I Smell Oil!

[Alexander]

Hello people! I’m having a bit of a problem with my car. I’m not a mechanic but I do occasionally

Topic

[mckrishes]

I would double check for leaks. Check all around the engine and under the engine. Maybe take your valve cover off and take a look inside the engine to see if there are any problems. Maybe there is a lot of gunk in there that needs to be cleaned out.

[Alexander]

I’ll go ahead and check for leaks. As for the gunk how would I go about cleaning that gunk?

[joescorpio]

check the spark plugs to see if they are burnt or have oil on them. if its not leaking on the ground then its either burning or mixing with other fluids have you checked your radiator for any white foam?

[Matt]

If the engine is known for oil consumption problems, and was already rebuilt once, I would guess it’s likely toast. But have you tried any of the diagnostics that you asked for just to be certain? You won’t get much $ out of a car with a crap engine if you go to sell it.

[mckrishes]

Quoted From Alexander:

I’ll go ahead and check for leaks. As for the gunk how would I go about cleaning that gunk?

Maybe you can try an additive like lucas or some other over the counter treatements. I heard lucas is pretty good. Of course do all routine maintenance. Oil and filter change, air filter, pcv valve and hoses, plugs, etc. etc. And if you do use additives, keep an eye on the oil as it may tend to get dirty quickly.

[JDM_Hatch99]

Im not a fan of synthetic oil, its too expensive for what it is.

You probably just had some oil drops fall of the header and or exhaust and smelled it when it was burning off.

[college man]

I would not use a cleaner at this stage in the game. if the previous owner did not do the recommended oil changes
you will have sludge build up.If you break all that free now you risk clogging the oil passages and pump screen.You
will then starve the engine for oil and destroy it. Try switching back to conventional oil. pull the plugs to see if oil deposits
are on them.C8-)

[rick2130]

i would do differential compression test to pin point the problem! because the leak might be in the rings or valve seats.. theres no point cleaning the gunk if you still have leaks and in just 1000 to 2000 miles it will do the same thing

[Alexander]

Quoted From rick2130:

i would do differential compression test to pin point the problem! because the leak might be in the rings or valve seats.. theres no point cleaning the gunk if you still have leaks and in just 1000 to 2000 miles it will do the same thing

I hadn’t really thought of that. I’ve also noticed that the car has lost some power lately, it doesn’t haul ass like it used to. My RPMs won’t go higher than 2100, unless I floor it. Though some times it actually will haul ass. Does that mean there’s a leak?

[Alexander]

Quoted From college man:

I would not use a cleaner at this stage in the game. if the previous owner did not do the recommended oil changes
you will have sludge build up.If you break all that free now you risk clogging the oil passages and pump screen.You
will then starve the engine for oil and destroy it. Try switching back to conventional oil. pull the plugs to see if oil deposits
are on them.C8-)

I was also afraid of clogging everything up, especially with me being new to it. Is it bad to go back to conventional oil? I heard it was.

[Matt]

If the car never used synthetic oil, switching to it at a later date can cause seals to leak. 66k miles doesn’t seem like it is too terrible, but yeh, try switching back to regular oil. Also, if you are losing a quart of oil and see big clouds of smoke out of the exhaust, you possibly have a ring failure or other mechanical failure. Here’s some testing you can do.

Compression test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_tbksFYhl4

Leak down test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgrfT0LFMhc

Good luck.

Oh yeh, I would stay away from additives/cleaners etc. Just my opinion.

[dreamer2355]

Does that vehicle have the 2.5 QR25DE engine?

If you do, there is ALOT of problems with that engine. Nissan even recalled alot of the 03 to 06 QR25DE engines due to excessive oil consumption.

The problem stems from the oil control and piston rings not fully seating from the factory as well as the butterfly screws from the intake manifold getting sucked down into the cylinders.

And the reason i only know of this issue is because me and my wife had a Sentra with the above engine. It started drink a quart of oil every week, then every day till the engine blew. Thankfully the place we bought the car from bought it back given the issues of that engine.

You need to check the oil daily and baby it till you can find another replacement vehicle.

[college man]

since you just did a oil change. check the oil filter and drain plug for leaksC8-)

[jbone]

Maybe u spiled some oil when changing it.Did it smell b4 change?..Here is what color smoke means
white smoke is water
blue smoke is oil.
nest time try and smell the white smoke see if it smells sweet?
if it does its antifreeze.
and also black smoke is fuel (like a leaky injector )
hope this helps

Check plugs also..Look under oil cap for sludge buildup,that will tell you it wasn’t taken care of much.

Get a good quality oil filter

[Alexander]

Quoted From jbone:

Maybe u spiled some oil when changing it.Did it smell b4 change?..Here is what color smoke means
white smoke is water
blue smoke is oil.
nest time try and smell the white smoke see if it smells sweet?
if it does its antifreeze.
and also black smoke is fuel (like a leaky injector )
hope this helps

Check plugs also..Look under oil cap for sludge buildup,that will tell you it wasn’t taken care of much.

Get a good quality oil filter

I have a good quality oil filter. There was so much sludge on the oil cap. Car smelled prior to oil change, in fact, I’m ashamed to say that there was almost no oil in the car before the oil change. At times I get the whiff of burnt oil but old oil. I so wanna say it’s sludge.

[Author]

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