Hi all,

My 09 Sport has 190K miles on it, and I found out today that it is burning massive amounts of oil. I am a slacker when it comes to checking the oil in between changes, but I did it today while I was changing the starter out and found NO OIL on the dipstick. To any of you that read my starter change thread - this was before I removed the oil filter to get the starter out, so that didn't have anything to do with it. I had to add about 1 quart to get it up to a normal level.

Now, the car has always ran well and I've never had any issues with it up until recently with the starter problem. I perform all regular maintenance. When I checked the oil today, the maintenance minder was at 40%, which means about 6,000 miles since the last oil change. That means that this car is eating up a quart of oil every 6K, which astounds me. Is anyone else having this issue on their high-mileage Fits? I know that high mileage cars burn oil, but this is pretty bad.

 

My 09 has been burning a quart every 5k miles since day 1. The dealership says anything less than a quart every 1k is normal. I've mentioned this to several people and two have decided against buying Hondas as a result. In fairness, however, it hasn't seemed to have affected performance.

In your case, I'd be concerned about the sudden change. Perhaps a leak in the valve-cover gasket?

 

I suggest that you fill it to the proper level, then monitor the oil and see exactly how much it is using.




BTW: How come Honda make dipsticks that are so hard to read? I have to use the Braille method to read mine.

 

It is rather normal at 190.000 miles / 305.000 Km
Have you tried using 5W30 instead of 0w20?

 

I think one quart every 5000 miles is not bad. I would be upset if it was 1 quart per 1000.

 

Don't do that. Using the wrong weight oil doesn't fix this or any other problem.

 

Does the USA instruction manual obblige the owners to use only 0w20?

In Italy we have a wide range of options for our FIT/Jazz and the oil recomendations vary from 0W20 to 10W40 and with worn out engines we place thicker oils.

 

Thanks. My guess is that it wasn't a sudden change....as I said I'm a slacker on checking the oil level between changes. The few times that I have checked it were probably to soon after an oil change to notice any significant usage. I will start checking it much more often. The good news is that it doesn't seem to affect gas mileage or performance, and the car did just pass a California smog check.

 

Maybe you are right. I still use 5W-20 oil, which is the recommended value for North American Fits. The manual doesn't give any other options here.

 

Yep, that's what I will be doing from now on. Regarding the dipstick...I don't remember having an issue reading it. There are two dots, and you want the level to ideally be directly in between those dots, correct? And the dots aren't hard to see.

 

The usual problem causing oil consumption is stuck oil control rings.

The space between the dots on the dipstick is equal to one quart. Ideally you want the level at the top mark or dot.

One quart in 6k is not much.
One quart per thousand miles is still ok as long as one can keep up with checking and refiling.
Far from ideal, but not unacceptable.
The engine only holds 4 quarts so any loss can be significant....and if you can't keep up you will be taxed heavily LOL.

0w20 oil is absolutely acceptable--- and may help reverse the stuck ring situation after many oil changes. I recommend it.

Switching to heavier oil does not always work the way people expect. This isn't the 70s anymore, old school thinking is old, and heavier oil is usually much lower quality leading to more coking of the oil control rings--which was the original problem causing oil consumption.

 

0W20 is the only OEM oil spec that I am aware of for my '13 Fit.

 

Never heard of this. (But that doesn't mean it's not correct. )

Agreed.


I am under the impression that 1 quart of oil consumed every 3,000 mi. is acceptable, but that impression may be out of date. My car has 23,XXX mi., and it doesn't appear to be using any oil every 3,000 mi. [/Quote]

Agreed (sort of). I suggest that before anyone veers away from OEM oil spec recommendations, they learn about oil and what it does. Bob the Oil Guy's website is a good place to start. Generally, you want the thinnest possible oil for the job in every application because the job of oil is to provide a lubricating layer between moving surfaces, not to fix oil leaks or muffle sound.

Keep in mind that modern valve trains are often designed in such a way that they consume some oil.

 

My '09 has used about 2/3 qt between oil changes....since new. Following the MM I have routinely changed the oil every 10k. I keep a qt or two of 5w-20 on hand (Honda spec for the '09 model year) to top up between changes, and I check all fluid levels at least twice a month. Current mileage is 110K.

 

You can trust me...I'm wearing a tie.


Disagree.
Change that to read "All engines" and I'll agree.

The amount of consumption, and whether or not anyone notices said consumption are variables.

By design, necessary oil consumption is controlled by the crosshatch honing pattern in the cylinder walls. The angle and depth of the hone marks control how much oil is kept on the walls after the rings scrape it down..

Once the oil control rings get stuck this becomes a different story.

 

I used to be able to claim that my 1987 Civic "didn't use any oil", even after 225,000 miles. What that really meant was that it didn't use enough oil between changes to need topping up.

Our 2009 Fit has just under 60,000 miles and uses a quart of oil about every 7,000-7,500 miles, which is not at all excessive. If it had the same oil-change intervals as the old '87 Civic, I could make the same claim about oil use.

But today's longer oil-change intervals make that a different story. The 2009 puts on about 10,000 miles between MM-recommended changes. If I didn't check and top up between changes, the engine would be seriously low on oil just before it was time to change.

Just because the car has longer service intervals doesn't mean one can neglect the usual routine checks. Quite the opposite - they become more important because the service intervals are less frequent.

 

I agree but...I thought that "using oil" or significant amounts of oil was still generally considered a bad sign for engines....at least it always was when I was growing up. It meant that the piston rings were wearing out and that the spark plugs were getting fouled with oil. If this is no longer the case, and my Fit just uses oil like crazy and it's normal, you would think that would be mentioned in the service manual somewhere. Of course it tells you to check the oil, but it doesn't say that you will definitely be pouring in a quart or two between changes. I find that to be a significant flaw.

 

Yes, that's what I learned too. The relevant question is: what's the definition of "significant" consumption?

All engines are going to use oil. It's just the nature of their design. Yes, there are seals and piston rings to minimize this but some little bit of oil will seep past and leak or be burned over time. When these wear out, the seepage becomes much worse.

I think if you search, you'll find that "significant" generally is taken to mean using a quart of oil in less than 1,000 miles. Based on this, I certainly can't complain about going over seven times this distance.

 

I wouldn't class a qt per 6,000 as excessive, as long as it's running well just check and top it up as required, a friend of mine when buying a new Civic a few years ago was told by the Honda dealership to check his new cars oil regularly as in there words " they can use up to a pint every 1000 miles",

He does and it doesn't, its now done 120k and still uses no oil and runs like a Swiss watch, so I guess some use more than others but its not necessary a fault, I know someone with a BMW mini that uses a pint every 2k, its only done 40k and has done it since day one, BMW seam to think it's perfectly acceptable.

 

You're talking about oil from the crank case that gets by the rings? I'm talking about oil that is used to lubricate and cool the valve train.

Say, if you're so smart, maybe you can tell me why the valve lifters on my '13 Fit engine make more racket than a Tito Puente album, even though it only has 23k miles on it.

Don't be afraid to offer your opinion . . . I'm wearing mink-lined undershorts and a tennis visor signed by Jimmy Connors.