Smoke from engine bay due to oil leak?
 

Hi all,

I have a problem with white smoke coming from an engine bay...

It happens after about 10 minutes of driving after car sat for a while. After stopping, there's thick white smoke coming from under the engine. It stops after less than a minute so it's hard to find the source.

But I discovered there seems to be a leak from this triangular plate that goes right onto the exhaust manifold?

I think this leak would explain the smoke and symptoms... is this is the "timing chain leak" issue that was discussed here already? Sorry, I don't know much about engines and I'd like to collect more info before going to the dealer for fixes.

Attachment 194346

Attachment 194347

They all do this. Lookup a cam plate replacement for it. Aftermarket ones come with a nice o ring isnted of the bullshit rtv that subaru installed.


Here ya go.
https://raceseng.com/products/cam-pl...r-s-subaru-brz

Money well spent. You will have to rtv that plate like 10 times to get to stop leaking... Until a massive temp shift causes it to shrink and it will leak again.

Thanks! I can't do it myself as I have a warranty which should cover it, but I can certainly get a better plate that you suggest.

Can I ask if it can be the cause for that smoke? That looks pretty scary :)

Also, looks like they recently installed the new ground straps, I'm not sure if they could cause this leak by accident while doing that?

Nah it happens on all of them. The smoke is from the oil dripping directly on the over pipe that's right down in that hole.

You could actually just let it keep happening with no I'll effect other than the light smoke and smell.

Assuming it's just dripping like 90% of them do.

Also idk if the dealer will install the aftermarket plate they may just re rtv it.

OK, many thanks! Toyota dealer won't install it, but I got it from used car dealership that also provides warranty on the car (assuming I won't mess with it myself). That's pretty good.

No worries! Hopefully the used car place doesn't jerk you around to much :).

For me it was self limiting. I would get it once in a while and it stopped happening. Guessing the seepage clogged itself shut.

Gets plugged up with dust and debris I would imagine. Fought with that damn plate for the first year I owned the car before I bought the replacement piece.

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New plate is in place and looks like it fixed it. Thanks for the suggestion!

Misapplied RTV. The enemy of all FA20 owners. I got the aftermarket piece with o-ring but you still have to RTV it anyways haha.