What can be symptoms of oil consumption?

[8ball]

I'm not quite sure exactly how I can tell if there is a severe problem with my car or not.

Here is what happens. I turn on my car early in the morning there is not any oil that comes out, I drive my car in the city and I do not see any type carbon build up on the bumper or on my exhaust. I think I may need to replace my oil pan gasket since there is a small leak there. Since there is no build up or smoke other than a leak; what can be causing my oil comsumption?

[ibr_adam09]

how bad is it, is it burning a good amount oil a day ?

[8ball]

I threw a quart of oil in it to top it off, I drove about 100 miles and needed another quart , I'm not sure if its from revving high or if the oil pan gasket is KAPUT. I see no oil out the exhaust.

[Losiracer2]

if you have an H22, VTEC usage lol

[evil_demon_01]

^^ x2, Vtec uses oil.
Mind you, not usually 1 quart per 100 miles.

Check for oil leaks, namely - Sump gasket, rocker cover gasket, and distributor o-rings

[HondaFan81]

This is a basic question. Look at a service manual and diagram of your engine.

You should be able to locate a leak from the engine compartment if you have eyes. Check around the distributor base area, valve cover gasket area, front engine seals area, oil pan gasket or rear main seal area. From there, it is obvious on how to fix the problem.

If your engine has no leaks, then suspect internal engine consumption, which is a bit more difficult to find out. Oil mixture blown out exhaust after motor has sat overnight, etc when first started up = valve stem seals replacement. If not that, but engine consumes while driving/revving it, it could be bad piston rings. Also pull your spark plug wires and check in the valve cover tubes for oil accumulation on the plugs = rocker arm O-rings.

Whatever your problem, it should be obvious at the rate of consumption you describe.

[visualpoet]

^ I agree! A quart in 100 miles? WOW! How can you not find that leak? It's either following you as a big blue cloud, or it's dripping off of something.

Take it to the carwash, clean the engine (several threads around here on that). Take it home, park it, slip a big piece of clean cardboard underneath it, let it run for a few minutes, rev it up a couple of times (not crazy just a few thou) and the shut it off and let it set over night. In the morning, look for stains on your brand new high tech oil leak locating device, then pop the hood and look for fresh oil on the block. If you're burning a quart in 100 miles, you'd see it, so you must be leaking it somewhere and you're not seeing it, which leads me to believe that it must not be too clean under the hood. That small leak at the gasket is probably a big leak when it's running. You're probably leaving a trail of droplets everywhere you go.

[wed3k]

you cant burn one quart of oil in 100 miles so it has to be a leak.

[phantomcow2]

One common oil leak on our accords is the crankshaft seal. This was a problem I had a while ago, though it was leaking just the tiniest bit. It was replaced during my last timing belt change. This seal pops out of place and can cause serious oil leakages. It's mentioned a lot on this forum, actually. This could potentially ruin your engine if it popped out of place. Check your timing belt, is it soaked in oil? After your remove the timing belt cover it will be very obvious if this is the culprit given the rate of consumption.

[8ball]

I found a leak after placing a clean cardboard under the car and degreasing the underside. It is coming from the transmission side. I removed the oil pan and the converter shield. I didnt see any leakage but when I put the new gasket on it leaked bad again. I looked under it and the gasket is misaligned. Im redoing it friday. Do you guys think its my rearmain?

[HondaFan81]

I found a leak after placing a clean cardboard under the car and degreasing the underside. It is coming from the transmission side. I removed the oil pan and the converter shield. I didnt see any leakage but when I put the new gasket on it leaked bad again. I looked under it and the gasket is misaligned. Im redoing it friday. Do you guys think its my rearmain?

Based on your first check, you said yourself it is not the rear main. You said you removed the clutch/converter shield and oil pan to inspect, YOU tell us what you see. Should be obvious if rear main seal is leaking.

The fact you didn't install the oil pan gasket correctly does not help. I would fix this issue, wipe the engine down well and observe after another 100-200 miles (based on how bad your leak rate is).

Report back after looking over the engine top, bottom, both sides, etc.

Keep in mind that if the leak is on the tranny side, it could be a higher engine leak on that side and eventually ends up near the tranny side/oil pan area. The distributor O-ring comes to mind.

In the end, as I said before with you leaking 1 qt every 100 miles, this should be obvious. You probably have oil all over the place making this more difficult to detect, so you should clean and reinspect within 100-200 miles is my advice.