Oil build up Driver Side under engine skid plate?
 

Whats up everyone,

Was driving around yesterday and after about an hour had this smell coming from my driver side that smelled like burnt oil / burnt rubber and when took a look inside the engine bay i noticed that my under engine skid plate had this black spotting (looks just like oil splat build up) only on the driver side of it though and it is SPOTLESS on the passenger side. Was going to do an oil change tomorrow anyways since i noticed it could use some but wanted to see if anyone has experienced this and what it could be coming from. Haven't had a chance to lift the car to take off the plate and take a look but will be able to on Saturday.

First image is my driver side, Second image is my passenger side. (Hopefully it uploaded correctly this is my first time using forums for anything)

Thanks in advance and hope to hear from you all.

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Most common things would be timing cover, valve cover, or cam angle sensor.
You're going to need to take the skid plate off and get a look underneath to really figure out what the source is. Oil pan unlikely but possible - oil change recently?

Clean it all off good, check it again in a couple days to get a gauge on how fast / how much it's leaking and primarily from where

Sounds like a plan, yeah this amount in the first picture has accumulated over 7-8 months. I cleaned it when I first got the car and every time I’ve changed my oil + filter (every 3k miles) it hasn’t looked like that. I only noticed it because of the burnt smell. Gonna get in there with cleaner and get to work this weekend. Thanks for the tip

Is the oil dripping off the bottom? That may not be a leak spilled oil at some time. I would clean it up and monitor.

Bubba says not to worry about it unless it starts dripping on the garage floor.

;)

Notice you're using a non-oem oil filter. I've had a leak there once from not tightening all the way down. that shot oil out at high rev. I'd clean that up and replace with a Subaru 15208AA130 Oil Filter.

Also I've spilled oil from the fill tube there a few times, my skid plate looked the same as yours.

If you are planning to remove the skid plate to check for timing cover leaks, be aware that removing all the covers can give you some difficulty as the bolts fasten directly to the frame / subframe, I snapped about 4 bolts trying to get my cover back on.

is that a wix?

i really see no reason to needlessly replace an oil filter...

Not even a couple of days. I would check the same day. Wipe it off real good. If you have to use a toothbrush, use it for the small crevices. Drive the car hard to create more pressure so it can push the oil out and you can see where it is leaking from.

So you didn't install the filter properly the first time. Bought an OEM one and did install it properly and still blames the non OEM filter?

The OEM ones are self tightening?

@x808drifter @Grady no, I just pointed out he was using an aftermarket filter. And then I went on to say that I have had problems with oil tilers not being seated proberly, shooting oil out. Some oil filters had problems with seating properly (see "K&N oil filter problems" thread), my only first hand example is the time I didnt seat an OEM filter.

Ok thank you for wasting time!

Tillers? When did we switch to sailboats?

i had a low tire pressure once. i'm so glad i changed my oil the day before.

This has nothing to do with the oil filter. One glance at the pic and we see that it's all clean right down past the oil pressure switch.

OP, look lower.