Advice on 94 Honda Accord LX

I am a new to the "honda owner family." I bought a used Honda Accord
LX with 165,000 miles on it two months ago. I have since noticed,
unfortunately, that it is burning about one quart of oil between every
time I fill up with gas. A mechanic told me it was probably an old
valve that had gone bad. He did not quote me a price for repair, but I
can imagine it will be expensive. What do you all think? With my
Accord being 12 years old and having 165,000 miles, would it be worth
it to get the valve replaced just to avoid the nuisance and potential
hazard?

? does the car have a miss to it, or blue smoke coming out the exhaust?
what type of honda(model) and engine size?


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" > wrote in
oups.com:

> I am a new to the "honda owner family." I bought a used Honda Accord
> LX with 165,000 miles on it two months ago. I have since noticed,
> unfortunately, that it is burning about one quart of oil between every
> time I fill up with gas. A mechanic told me it was probably an old
> valve that had gone bad. He did not quote me a price for repair, but I
> can imagine it will be expensive. What do you all think? With my
> Accord being 12 years old and having 165,000 miles, would it be worth
> it to get the valve replaced just to avoid the nuisance and potential
> hazard?
>
>
One thing to try is to replace the PCV valve. If they stick open, they'll
suck oil in a way that's indistinguishable from rings or valve seals.

Essentially, you bought a worn out car. Every mile you put on it is a
miracle and I'd just be happy it still goes. I'd probably not spend
anything more then normal maintainance on it and when it dies, have someone
haul it off to the junk yard.

Mechanic probably told you you needed "valve seals" and not a valve though
he might be recommending you get the head done which reconditions the
valves and replaces the seals. I'd just keep a case of oil in the trunk and
add a quart every fill up. If it's not leaking, it's either valve seals or
piston rings. If it's the rings, then the engine's really worn out. While
Honda engines can last forever (almost), if some previous owner wasn't good
about changing the oil, your engine might have excessive wear.

How much diagnostics actually went into identifying the valve as the
problem?

Does the engine seem to lack power or otherwise sound odd? I know that may
be hard to assess with a new used car, but give it a shot.

Are you seeing oil drips beneath the car when it sits awhile?

I would first do a complete tuneup (genuine Honda parts only for plugs,
ignition wires, distributor cap and rotor, and PCV valve); new air filter
and fuel filter. Drain and fill with genuine Honda coolant or the orange
Havoline Dexcool the cooling system. Purge properly of air. Check and adjust
as needed the ignition timing.

That's around $200 of parts and labor. Do not go cheap on the parts: Buy OEM
(= genuine Honda) as directed above. This $200 is an investment. These items
need to be done every few years anyway.

See http://home.earthlink.net/~honda.lioness/id11.html for an overview of
the tuneup above.

I would then monitor the oil level. Make sure it's not leaking from the
valve cover or into the spark plug tubes: Check the exterior of the engine
right beneath the valve cover; check the spark plug tubes once a week for
the immediate future. Report on what you see. There are certain seals that
certainly may need replacement for a car this old.

Look for oil drips on the floor beneath the car, and try to identify from
where they are coming.

A bad PCV valve will cause excessive oil consumption. The good news is it's
only about a $20 part and most people can change it out themselves within
five minutes (an hour if you're new to this).

Also, start monitoring the gas consumption. Measure mileage between fillups,
divide gallons at each fillup with miles driven. Report back after four or
so fillups.

Elle
Original owner, 1991 Civic LX, 174k miles. Runs like a top. 40 mpg most of
the year.

> wrote
>I am a new to the "honda owner family." I bought a used Honda Accord
> LX with 165,000 miles on it two months ago. I have since noticed,
> unfortunately, that it is burning about one quart of oil between every
> time I fill up with gas. A mechanic told me it was probably an old
> valve that had gone bad. He did not quote me a price for repair, but I
> can imagine it will be expensive. What do you all think? With my
> Accord being 12 years old and having 165,000 miles, would it be worth
> it to get the valve replaced just to avoid the nuisance and potential
> hazard?
>

"Dufus Systems" > wrote:
> Essentially, you bought a worn out car. Every mile you put on it is a
> miracle and I'd just be happy it still goes. I'd probably not spend
> anything more then normal maintainance on it and when it dies, have
> someone
> haul it off to the junk yard.

What are you talking about? I have the same '94 model with over 230 K
miles and the car runs almost like when it was new and only burns about
half qt of oil between two oil changes (at 3,750 ml intervals.) I
wouldn't be surprised if I got to half million miles with it.

