Don't forget to oil your i-VTEC

[sleepin02si]

So I had been driving around for a few weeks being all sorts of pissed off b/c my car has been having powerloss/surges through all gears, but most noticeably in 2nd. It was like the car wanted to go but couldn't. As the days past I payed it more and more attention. I noticed the powerloss/surge was happening at around 3,500 and again around 5,000 rpms, more or less in all gears. I was thinking of every possible thing that could have been wrong with the car, and getting pretty damn depressed about it. Then one day my oil pressure light flickered for a second. I immediately pulled over and checked the oil level. Normally when I check the level after driving around, I have oil all over the dipstick when I pull it out. NOPE! Not this time. I was probably running on 1qt of synthetic. I got back in the car and checked the miles on the car, as I usually have it set to Trip A for each tank of gas. I had gone 5,500 miles without checking my oil level once! I know our cars burn oil. I had been so wrapped up in so many other things in my life that I had forgotten for that long. I went to the store and dropped 3qts in. The feel was 1000% better even at engine start. I floored it out of the Wallmart parking lot and there was no power loss or surges through the powerband. I'm not sure what the exact engagement points are for the i-VTEC, but I swear thats where I was getting the powerloss/surges. All I can conclude is that the i-VTEC won't operated correctly if the oil pressure falls too low.

[jerseyjew]

That sucks about the "power surges", but I am pretty sure the i-vtec in our ep's dosen't burn oil. Honda nor any other car manufacturer designs a car that burns excessive oil do to performance. I hate when people talk about their vtec or i-vtec burning oil. And also, how does i-vtec kick in. It isn't a fucking turbo. It is always there and is always doing what it is designed to do. Thanks.

[chubbychu]

uhm...or you could just make sure you change your oil every 3k ish miles and be okay =o)

[DavidT]

All forms of Honda VTEC replies on oil. The VTEC solenoids are oil pressure/RPM actived. If not enough oil pressure or not enough RPMs, no engagement. How often do you change your oil anyway? I always change mine at every 3k or 3 months, never loose a drop of oil between changes; always at the same level when I change.

[andy]

Originally posted by jerseyjew
That sucks about the "power surges", but I am pretty sure the i-vtec in our ep's dosen't burn oil. Honda nor any other car manufacturer designs a car that burns excessive oil do to performance. I hate when people talk about their vtec or i-vtec burning oil. And also, how does i-vtec kick in. It isn't a fucking turbo. It is always there and is always doing what it is designed to do. Thanks.

Whoa, Tito. Ease up there a bit, newbie.
You might want to reread sleepin's (who has 280+ posts on you) post
again.

He didn't say i-vtec burns oil, he said "our cars". This is a known
fact that a good percentage of k-series engines seem to eat oil.

He also didn't mention anything about i-vtec "kicking in". He did
say he had powerloss/surges around where i-vtec activates (where
the cams lobes switchover). Chill out a bit.

[SiRman]

Whoa, Tito. Ease up there a bit, newbie.
:blushm: :banana:

[sleepin02si]

.
All forms of Honda VTEC replies on oil. The VTEC solenoids are oil pressure/RPM actived. If not enough oil pressure or not enough RPMs, no engagement. How often do you change your oil anyway? I always change mine at every 3k or 3 months, never loose a drop of oil between changes; always at the same level when I change.
Thanks for confirming that for me. That was the kind off reply I was looking to see. I usually change my oil at 3,500 miles. At that interval, I had only lost a little, and that was even with a leaking oil drian washer. I was stunned it had gotten so low, but there is no evidence anywhere of a leak. No smoke is coming from the back when I'm driving, so it couldn't have burnt off too fast.

[Zero Three Si]

That's why I changed my oil at 1,000 miles, then again when I had 4000 miles on it. Again when I had 7,000 miles on it, again when I had 12,000 miles on.

Sorry you had to go through that. Good thing you did ruin your engine. Treat your EP better.

[k20whiteboi269]

good thing u didnt forget about it for another 2000-3000 miles. could of been a lot worse;) i rarely check my oil level also but I always get it changed every 3500 miles

[digitldlnkwnt]

i noticed that most people said their ep's were burning oil up until around 10k then it stopped. Thas what happened to me anyway:blushm:

[TEKBRAIN]

54 000 km and still burning oil.

[frinksi]

32,000 on the car and losing 1 quart about evey 2 to 3,000 miles took it to the dealer they said that is normal for the car

[chubbychu]

hmm..i must have never been aware of it.

[SiRman]

54 000 km and still burning oil.

32,000 on the car and losing 1 quart about evey 2 to 3,000 miles took it to the dealer they said that is normal for the car

Yeah, 43,000km and I'm still burning oil too.



either i was never aware of it, or my car DIDNT burn oil...but i didnt have a problem with it (burning oil)
I'm confused:confusem:

[seandwd]

The first oil change on a new vehicle is VERY important, it is even more important to follow Honda's guidelines for this service. So, use your Owner's Manual to determine when your first service should take place.

https://www.ahm-ownerlink.com -- then search for maintenance

You have to register with Honda to access this site, but we should all do this anyway. There is very useful info at this site, payment info, maintenance info, etc. Check it out!!

*************************************************

This is copied and pasted from Honda's OwnerLink website:


Why should I wait to change the oil the first time?
Your Honda engine was delivered with an oil that is specially formulated for new engines that have not yet developed their "natural" wear patterns and may contain minute particles from the manufacturing process.
American Honda strongly recommends this special oil be left in the engine long enough for these wear patterns to develop, usually until the first maintenance interval specified in your Owner's Manual, based on your specific driving conditions.

