Well I am surprised and did not want to believe it but it is official - I am losing about a quart per 1,000 miles.

It is def not leaking out as I change my own oil and the motor is very clean.

My car only has 135k miles on it.

I have never once seen any smoke from the exhaust.

I cannot smell anything in the exhaust either.

The car has a normal amount of power so I am guessing that it has to be the valve seals.

I do not want to pull the head off so I am wondering if there is any additive that could actually help me?

What do you guys think?

 

You may want to replace the PCV valve in the valve cover. If yours isn't breathing well, it may be the cause.

 

Not a bad idea = I still have a problem thinking this car has bad valve seals.
It is in very good shape and only 135K miles.
I bought it about 2 years ago and it seemed to be very well maintained car.
I will check out the pcv valve today and see if it seems gummed up.

 

You can replace the PCV valve for under $5 from about any autoparts store. Or if you have any carb spray cleaner, you could try to soak and blast the old one clean...Eiether way, give it a try. It would be a whole lot easier and less expensive than a valve job/new valve guides.

 

Similar problem but 1qt/500 miles. ~250K miles, excellent compression, plugs are very light tan, no visible smoking, ever, although I've never driven behind my own car. New PCV valve. I do smell oil burning but only under unusual circumstances: I-70 from the tunnels to Silverthorne starts at 11,000 feet and drops quickly to 9000 feet in less than ten miles. 75mph easily maintained without touching the gas so really high vacuum for a very long time.

Rings or valve guide seals? PO let the engine overheat so maybe oil rings are coked? At least one Gen5 owner over at Bob is the Oil Guy reduced his car's oil consumption by a factor of two or three by doing a Marvel Mystery Oil soak, or rather two MMO soaks, one right after the other. I'm finishing up the second soak today. Who knows? IDK if you can diagnose bad oil control rings with a leak down test, especially considering good compression. At $5/quart, MMO is worth a shot. I'll find out next month if the snake oil made any difference on my next Denver-to-Las Vegas run.

 

I can see signs that the car overheated before I bought it as the oil dipstick has dark discoloration on it. I assume that is from overheating the car but I am guessing as I have never seen that before.

I will look up Bob is the oil guy.

 

You need to seek data you can believe - get a friend to drive the car for 1/2 hr and you follow him around, in town, up a hill, down a hill, at freeway speed

 

If it overheated, check your coolant for oil. You could be losing oil into the coolant through a bad head gasket. Do a leak down test, it gives better info than a compression test.

 

I installed a new radiator about 1.5 years ago. When I did my timing belt and water pump about 6 months ago my coolant was perfectly green and uncontaminated.

I am sure if I followed the car around it would show some smoking at certain times. I was just saying it is nothing I have ever seen. Most of the times when cars have bad valve seals you can see a puff of smoke when started. I have never seen that. I still am going to check / replace the PCV valve as that makes the most sense.

 

My experience too, on a SOHC Corolla though, not a Honda. And that car didn't actually consume much oil, it just smoked blue for a few seconds after a cold (overnight) start.