Acura Oil Consumption

[rvsarch]

My 2011 Acura TSX wagon with 125,000 miles is the only car of mine in 40 years that’s burned a significant amount of oil. I received a notice from Acura early on citing a problem with oil consumption and low tension piston rings, extending the warranty and suggesting Top Tier gas. I did switch to Top Tier, added Techron for about a year and went to a 6,000 mile OCI with high mileage full synthetic. Oil consumption dropped and has stayed below 1qt per 4K miles. I’ve decided on a new oil change strategy. Always fill to the max, then when level reaches min, vacuum oil out through the dipstick tube and add fresh to full mark. This takes less than 5 minutes. Repeat until maybe 14k, then run car up on ramps, remove underbody tray, drain oil, drain transmission fluid, change oil filter and fill to max. This takes about an hour. I’m using the new Fram 20k Endurance oil filter. When I adjusted valves at 100k, everything looked perfectly clean up top. Just hoping the burnt oil is not damaging the O2 sensors or catalytic converter. I am reluctant to run an engine flush on a 13 year old car with no oil leaks.

 

[JavierH19]

Seems a bit over the top but 1qt in 4k isn't bad. If it was mine I'd be using Castrol edge Euro 5w-30 since it has 2700ppm of calcium or Rotella t4 which is next up at 2400. I solved my yukons oil consumption using hdeo over time. Now the dip stick has only gone down a 1/4" in 3k miles whereas it used to burn a 1/2 quart every thousand. It wasn't a sudden change. it would burn 1/2 quart per thousand with 10w-30 but about 3/8th a quart with 15w-40 and since then the consumption would go down as the rings slowly cleaned up and i still did extended drains.

There was a mitsubishi engine teardown where the engine looked super clean until the pistons came out and they looked terrible. Lower detergent lower flash point ilsac oil tends to do that over time. The damage done is minimal. I still have the factory cat in my 339k yukon and it went a long time burning oil.

 

[nicholas]

My 2011 Acura TSX wagon with 125,000 miles is the only car of mine in 40 years that’s burned a significant amount of oil. I received a notice from Acura early on citing a problem with oil consumption and low tension piston rings, extending the warranty and suggesting Top Tier gas. I did switch to Top Tier, added Techron for about a year and went to a 6,000 mile OCI with high mileage full synthetic. Oil consumption dropped and has stayed below 1qt per 4K miles. I’ve decided on a new oil change strategy. Always fill to the max, then when level reaches min, vacuum oil out through the dipstick tube and add fresh to full mark. This takes less than 5 minutes. Repeat until maybe 14k, then run car up on ramps, remove underbody tray, drain oil, drain transmission fluid, change oil filter and fill to max. This takes about an hour. I’m using the new Fram 20k Endurance oil filter. When I adjusted valves at 100k, everything looked perfectly clean up top. Just hoping the burnt oil is not damaging the O2 sensors or catalytic converter. I am reluctant to run an engine flush on a 13 year old car with no oil leaks.

Liqui moly proline flush is some great safe stuff. It would clean your rings up nice

 

[BAJA_05]

You never mentioned what weight/grade of oil you are using? I am guessing 20 weight? Bump up to a high mileage oil and possibly from a 20 to 30 weight. Like mentioned earlier --- 1 quart in 4000 miles is not optimal but could be ALOT worse. Have you ever changed the PCV?

 

[doublebase]

If I’m understanding this you are basically doing an oil change at 7,000 miles but not actually changing the filter out until 14,000 miles? Or are you changing the oil out when it gets to the low point at 4,000 miles, again 4,000 miles later and again at 12,000/14,000? Then changing that filter? Either way it seems like you’re either changing your oil at 4,000 miles or 7,000 miles, and keeping your 20,000 rated mile filter in there till 14,000 miles. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea either way. But I wouldn’t be dumping my transmission fluid every 14,000 miles, I’d change what you’re doing in that department to 28,000 miles (and even then that might be overkill). Just my opinion.

 

[wlk]

Have you tried a piston soak? If not I would recommend it as it does reduce consumption via cleaning the rings. You could also run Valvoline Restore and Protect as it was made for this instance. HPL EC30 will help some, so does just running their oil as it will clean better than the EC they claim. Never used it but did use EC30 in my Element that was burning and it did help with a small amount of consumption. Rislone Engine Treatment and Gumout Multi-System Tune Up will help just the same when ran for full oci. Piston soak with Berryman's B12 then Rislone, Gumout and the EC30 are the things I used to reduce consumption to about 8oz per 5k oci now in the Element. Restore and Protect is what my kid used in his Tacoma to fix his burning issue that just started.
I would recommend the above to anyone who has a burning issue. Also, make sure pcv is new or new-ish as this will contribute as well.

 

[TomYoung]

Have you changed your PCV valve. If you have the 2.4 4 cyl engine and have kept it maintained, it should have many more miles to go and should consume ALMOST NO OIL.

 

[artbuc]

Look at my recent thread re the EPR treatment I did to my 2010 Acura MDX…cheap, easy and extremely effective. One qt per 4K is nothing to worry about according to Honda. They say up to 1qt per 1k is normal.

 

[NO2]

1Q IN 4K is a lot for a Honda of that era. The Hondas that we've had burned 1/2Q in 12K. It won't cause any other problems at that level of consumption. however.

 

[artbuc]

1Q IN 4K is a lot for a Honda of that era. The Hondas that we've had burned 1/2Q in 12K. It won't cause any other problems at that level of consumption. however.

Not true in all cases. Honda had to extend warranty for oil burning 2010-2012 MDX’s and rebuilt a lot of engines.

 

[ZZman]

That oil consumption isn't bad at all. But you could try something like BG EPR to lessen it. The best is a piston soak but I wouldn't feel the need for that unless it burned a quart every 1,000 miles

 

[artbuc]

That oil consumption isn't bad at all. But you could try something like BG EPR to lessen it. The best is a piston soak but I wouldn't feel the need for that unless it burned a quart every 1,000 miles

Based on my experience, EPR will eliminate OP’s oil burn completely.

 

[Drew7a]

having experienced this myself. I have pretty much eliminated the oil consumption on a 3.7L Acura. (Still working on cleaning the varnish). I was consuming 1qt every 1200-1500

YMMV but what I did

1.)PCV was clogged, changed that still burning
2.)Run HPL EC for 2000 miles, improved slightly but still burning .
3.)Flushed with BG EPR, and refilled with HPL PCMO 0w-30, still burned oil. Run to 3K
4.)Flushed with BG EPR again and run HPL PCMO, burning 1/2 qt per 3000.
5.) Changed oil at 4K filthy black and now using 0w-40 with 1qt EC or Rislone Engine cleaner(WINTER 20GRADE) on every OCI, burning not perceptible.
6.)Also using Techron before every OCI.

I figure the continued use of Rislone or the HPL EC will keep ring lands clean. Change oil every 3k to 4K and oil is filthy black. So the concoction cleaned it out. Not sure which combination was the magic formula but the owner of vehicle is real happy.