Ok, this car is still giving me a little trouble and not even the shop can figure what is going on. I had no troubles until I got the oil changed at Wal-Mart. I had 5w-30 put in and had no idea what kind was in there before because I just got the car. Within two days, I checked the oil and it was very low so I took it back and they put in another quart of oil. Within a couple days I checked again and it was low again. Put some more in and later that day, the temp guage rose and the oil lamp flicked lightly. It was low again. I took it to a shop and we discovered that the VTECH solenoid was leaking oil BADLY because the gasket had gone bad. Got that fixed and I was thinking that was the main source of my leak AND whythe temp guage had risen. For almost two days we had no problems. Now this morning, my wife is coming home and as she is turning the corner, she noticed the oil light flicker and the temp rise. She also told me she did see a some oil in the driveway(she had been housesitting a friends house), not a ton, but there was some. We took it to the shop and they have looked it over, pressure tested(I guess they meant they pressure tested for overheating, not compression), diagnosed, ran it around the loop, and never got it to overheat and say they can't find ANY oil leak, not even with the oil pan which I had always thought must have had a slow leak. They did mention it could possibly ne the thermostat sticking, but not sure, and I would probably have to let whatever is going on get worse before they could tell what, if anything, is wrong. Can someone please give me some advice on what they think the deal is? I have to go out of twon and don't want to stress over either the car overheating or something with the oil pressure.

 

OK, and this car is what? 94? 2004? V-6? 4cyl? Stick? Auto?

 

First of all I would get the hell out of there and find another shop ASAP.. Are you telling me that if the v-tec gasket was leaking so bad as they say that they could not see it when they first did the oil change and the second time around when they added oil ??
2 reasons oil gets low ,1 there is a leak , 2 engine burns oil, if your wife saw oil under the car , than ther has to be a leak,, in all this time did they lift the car up in the air and chk for leaks?? oil pan plug loose , have seen a ton of those , oil filter loose? wrong oil filter ? I(f there was no leaks before you took the car in it has to be something they did or a very very weird coincedence .. besides checking for leaks you might want to have the oil pressure tested as well
Is the engine actually overheating ?? or is it just the gauge going up ?? ( bad gauge ) ...If engine is overheating chk to make sure that there is planty of coolant, no leaks , chk top radiator tank i have seen a bunch crack ,chk rad cap, make sure t-stat opens properly, both fans work,

let us know what turns up

 

"First of all I would get the hell out of there and find another shop ASAP.. Are you telling me that if the v-tec gasket was leaking so bad as they say that they could not see it when they first did the oil change and the second time around when they added oil ??"

Well, it was the genuises at Walmart who did the oil change, so I'll forgive them for not checking the solenoid and seeing the leak. The firtst real shop I took it to saw the Vtec gasket leak immediately.

So, I just got back from the shop I took it to today which is a better shop than the one who fixed the vtec gasket and the one I was talking about that hadn't found any problems at the time of my first post. They further diagnosed and said that the thermostat was sticking intermittently and I could use a new radiator cap because he didn't think it was holding pressure well enough. I think he though that because he saw dried up coolant around the top of radiator but that was probably from something I had done the previous day. He did feel the hose while talking to me and said he just didn't think he felt the pressue he should on the hose.

With the oil leak, he said he found a leak from the distributor and that the oil pressue switch needed replacing.

The charge for thermo and new cap plus coolant would be $127, and the distributor and oil pressure switch would beclose to $400.

Do these prices sound on the money? How big a problem is the pressure switch to drive around with when possibly bad? Also, would it matter if I bought an Autozone replacement radiator cap or would it make a difference to get the factory one? I know the thermostat would matter, right?

 

go to hondapartswarehouse.com and check out their prices.... stick with honda thermostat and most people suggest you use a honda oem radiator cap as well... I'm a lazy cheap SOB so I've used plenty of aftermarket radiator caps but never on my honda.... Don't go to walmart for oil changes.... it's just going to cost you more money down the line....seriously stay away from them... my brother used to do oil changes there and I'd still wouldn't even trust him to change my oil.... the thermostat/cap/coolant sounds a little high but it may be right on.... you could do all of those yourself pretty easily....

Is he saying you need to replace the entire distributor or just the oil pressure switch?

 

For the distributor, remove the distributor cap:

If you find oil inside of the distributor, then you will have to buy a new one, because the internal seals can't be replaced. If the inside is dry, then the o-ring that goes into the camshaft needs to be replaced. Really easy job and very cheap fix compared to replacing the entire distributor.

For the thermostat: Buy a Honda thermostat.

Oil pressure switch is another easy DIY job. A shop sould charge ~ $50 total ($15 part and 0.5 hr labor). If the switch is leaking, then you should monitor your oil level with the dipstick.

I think that the bulk of the $400 is to buy a new distributor.

 

i think PAHONDA pretty much summed it all up for you..
you want to make extra sure that the oil leak from the distr is from INSIDE the cap,, if it is the distr o-ring .. the money they are asking $ 400 .. is a total rip off.. Also you might want to take a look how much oil ,( if the leak is indeed in the inside of the dizzy ) is leaking ...
replace the oil pressure switch ASAP .. those little things can leak pretty bad and will get worse to the point to make quite an oil puddle when idling for just a few minutes
the switch from Honda is around 8-10 dollars .. so as Pahonda said 50 dollars is about right .