Rudy

"R. P." > wrote in news:sZOdnaRmWtywOWLeRVn-
:

> "Dufus Systems" > wrote:
>> haul it off to the junk yard.
>
> What are you talking about? I have the same '94 model with over 230 K
> miles and the car runs almost like when it was new and only burns about
> half qt of oil between two oil changes (at 3,750 ml intervals.) I
> wouldn't be surprised if I got to half million miles with it.
>
> Rudy
>

Yeah, I knew some of you would come out of the woodwork. Sure, your car's
got 230K miles on it. It's a testament to your good maintainance. Yet, at
about 100K miles all car's start down the bell curve to junk status. Would
you put a motor into a car that's got 165K miles on it or would you just
feed it oil? Blue book on this 94 accord with 165K miles is about $2800
US. Trade-in's value's $1300-1600 (higher than I expected, testament to
honda I guess) Any major work could easily cost more than the car's worth.

Not trying to ruffle feathers. The only point I'm making is that it's
sometimes not worth throwing money into an old car. For someone who works
on cars, it could be the perfect car. If you're at the mercy of mechanics,
though you probably want to watch the value versus cost.

"Dufus Systems" > wrote:
> Yeah, I knew some of you would come out of the woodwork. Sure, your
> car's
> got 230K miles on it. It's a testament to your good maintainance. Yet,
> at
> about 100K miles all car's start down the bell curve to junk status.
> Would
> you put a motor into a car that's got 165K miles on it or would you
> just
> feed it oil? Blue book on this 94 accord with 165K miles is about
> $2800
> US. Trade-in's value's $1300-1600 (higher than I expected, testament
> to
> honda I guess) Any major work could easily cost more than the car's
> worth.
>
> Not trying to ruffle feathers. The only point I'm making is that it's
> sometimes not worth throwing money into an old car. For someone who
> works
> on cars, it could be the perfect car. If you're at the mercy of
> mechanics,
> though you probably want to watch the value versus cost.

Actually, I agree with you to a point. I, indeed, spent a lot of money
on maintenance after about 100K but mostly I blame myself for it because
I insisted on having it done by Honda dealer service departments which
charged high fees, yet often left my car worse off after a regular
maintenance trip than before. After a while, however, I wised up and
found an independent shop that costs me much less and the car also runs
better after the service visits.

Rudy

R. P. wrote:
> "Dufus Systems" > wrote:
>> Essentially, you bought a worn out car. Every mile you put on it is a
>> miracle and I'd just be happy it still goes. I'd probably not spend
>> anything more then normal maintainance on it and when it dies, have
>> someone
>> haul it off to the junk yard.
>
> What are you talking about? I have the same '94 model with over 230 K
> miles and the car runs almost like when it was new and only burns about
> half qt of oil between two oil changes (at 3,750 ml intervals.) I
> wouldn't be surprised if I got to half million miles with it.

id seriously doubt the OP's accord got 3750 mile oil changes, and thats
why its so worn out at 160k miles.

Dufus Systems wrote:
> Yeah, I knew some of you would come out of the woodwork. Sure, your car's
> got 230K miles on it. It's a testament to your good maintainance. Yet, at
> about 100K miles all car's start down the bell curve to junk status. Would
> you put a motor into a car that's got 165K miles on it or would you just
> feed it oil?

if its otherwise clean, pristine, and troublefree? id get an imported
japanese engine, especially if its an EX.

> Blue book on this 94 accord with 165K miles is about $2800
> US. Trade-in's value's $1300-1600 (higher than I expected, testament to
> honda I guess) Any major work could easily cost more than the car's worth.
>
> Not trying to ruffle feathers. The only point I'm making is that it's
> sometimes not worth throwing money into an old car. For someone who works
> on cars, it could be the perfect car. If you're at the mercy of mechanics,
> though you probably want to watch the value versus cost.

its always cheaper to fix the car or replace the engine, compared to new
car payments. all depends on having an honest independant mechanic.

SoCalMike > wrote in
:

>> Not trying to ruffle feathers. The only point I'm making is that it's
>> sometimes not worth throwing money into an old car. For someone who
>> works on cars, it could be the perfect car. If you're at the mercy of
>> mechanics, though you probably want to watch the value versus cost.
>
> its always cheaper to fix the car or replace the engine, compared to
> new car payments. all depends on having an honest independant
> mechanic.
>

The problem with a really high mileage car is that once you fix one thing,
you're just waiting for the next thing to break. So, today you swap out the
motor and tomorrow you need front wheel bearings and the day after it's new
fuel pump/main relay time. There's a point of diminishing returns where
you'd be better off buying a newer used car than keeping the old clunker.
That's why high mileage = reduced value. It's all built into the
reliabilty curve, everything manufactured follows that curve. The older the
car, the more parts are near the end of their life.