[dmitri8]

Hi,

Can't think of a better place to ask this: has anyone experienced excessive ring wear on their TSX over the years (mine's 2004 manual)? I do drive it relatively hard, and eventually in the past year or so it started to consume oil at a rate where it needs to be topped off every 3000 miles or so. Eventually (last week) I had to take it in because the engine light was on; it ended up with just about 1 qt of oil left in there, which is of course insanely low. Had to replace the chain/tensioner/actuator because it has run long enough with low oil that the chain stretched too much fro the heat.

When I asked "what is wrong with it", the dealer said the rings are worn, and that's why it burns more oil than usual. He suggested I might have bad MT driving habits, and that there's a lot of engine load likely due to excessive engine braking. I, naturally, don't think my habits are all that terrible (hmm... aranoid: ), although like I said I do drive it somewhat hard/fast. But really the only thing that I can think of, for which incorrect engine braking would be bad, would be the clutch wear, no? But the clutch is fine...

The dealer did say that it should be OK -- as long as I top it off every 3000 miles or so (I'm planning on 2500, half-way between the changes), and continue with the 5000-mile oil change/service schedule, which BTW I had followed religiously since the day I bought it, back in Jan '04.

It's got 166,000 miles on it now.

Another reason I'm doubting that the driving habits are an issue here, is that one of my friends has '97 Accord (manual) and he's driving it like crazy; he's basically waiting for it to die before he has to buy a new one. So he takes off fast with cold engine, downshifts all the way to 1st gear without much synchronization, etc. I don't do anything like that.

Anyway, just wanted to throw this out there, see if anyone had any similar experiences, or just some words of wisdom re. the subject matter. Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Hondacuraplanet]

You've got a 9 year old vehicle with 166,000 miles on the odometer, and you admittedly beat on it. But that's not the root cause

When you overheat one of these engines, it stretches the aluminum block slightly, and you end up burning oil between changes. Back in the days of the early 90s Civics, we saw this constantly. After they overheat, they'd burn about a quart every 1000 miles.

Usually, the stretching of the block ends up making the cylinder bores slightly out of round, which allows oil to burn through. Honing the cylinders during a rebuild sometimes, but not always, cures the issue.

 

[dmitri8]

Thanks so much for your reply; that makes sense. The dealer was also talking about how aluminum-block engines have more of this problem compared to the older (iron) ones...

Actually 166 was a typo (that was our truck) -- the car is only 114... but nevertheless, the sarcasm is duly noted.

Do you think downshifting would contribute to this at all? I would think only acceleration would matter in this, and the only thing downshifting (even the bad kind, without proper sync) would affect would be the clutch wear? Or am I wrong about this?

When you coast down a long slight slope in 6th or 5th gear (i.e. no gas at all), letting the engine maintain the speed, let's say it's at 3000 RPM, I'm thinking the strain/load on the engine (the heat produced inside) wouldn't be anywhere NEAR that if you were making the same 3000 RPM on a flat surface or on a slight uphill (i.e. gas pedal depressed), no?

Thanks again!

 

[Hondacuraplanet]

Does slowing with the clutch contribute to overheating? No. Does it contribute to clutch wear? Well yes, but how much depends on the severity of the downshift, and how fast the clutch is engaged. What you're doing is taking the place of the brakes. Both operate by friction, so therefore *some* wear is going to happen with slowing a vehicle.

It's usually best to slow with the brakes, they're much easier and cheaper to replace