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I changed the oil on my 1994 Honda Civic about a month and a half, maybe two months, ago. It takes 3.5qts, but I didn’t pay attention and accidentally put in about 4qts give or take 0.1 or 0.2qts. I didn’t think much of it because I figured that an extra half quart wouldn’t cause too many problems. However, about a week ago or so my roommate noticed that I was blowing smoke. Maybe a day or two after he told me this, I started noticing that when I’m driving down the road I can hear a VERY subtle, low pitched pulsing sound. My friend suggested that it might be my tires or bearings. He also suggested that it might be air getting caught under the hood, swirling around and blowing out through the wheel well because I removed the plastic shield that goes directly behind the grill, and there is a pretty decent gap where my A/C SHOULD be. But I am worried that it might be a more serious problem that I foolishly didn’t anticipate caused by too much oil pressure. What are your thoughts?
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A little extra oil won’t hurt things. You can go a quart high and still not have the crank whomping into the oil. So don’t worry about that. Oil pressure is determined by the gaps in the bearings, not by the oil level. We don’t know why you were blowing some smoke. If it happens mostly on startup, that’s usually caused by bad valve stem seals. If it happens when you accelerate after a long coast-down in speed, that’s usually piston rings.
So not a prob caused by the oil.
But you may still have a problem with a CV joint or wheel bearing. Just not related to the oil.
Oh, I definitely have problems with my CV joints. lol. The boots are torn and the grease on the joints is badly contaminated. I was going to change out the shafts, but I wanted to apply new grease because the shafts that I got were from a scrap yard. I was unable to disassemble the outer joints to replace the boots, however, so I basically ended up eating 70 bucks. I just wanted to find out if this noise was being caused by something that would eventually cause me to blow a seal or gasket. Thanks for the input. I feel much better knowing that oil isn’t leaking into my cylinders or anything like that. 🙂
🙂 You may want to look for something to replace your bad CV joint boots. I know a few years ago they had something called a speedi boot to replace the boot without removing the axle. It was rubber boot split down the middle and it went over the cv joint and had little bolts to seal it back together, and it came with replacement grease for the joint. You may try Autozone or Advance auto parts and see if they make one for your car. Good Luck.
Yeah I’ve heard about those types of boots. I thought about getting them, but I decided against it because I really don’t trust them. But I suppose they would be better than nothing. Especially since I’m going to be driving 1500 miles from California to Nebraska here in the near future. I should probably look into it. An old clicking CV joint with brand new grease and brand new questionable boots sounds better than an old clicking CV joint with terribly contaminated grease and definitely compromised boots. lol.
Why not drain excess oil foe the purpose of ruling that out? Seems everyone jumps on cv boots for front end noise….eliminate the oil overfill immediately, does the noise dissapear when braking? This is evidence. Is it popping when turning? (Classic cv). Is the noise in sync with tire rotation? Gather evidence.
A low pitched pulse does not sync with cv boots or axle related issues. Id focus on brakes. Check calipers, slide pins, does it pull when you brake? Was the system bled? Does the pedal pulsate when stopped? Need more info to make an INFORMED call on what to check.
The engineers indicated a max oil level for a reason. Stick it in the middle of min-max….over the specified max level can definately cause more problems with pressure than can a low level….pressure is built
[quote=”slotcar” post=79801]:) You may want to look for something to replace your bad CV joint boots. I know a few years ago they had something called a speedi boot to replace the boot without removing the axle. It was rubber boot split down the middle and it went over the cv joint and had little bolts to seal it back together, and it came with replacement grease for the joint. You may try Autozone or Advance auto parts and see if they make one for your car. Good Luck.[/quote]
:sick: Ugh, I won’t lie slot, those things are HORRIBLE. They don’t fit well are often too stiff and 90% of the time they end up re-splitting or just popping off the joint and letting the grease out.
[quote=”bbryan1″ post=79967]The engineers indicated a max oil level for a reason. Stick it in the middle of min-max….over the specified max level can definately cause more problems with pressure than can a low level….pressure is built[/quote]
Half a quart won’t hurt anything though. Almost all engines have expansion room to compensate for over or under filling. They expect from time to time over filling by small amounts.
Most of the time the issue with over filling is that the oil level comes up to the crank and the throws and counterweights end up churning the oil like a mixer and foam the oil up.
