charlie@opus.UUCP (Charles Carrington) (06/04/85)
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My 1975 Honda Civic 1200 requires 1 qt of oil to be added every 250-300 miles.
Normally, this wouldn't be unusual in a car of this age, but what puzzles me
is an apparent lack of the usual symptoms of high oil consumption. (except the
most obvious :-) Some observations:
- Actual mileage is unknown, but is probably >100K
- There are no leaks. Even a professional mechanic could not find any.
- There is no visible smoke on cold start-up. I occasionally notice a
small amount of smoke when shifting, especially during the initial
warm-up, but it is not particularly blue or particularly dense. The
car is definitely not a "smoker".
- The compression is good. 110-115 psi all cylinders.
- Several thousand miles after the last tune-up, the spark plugs are
perfect- no soot, no oily deposits.
- There is a small amount of dry soot in the tail pipe- enough to
blacken only the ridges of my fingerprint.
- The general performance of the engine has been very good- quick
starting and smooth, strong running. I get >30mpg in average
driving.
The best my mechanic could come up with was: "Well, it's not leaking it, so it
must be burning it, but obviously burning it very efficiently." Gee, thanks
a lot, but that's pretty cold comfort.
Does anybody have any ideas on this? Is my engine really just worn out? I
would be willing to accept some oil consumption in a car this old and this
cheap, but it bugs me no end not to know how and why it is being used. Any
advice or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks, as they say, in advance,
--
Charles Carrington NBI, Inc. Boulder, Colorado
{hao,seismo,ucbvax}!nbires!charliegvcormack@watdaisy.UUCP (Gordon V. Cormack) (06/09/85)
> My 1975 Honda Civic 1200 requires 1 qt of oil to be added every 250-300 miles. > This is "normal" for old Honda Civics. They still run fine and don't have any visible smoke. I had a Honda that got 25 miles/quart (rusted rings). It smelled a bit, but wasn't a real smoker. Replacing the rings (which is very easy on this car) got the oil consumption back to about 2000 mi/quart. The compression is generally fine because it is the oil control rings that screw up. Because the compression is good, the oil is burned well, and there is little smoke. -- Gordon V. Cormack CS Department, University of Waterloo gvcormack@watdaisy.uucp gvcormack%watdaisy@waterloo.csnet