I noticed the other day when I checked my oil while filling up with gas that my oil wasn't even registering on the dip stick. So I threw a litre in and called the dealer to let him know and have them take a look at it and do my first oil change. They told me they found no leaks and no sign of burning oil in the tailpipe, and that it might have been the previous mechanic who gave the car to me with low oil. Fine, it's documented now, I'm not going to make too much of a stink.

Now I went out of town on holidays and drove around 2,300 km on the highway and had to throw another litre in by the time I got home.

What I want to know is, do our cars tend to lose a lot of oil? Has anyone else been having to top their oil up between changes or is it natural to lose oil on the highway?

 

How many miles do you have? What kind of oil? Was your car still hot when you have checked the oil level?

 

I have 4500 km on it, not sure what this is in miles.

And yes, most of the time I took a look at the dipstick was in the middle of driving while filling up with fuel.
I noticed another weird thing too when I was out of town. Me and my buddy went to his shop to clean our cars while we had nothing going on, he had a '01 civic si and I have my '05 RA. Anyways after the cars were parked in the shop for 15-20 min at least, when we popped our hoods mine was radiating crazy heat while his was fairly cool. It seems that everytime I pop the hood my engine is crazy hot. Is that normal or am I being paranoid?

 

I have an Evo but I have the same problem... 4,200 miles right now and yesterday I was a 1/4 low after only 400 miles! I broke it in correctly, drive it normal, etc. I was going to go to the dealer, but I know I'm not leaking and I doubt it's in the tailpipe. I just changed my downpipe and there's no sign of oil in it. We need to find out what's causing our cars to consume more oil than my old 87 F150. Oh and just because you have MIVEC and I have Turbo should have nothing to do with it. So many other people's cars don't consume anything.

 

Nothing towards you, but checking your oil immediately after you shut off the car is kind of pointless. You should wait at least a 20-30 minutes after shutting off the engine, and you have to be on level ground at that. But if you are losing oil that fast there is something seriously wrong. (Or you just have a VERY heavy lead foot when taking off).

 

I do have a bit of a lead foot, that's for sure but I don't think I'm that hard on the car. And like I said, when I was down this last time, pretty much all my driving was on the highway.

And I didn't know you're supposed to wait otherwise you get an odd reading but I know the time I checked it at my buddies shop, the cars were sitting for at least 15 min in a cool shop so I don't know what to say about that.

 

First of all checking your oil when your car is still hot is not right. If you want a prove check you oil when your car is hot and do it again after letting it cool off for 2hours.

The reason why your car is so crazy hot is probably because we have aluminum valve cover unlike civics.

 

Check in the radiator fluid for it.. If its not there, your not leaking, and you didn't burn any, then that means there wasn't enough in there to being with. Wait till the engine is cool and all the oil settles to the bottom of the car.

 

Our engines do "use" oil to some extent (many engines do these days). Every 3k miles I have to add about a 1/2 qt to mine. The amount you're having to add is too high, though.

 

Thanks for the input guys. I'm just going to monitor my oil levels frequently until my next oil change and see what happens. I'll also check the dipstick tonight when it cools down and see where the level is at.

 

I found that the first 10000 kms my car used quite a fair amount of oil now with
28000kms it's fine doesn't eat any at all really and I've had the same habits in my driving. I still didn't have to add the amount you added though, mine was kind of like what otters is like.

 

Make sure it is on a LEVEL surface.