[quote=”bbryan1″ post=79964]Why not drain excess oil foe the purpose of ruling that out? Seems everyone jumps on cv boots for front end noise….eliminate the oil overfill immediately, does the noise dissapear when braking? This is evidence. Is it popping when turning? (Classic cv). Is the noise in sync with tire rotation? Gather evidence.[/quote]
[quote=”bbryan1″ post=79966]A low pitched pulse does not sync with cv boots or axle related issues. Id focus on brakes. Check calipers, slide pins, does it pull when you brake? Was the system bled? Does the pedal pulsate when stopped? Need more info to make an INFORMED call on what to check.[/quote]If I drain my oil, it’ll be the last thing that I do because it’s too much of a hassle trying to let out just enough but not too much. I don’t have any of my old oil bottles and my drip pan doesn’t have measurement marks on it, so it will be hard to tell when I’ve let out the extra half quart. As for my CV joints, they definitely are making noise. They click when I turn, but they should be alright for a while. I’ve heard that as long as the aren’t clicking while you’re driving straight, that they should be ok for a while longer. As for being in sync with tire rotation, it’s a very subtle sound, so it’s difficult to tell. Sometimes I think I hear the noise slowing down as I slow down (when in neutral without touching the brake), and other times it sounds like it just slowly fades away as I slow down, rather than actually slowing down with the tires. As for the brakes, the system has not been bled and the pedal doesn’t pulsate at all. I changed my brake pads not too long ago, and the calipers looked fine. They’re definitely old, but they appear to be fine. I suppose it’s worth a look, though. Actually, I wonder if it might have something to my cylinders. Maybe something to do with the compression? Because it sounds kind of like a diesel engine at idle. It kind of reminds me of the sound of a school bus when you’re sitting next to it at a stop light. But obviously my civic doesn’t have a diesel engine. lol.
It’s not economical to replace boots.
Nowdays you can get a whole rebuilt shaft with two new packed joints and boots for like $80, exchange.
A much better deal than trying to play with replacing boots, either by complete dissassembly or with a flaky clamp-on boot.
You just remove the axle nut, the lower ball-joint nut, and slip out the old and slip in the new shaft, no sweat, takes like 10 minutes if you have an impact wrench. Well, sometimes you need a crowbar to pry out the old shaft and a hammer to drive in the new one. There’s that internal expanding c-clip that can hold in the shaft in surprisingly well.
There is alot of good info. here. If it were me, id jack up the front and spin the tire and listen. Crack the bkeeder and see if the piston depresses in the caliper easily, try to rule one possibility out systematically starting with the simplest/easiest to check. One check to see if the noise is engine related is to recreate it on the road and put it in nuetral. Good luck though and keep checking back!
[quote=”LoneWolf” post=79993][quote=”bbryan1″ post=79964]Why not drain excess oil foe the purpose of ruling that out? Seems everyone jumps on cv boots for front end noise….eliminate the oil overfill immediately, does the noise dissapear when braking? This is evidence. Is it popping when turning? (Classic cv). Is the noise in sync with tire rotation? Gather evidence.[/quote]
[quote=”bbryan1″ post=79966]A low pitched pulse does not sync with cv boots or axle related issues. Id focus on brakes. Check calipers, slide pins, does it pull when you brake? Was the system bled? Does the pedal pulsate when stopped? Need more info to make an INFORMED call on what to check.[/quote]If I drain my oil, it’ll be the last thing that I do because it’s too much of a hassle trying to let out just enough but not too much. I don’t have any of my old oil bottles and my drip pan doesn’t have measurement marks on it, so it will be hard to tell when I’ve let out the extra half quart. As for my CV joints, they definitely are making noise. They click when I turn, but they should be alright for a while. I’ve heard that as long as the aren’t clicking while you’re driving straight, that they should be ok for a while longer. As for being in sync with tire rotation, it’s a very subtle sound, so it’s difficult to tell. Sometimes I think I hear the noise slowing down as I slow down (when in neutral without touching the brake), and other times it sounds like it just slowly fades away as I slow down, rather than actually slowing down with the tires. As for the brakes, the system has not been bled and the pedal doesn’t pulsate at all. I changed my brake pads not too long ago, and the calipers looked fine. They’re definitely old, but they appear to be fine. I suppose it’s worth a look, though. Actually, I wonder if it might have something to my cylinders. Maybe something to do with the compression? Because it sounds kind of like a diesel engine at idle. It kind of reminds me of the sound of a school bus when you’re sitting next to it at a stop light. But obviously my civic doesn’t have a diesel engine. lol.[/quote]
Look, the problem is you have a known fault, the axle. If your CV axles are bad trying to diagnose around them is a moot point. You may end up spending lots of money and in the end find out the CVs are the source of the noise. Start with your CVs they are not expensive and can be reasonably easy to change for a DIYer.
I agree that a known fault should be first on the to do list. This fix would also cross it off the list of candidates for the noise. If the noise goes away with the repair of the known fault then great, youre done! If not, then you’re that much closer to dialing in on it. Raistian is right, go for the known fault first, repair and then verify and go from there.
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