1999 Honda Civic Excessive oil consumption and some black I

WENDYZ_CIVIC

MEMBER
1999 HONDA CIVIC
4 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
230,000 MILES

I have a 1999 civic SIR with a b16a2 engine in it. It has alot of km on it and it's burning alot of oil. The coolant seems to be fine, but I am getting black soot on my rear bumper. When it was last at honda they siad it had low compression in two cylinders. Last week a had to replace the spark plugs because they were so badly damaged the engine light was coming on and the car was idling and excellerating irradically. Is there any way to tell through these simptoms what is wrong? I have narrowed it down to valves, head gasket, rings, and maybe the PCV valve. I just don't want to spend all the money on an engine rebild if it can be fixed with one or two parts. Is a wet and dry compression test the only way to determine the exact cause? If so, once I have results how do I know what they mean?

Thursday, June 26th, 2008 AT 8:05 AM

4 Replies

DOCFIXIT

MECHANIC
18,828 POSTS

Looking at your problems and milage a rebuild or replacement is in order. I would say piston to cylinder wear is severe and the rings are badly worn.
Wet/dry is used to determine rings or valves. The dry gives you a base we know two are low. Wet you add oil it acts as a temporary seal for piston/rings if copmression goes up its rings does not valve.
Hope this helps

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Thursday, June 26th, 2008 AT 8:26 AM

WENDYZ_CIVIC

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Thanks, didn't realize this was milage, so 143000 miles. How much engine damage would a problem like this cause? I comute and need to drive it untill I can afford all the parts for repair. How fast do you think it will deteriorate?

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Thursday, June 26th, 2008 AT 8:42 AM

DOCFIXIT

MECHANIC
18,828 POSTS

Can not say seems she is hurt pretty bad now further driving could cause more damage to other engine components that maybe salvaged now.
Every mile you get from here on out is a gift of Divine Providence
Good Luck

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Thursday, June 26th, 2008 AT 8:49 AM

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,814 POSTS

Hi wendyz_civic,

Did the Honda techs do a compression test or guessed the compression were low because 2 cylinders were not firing well? Get a second opinion on this, do the compression test again.

The erractic idling could be vacumn leakage instead low compression.

Honda engines seldom wears out the cylinders, unless you have been neglecting the oil changes.

80 % of oil consumptions are from the valve seals and the sooty exhaust is from misfiring plugs.

Why don't you replace the PCV first and see if it helps.

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Thursday, June 26th, 2008 AT 2:25 PM