Originally Posted by kenvollers

I have an '01 Accord EX with the 4 cyl manual with about 110k miles on it, and it is having the same problem. It runs fine, but every couple weeks the check engine light comes on, invariably for a VTEC malfunction, and when I check the oil it is always low. It still drives ok, although the first time it happened I didn't know it was oil related till the oil light finally came on a few days later and the engine started to buck in high rpms. I checked the PCV valve which was indeed very clogged and replaced it, which seemed to fix it temporarily, but it has now started happening again, just not as frequently. I'm really hoping it's not the valve stem issue, as I don't want to spend the time and money repairing that. I spoke to a friend of mine who is a mechanic and he tells me it is a common problem with these particular engines, and sometimes is something serious like a head gasket(though according to him then one should be losing coolant which I'm not). Anyway, it's becoming enough of an inconvenience where I'm about to take it in for diagnostics and hopefully it will be something I have the tools to fix myself. Before I do so though I'm hoping someone on these forums has some little trick they know for diagnosing/fixing the problem. Any luck there?