Burning oil smell, automatic
 

I've seen plenty of chatter on here for those with a manual and the most likely source of their burning oil smell issue being the plate installed on the rear passenger side of the block. In my case, I have an automatic, so I don't have a plate that needs replacing, but the component that's actually supposed to go there. Still, after a drive long enough to get the car up to temp, such as my typical commute, when stopped I frequently get a burning oil smell through the vents, and also smell the odor when the car is parked and shut down. I really only notice it on the passenger side of the car from the outside, and there is no obvious source visible when checking under the hood. This has been happening for at least a few thousand miles, but likely longer with me thinking it was someone else's exhaust or burning oil coming through my vents. I'm on my way to 10,000 miles within the next few weeks, and a scheduled oil change very shortly after that.

The overpipe does not look like it is getting any oil on it to be burnt off and cause the odor. I see nothing on the visible parts of the header, and really no sort of oil residue anywhere under the hood. Does anyone have any guidance or experience here? I can't really believe this is normal behavior for the car, but it is my first Subaru product, so my familiarity with the brand's possible quirks is low. I'm not low on oil at all, it's been rock solid on the dipstick, if not reading a bit high (which I know can be due to not timing my check right per Subaru's method), since my first oil change around 6k miles back so if I'm losing any oil, it's got to be very little, but enough to burn off and smell during and after virtually every drive.

I've also been getting a burnt coolant smell for about as long as I've owned the car. I'm not visibly losing any coolant from the system, and if I am it's at the rate of a snail's pace. I don't get the coolant smell through the vents from my recollection, but like the burnt oil smell, it is quite noticeable when standing on the passenger side of the car, whether it's running or not, after it has reached operating temp and been driven. I do see some splashes and stains around the expansion tank cap and the radiator cap, some splatter that is a very faint whitish blue color on the little resonator box attached to the airbox that sits right next to the expansion tank cap, but don't know if those are left over splashes from when the system was filled or if fluid has been escaping past the caps. I am going to clean those areas and check them after a few days to see if it builds up again. No leaks were found in the coolant system when I brought up my low coolant level and the coolant odor outside of the car to the dealer around two months into owning the car. They topped up the fluid level (past full, really) and ensured there were no leaks, and the system has not lost anything, so at this point it is still a mystery.

I'm hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction for addressing this so I can bring my concerns up to the dealer without getting a runaround or BS explanation because they don't want to tackle the task under warranty. I pride myself on keeping my cars in good condition, and typically one does not associate the smell of brining oil with that.
:thanks:

Check out the TSB. It gives pretty good descriptions of where to check for the most common oil leaks.
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/attac...1&d=1413834741

Much obliged, sir.

Ok, so I'm digging this back up out of the weeds and dust. As I mentioned originally, I get a coolant smell from outside my car after driving, that still happens, and a few weeks back I was giving a look under the hood and checking things out (filter, fluids, etc.) and I noticed that my coolant was low again. The pictures I've provided below are the level when cold, and the level just after a drive home from work, which is plenty of time for the system to get up to temp and stabilize, when the coolant was at that low level.

I picked up some coolant from a local Subie dealer and filled it back up (went a bit over, that range from low to full is really not a lot of fluid), but it's been a little over a year since I first noticed the low coolant, brought it up to the dealer and left them stumped, and here we are again, low but with no evidence of any leaks or issues other than the smell and the eventual low level of fluid.

So does anyone else experience this? Is it normal? I've had past cars that went a decade without needing so much as an extra drop of coolant, and losing the amount that differentiates the tank being full and low over the course of a year doesn't seem normal to me (but again, I haven't lived my life around Subarus and their ways).

The car behaves fine as far as I can tell, and the radiator itself is still full to the brim, so this just has me scratching my head.

Normal in hot weather climates! It's due to the high compression engine which pretty much causes the coolant to evaporate

I think you are waaaaaay over worrying this.

Y, back in the day, we didn't start worrying about coolant loss, till what was left, started steaming over the hood ..... :D


humfrz

Thanks, shaynek. I live in the Northeastern part of the U.S., so it's far from hot around here aside from about 1/3 to 1/4 of the year. But if that is the reason behind it I suppose it's just something I'll have to keep an eye on more often than I'm used to.

Yeah, well, that's easy to have happen when something doesn't seem normal (by today's standards, not the days of yore in ye olde towneshippe where ol' Lorde Humfrz ran the duchy like a huge grassy tavern). I mean, going from full to low in a matter of 2 months doesn't seem like a normal thing on a new car. Going from way over full to low again in a year still doesn't seem normal, but not as extreme.

I try to look after my cars well, so....yeah, guess that = worrying about seemingly weird stuff. :iono:

I've still got a few decades before I hit your level of Honey Badger Carefree. :cheers:

If your still under warranty you can go get a compression test just to make sure everything is perfect

You've got
water
and glycol.

Water can gas off and the glycol cannot. It sits there getting thicker.
That little neck in the discharge tank isn't really a lot of volume, but it gets your attention that something needs to be done.

Eventually.

As long as it's not sucking dust you're ok.
A bit of distilled water would not be amiss to rectify your predicament.

Another element that could be ameliorated would be to check the fluid levels of each cell in your battery.
Distilled water would be the "bees' knees" for topping those up as well.