget or ignore it and the engine runs very low on oil, it causes more damage and the consumption rate can increase every time the engine oil is allowed to get critically low.
If it runs low enough of oil to damage bearings, you get to pay "the tax".

Also, the VTEC system depends on proper oil level to operate. If the oil gets so low that there isn't enough pressure to operate the system, the PCM sets P1259 code and restricts engine power.
That usually means your oil is about 3 quarts low. That means there's only about a half quart left in the engine, that's hella bad for it.


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Oil consumption issues are most frequently caused by stuck oil rings.
A compression test cannot evaluate oil rings. They could be completely missing and you'd still be showing decent compression test numbers.