Where is my oil disappearing to?

Have you thoroughly inspected the exterior of the engine? Especially right beneath the valve cover and distributor?

"BE" wrote

Oops--Is the 2001 Odyssey distributor-less? If so, of course strike that second part below.

"Elle" wrote

I would suggest a visit to the dealer, get an estimate, and then call Honda Customer Service. Honda has a tremendous reputation for quality and I would see what they would consider doing on your behalf. Be polite, but firm about this issue. Has the van ever overheated and are you the original owner? Good luck.

Another thought.....are you sure the right amount of oil was put in at your last oil change? Also, sometimes a shop or person could accidently leave the old oil filter gasket on the engine and get a massive leak there. I know of shops/people that have done all of these things. I would be getting a new oil filter to be in the safe side. How often were you checking your oil prior to the oil light? There are souls out there that only check oil when the light lights.

I hate to suggest this, but it could be a bad ring. A few years ago we were seeing several posts of low-mileage Hondas suddenly consuming quarts of oil a month. Most remained a mystery, but one sufferer under warranty persisted and the dealer tore down the engine to find a broken ring in one cylinder. I don't know if it showed up on a compression check, or if it was a compression ring or oil control ring. I don't think I've ever heard of broken oil control rings, though.

I believe the catalytic converters prevent the exhaust from smoking even with significant oil burning.

Mike

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Change your PCV with a HONDA original part, and check your oil as often as the manual says.

'Curly'

So, a "couple of months ago" you ran your engine with zero oil pressure (the light came on) for at best only a few seconds. You dumped in 3 quarts of oil, and then several months later decided to give it a check (wow amazing - you must be a real maintenance freak). How many miles do you drive in "a couple of months"?

You should change the oil and filter now with a quality oil of the weight specified by H> My 2001 Odyssey is consuming oil at what I think is an alarming rate. A

Daughter's Civic, 55,000 miles and just out of warranty, had the same problem--oil didn't show up on the dip stick. Filled the oil to the full mark and within 250 mi it was below the dip stick again. Because it was so severe an oil loss, the Dealer got Honda's OK to look for the problem with only parts to be charged. Found some cracked carbon valve seals, replaced them and put things back together again. Same oil loss recurred. Honda authorized as complete an engine teardown as needed to find and resolve with no further $$$ charged. Tore the engine down and found some bad piston rings; replaced them all and the oil loss problem went away. So she basically ended up with a rebuilt engine *zero timed* for very little cost to her. Honda's response to the problem was excellent, obviously their concern and motivation was "How many more are there out there like this, is there something about 55,000 mi. in this engine that we've got to worry about and if so, what. She got the car new and was putting about 400-500 mi a week on it so it was probably one of the fleet leaders in mileage. MLD

Do you know if a compression test had been done prior to teardown and if the rings were compression or oil control? I'd expect a dealer to do at least one compression test (that probably came out okay enough) and swallow hard a couple times before tearing an engine down.

Mike

i second that. broken rings a good candidate.

If you think Honda has a tremendous reputation for quality you haven't been keeping up on the Odyssey, especially the 99-01 models. Other than transmission failures, EGR blockage, motor mount failure, Catalytic converter failure and a few others the quality stinks. It wasn't stated how many miles for the oil consumption but it is going to take some diagnosis to determine what is causing it. A little more than my crystal ball can determine......

Woody, I stand behind my comment about Honda Quality. Yes they do have transmission failures, but did Honda extend the warranty? If the problem is a Honda design or maufacturing problem, I bet they will assist the customer. I have yet to see an Ody in the junk yard and Consumer Reports rates the Odyssey as a "CR Good Bets" on page 80 of its 2006 Annual Auto Issue. The Ody is not perfect but you could do a lot worse.

Obviously you haven't been keeping up on reality. At least Honda has acknowledged these problems and have been working to fix them. Do you expect the big 3 to do the same? Of course not! Unlike the big 3, Honda remains committed to quality.

All car companies have troubles related to some models. The question is related to how the car companies handle these issues. Based upon my experiece with a Dodge Ram 50 pickup truck and 2 Honda Accords--it's my opinion that Honda does a much better job than the Chrysler Inc. in relation to how they handled problems that I have had. Of course, Chrysler has now been taken over by Mercedes so they may now be doing a much better job dealing with customer complaints. Jason

The van has never overheated; I am the original owner; I also have an extended warranty.

Be

How much do I drive in a couple months? Well, here's the math. The car is one-owner and has been mine for 58 months. It has 41000 miles. That's a shade less than 707 miles per month.... Not an amount that should scare me into checking it weekly, at least not (in my opinion) when a car with Honda's good reputation behind it has less miles on it than some people drive in 18 months.

Be

So it sounds like it is consuming a quart every 2800 miles. Probably more than average but not an alarming amount. You are lucky (and wise to have stopped driving as soon as the light came on.) It is common that cars which didn't really have an oil consumption problem before they got too low, do have a problem afterwards.

Either it wasn't properly filled at the previous oil change, or you drove it about 8400 miles after an oil change without checking it. You don't have to check it every week, but you do have to check it periodically. Once a month is good if you aren't having problems.

Don't know what the dealer did to troubleshoot--In fact, before they even started doing anything, they actually drained and refilled the oil and sent her on her way. After the 250 mi and no oil on the dip stick they became believers. Obviously, the cracked (broken) rings were not associated with compression, the dealer wasn't that bad. Honda responded as well as they did because 55,000 miles is relatively low for their engine and the need to know if this was "one of a kind" or a symptom of "what was to come" from that family. BTW, she ended up with over 200,000 miles before giving the car up. MLD

MLD, In most cases, if there is a defective ring--it can be detected by a compression check. I was surprised that the Honda mechanic did not conduct a compression check prior to a teardown of the engine. Perhaps the mechanic conducted a compression check and done the teardown of the engine as a direct result of the compression check test results. Jason