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99 Integra burning a ton of oil

13K views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  Hondacuraplanet 
#1 ·
Hi Guys
My 99 Integra has 133K miles on it. Its been fantastic for me since the day I bought it. I am the only owner and have taken great care of it. Recently, I have been taking it for oil changes and they have told me there is not even a drop of oil left. Problem is sometimes only 3 months & 2000 miles have passed between these oil changes. Took it into my mechanic and he found no leaks or any problems externally - but speculated that the problem could be inside the engine.
This scares the heck out of me and I wondered if someone can make some suggestions on (i) what the problem could be and (ii) what I should do about it.
Would appreciate it very much!

Thanks
 
#2 ·
I'd say monitor the level daily. I find that hard to believe. You would be getting oil lights on your dash if there "wasn't a drop left" that sounds like a bunch of BS.
 
#3 ·
Agreed with 2g. If there was NO oil then the oil pressure light would have come on. Even low oil will cause it to blink. Also if your burning through it that fast (if theres no leaks then its gotta be being burnt) then you'd notice a blue cloud behind the car wherever you go). Like 2g said, monitor your oil level on a daily basis and see how quickly it is disappearing.
 
#4 ·
The only reason why an Integra at that mileage would burn oil is if the car was overheated and the block stretched. At 133K, if the car was decently cared for, you can take the engine apart and still see the crosshatch marks in the cylinder bore.

As said, just keep an eye on it.....
 
#5 ·
Agree with everyone's comments about the "not a drop left" quote. Besides the oil light, I doubt your engine would have lasted long without oil to help lube and cool the interior parts.

As to your problem, I'm new to Acuras (and this forum) but I had a 1990 Mazda 626 back in the 90s with similar mileage that was consuming a quart of oil about every 500 to 1000 miles. I would get oil smoke in the morning when we first started the car or any other time after it had set for a while. This behavior is typically indicative of failed valve seals which will let oil into the combustion chamber while the car is stopped. The oil is then burned off when you first start the engine. We replaced the seals but did not fix the problem, so we replaced the seals again in case we screwed something up or had a bad set of seals. Still didn't fix the problem.

At this point, the only other likely cause of that much oil consumption was collapsed/failed oil rings on the pistons. Bought a ring kit and over a 2 day period, we replaced all the rings on the 4 pistons. Cylinders & pistons were in great shape (still some crosshatching) so we didn't have to bore the cylinders out or anything like that. Put it back together and it never used another drop of oil.

Hope this helps and good luck!

russ
 
#7 ·
A compression test would tell you if you have bad rings or valve seals, then a leak down test will tell you which one of those items is bad.
 
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