[andy]

Originally posted by seandwd
The first oil change on a new vehicle is VERY important, it is even more important to follow Honda's guidelines for this service. So, use your Owner's Manual to determine when your first service should take place.

https://www.ahm-ownerlink.com/Maint...aqs.asp?faq=oil

You have to register with Honda to access this site, but we should all do this anyway. There is very useful info at this site, payment info, maintenance info, etc. Check it out!!

...

I specifically asked my Honda tech about the oil and if I should
change it after break in (~1K miles). He said it was just "regular"
5w-20 and not to really bother, just to follow the schedule. I
certainly don't think it would hurt to change early, although I
did wait until 5K miles and I haven't experienced any loss of oil
yet.

[seandwd]

I performed my first oil change at 7,500 miles as recommended by the Honda dealership. They pointed me towards this site to read about the oil that comes in our cars from the factory.

[sleepin02si]

About listening to Honda...They say to change your oil every 10,000 miles. Imagine where I would have been if I did that!. I was really low after 5,500 miles, only half of their interval. What is the point of waiting that long. I would have all new oil in there all the time if I had to keep topping it off to get to 10k.

[sleepin02si]

I know that the i-vtec starts at 2,200, but the cam timing is still variable after that point, right? If this is true, then that means the cam timing is adjusted over multiple points, to obtain our power. Here is a link to AEM's dyno for a CAI, which is the only speed mod I have done. (http://www.aempower.com/pdf/dyno/21-508%202002%20Civic%20SI%20CAS.pdf) The loss/surge's seem to about correspond to where I should had most of my torque.

[Kirei]

im about to hit the store later on today to buy some goods for the car. Planning on picking up some engine oil also. Which one would yall suggest? THanks

[styllinep3]

this is why i run lucas oil treatment in every oil change. its 100% petroleum. its turns regular motor oil into super oil. stuffs freakin sweet. u ad 1 quart to every 4 quarts of oil. its only like 7$ quart so it cheap IMO.

its lubs my engine so well that there no shake on that first start in the morning (it elimnates dry starts) . its also so slick i could actaully feel a diffrence in power, cause it cut down the engine friction so much.

my oil is as full and as golden when i change it (around every 3- 4000 miles) as it was when i first changed it. i drive my car hard to hitting redline daily. i truly beleive that u could make 250 - 300,000 miles on a block if u ran this religously. its as good as synthetic if not better imo, cause its not suppose to leave a build up like synthetic oil does .


there fuel treatment is just as good to if u ask me.

[sniperSI]

I agree with this thread, because i posted about a week ago, power surges @ 5,000 rpms in 1st gear, so I checked my oil, it barley had any. Dipstick didnt even get wet, droped, 3 qts in and the car sounded 100% better, it didnt sound like it was struggling anymore, ti was quite, no more surges, like normal again. I know its because i run my car hard, 5, 6,000 rpm shifts every day 1st 2nd, so that definatly will burn oil up on our cars, 10,000 miles or 100,000 miles, the hotter you push that thin 5w20 the more it burns. I put 10w in though now.


Z3SI: thats a good way to change your oil. I think I will adopt that from now on.

[styllinep3]

try the lucas oil treatment. u wont burn any oil anymore promise:D its perfect if u run your car hard like that, as do i. this stuff works so good it take my car twice as long to warm up, cause i cut down so much engine friction.

[2QK4U ALLWAYS]

I was told the same thing that engines from honda have specific oil for break in periods and to leave it in aslong as you can. My car never burned any oil I rev her all the time and never loose any oil. My father in law works for Honda and he didnt know about this so he went down to engine assembly and checked it out it is a special oil for break in periods. I was going to change my oil after 500 km but once I found that out I left it in there for 9000 km. I guess who do you believe and what can be so special about the oil but my car never burns any and I use the 5w20 all the time and I'm at 25000 km now.

[Siman]

yep vtec still runs off of good ole oil!:D

[sleepin02si]

Originally posted by 2QK4U ALLWAYS
I was told the same thing that engines from honda have specific oil for break in periods and to leave it in aslong as you can. My car never burned any oil I rev her all the time and never loose any oil. My father in law works for Honda and he didnt know about this so he went down to engine assembly and checked it out it is a special oil for break in periods. I was going to change my oil after 500 km but once I found that out I left it in there for 9000 km. I guess who do you believe and what can be so special about the oil but my car never burns any and I use the 5w20 all the time and I'm at 25000 km now.
I got mine used...I don't know if they did it before me.

[styllinep3]

once again try the lucas man great stuff



gabe

[Vivid-Cruz]

Originally posted by sleepin02si


Noticed same surges in my car.. at about 3,000 miles checkeced the oil.. was low about 1 and a half quarts... our engine most definetly does burn oil.

[sleepin02si]

Originally posted by Vivid-Cruz
Noticed same surges in my car.. at about 3,000 miles checkeced the oil.. was low about 1 and a half quarts... our engine most definetly does burn oil.
The funny part is that it doesn't even seem to burn it. No smoke comes out of the back of my car. There is no evidence of a leak to the naked eye. It is like the engine eats it.

[digitldlnkwnt]

You really only see a car "burn-oil" when the internals are badly worm or out of spec. I have 6k plus miles on my last oil change and i have lost maybe a 1/4 of a quart, which considering the way i drive, is normal.

[03EP3Si]

I just want to add that there is no I-Vtec Kicking in or engaging or any of the that. It is just plain old Vtec ,that we all have read before, comes in between 2200 and 2300 rpms. The I stands for the computer controled self adjusting Cam gear that is always on. This advances or retards the timing to adjust to our driving. So the I is always on and the VTEC engages at certain RPMS. I hope i cleared things up a bit :D