Paul G wrote:
> Good evening,
>
> I have a '99 Accord LX (5 speed) with 115k miles that consumes 1 qt
> every 1,000 miles or so. Has been doing so for the past 18 months. No
> leaks that I can see (I park in the same part of driveway every day,
> and had the oil seals replaced at 90k with the timing belt). Passed
> smog (in CA) with flying colors in December; no blue smoke or
> oil/coolant contamination. I did replace the Catalytic converter
> (under warranty) at 78k miles, right after it passed smog with flying
> colors.
>
> I'd put up with the oil usage, but the car needs/will soon need the
> following fixes:
>
> 1) Wipers - on slow speed they get hung up at the top and bottom of the
> stroke, on high speed they go too far and seem to hit the edge of the
> windshield. If you wiggle the blade there's a decent amount of up/down
> play (my '04 Civic and '06 Odyssey have no play whatsoever).
>
> 2) Bad A/C temperature control (I have to jiggle it to get cold air)
>
> 3) Foggy headlight lens (polishing didn't help)
>
> 4) Brakes front and maybe rear (original) and probably rotors (they've
> already been turned twice)
>
> 5) The clutch (original) is getting rough; my mechanic says it's close
> to needing replacement.
>
> 6) The regular 30k mile tune-up.
>
> I estimate at least $1,000 to fix these smaller issues, and don't want
> to do that then turn around and spend $2,000 to rebuild an engine (the
> quote I've gotten) that won't smog or outright fails.

be very cautious about re-builts - they're famously short-lived. it's
often much more economic to buy a used jdm low mileage import because
they'll last much longer.

>
> I'm hoping someone can share some insight as to whether the engine will
> hold out (or if another, simpler problem is causing the oil usage), so
> I can decide if now is the right time to get rid of this car. Some
> recommendations/costs to fix the other issues would be welcome as well.
>
> TIA
>

regarding oil consumption, apart from checking/replacing the pcv valve,
what brand/grade oil are you using? my 89 civic burns a little, and i
find that some oils get consumed a lot, others hardly at all. this is
related to the quality of the oil base and the evaporation point of
different base fractions. experiment [e.g. in my car, castrol 5-w30
needs nearly two quarts during a 5k interval, castrol 5-w20 maybe 3/4 of
a quart] before committing to spending a lot on the motor - yours is
still relatively young.