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hi, my daughter has a 04 1.3l hybrid civic and a few days ago the oil light came on and she brought it home and it was about 2 qt low. then today she said that when she starts it, the car shudders then dies. i went and looked at it and found the oil was still really low so i filled the oil and tried it. it still wouldnt start (acting like it isnt getting fuel i think). i plugged a scanner in and had a bunch of misfire codes and oil pressure codes, cleared codes for grins and it starts up but smokes white like crazy, runs kinda rough and pisses oil.

i pushed it in the garage and jacked it up to try and follow the oil and it looks like it is coming from somewhere under the intake (left side of engine front of the car) is there something under there that commonly leaks oil? it only does it when running and i dont have any experience working on hondas, i used to be a ford diesel and heavy diesel mechanic.

any help is appreciated.

 
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I'm not aware of any common oil leaks there.


I suggest running it while sending a phone or camera from the top and bottom recording video to see if you can find the leak.

You might find it only leaks at high RPM.

It may also only leak with hot oil - the 0W-20 suggested oil is very thin and will seep through tiny gaps.


Keep us updated with what you find - mine has a slow oil leak too, and rather than track it down, I just use slightly thicker oil (mix in about 30% 10W-40) and leave the oil level low (it seems to leak faster if it's filled higher). Having said that, I'm sure those things are dramatically shortening my engine life, but then this car is pretty close to the scrapheap for other reasons. I end up adding about 0.5 liters of oil per 1000 miles.

 
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Oh - it might be leaking through the crank case ventilation tube. maybe see if the air filter is saturated with oil...