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SolaraGuy.com • View topic - Burning Oil Smell After week's rest
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Burning Oil Smell After week's rest

Burning Oil Smell After week's rest

Postby FLASH » Sun Jan 20, 2013 9:08 pm

My solara hasn't been my daily driver for 5 or 6 years now, but I drive it every 1-3 weekends.

However, in the past few weeks, after I start it up and drive it for about a mile and a half, I smell burning oil for about 3 minutes, then it goes away. I checked and the oil level is fine and the oil looks pretty clean.

Could this be normal? If so, why would it just start now?

If not, what else could it be?

Other information: The enginge is pretty dirty and does have some buildup on the outside. Again, I'm not sure if this is normal, but it is greasy and black, which leads me to believe it could be oil. There is no oil leak underneath the car. It starts fine, has no other smells, noises, etc. I still only change the oil every 3,000 miles, which comes to be about once a year. Besides a CAI, no other engine mods.

Anyone's input, thoughts, suggestions, or recommendations would be very welcome.

Thanks!
==FLASH==
99 Solara SE with Many Mods (See outdated website) - Weekend Warrior
2001 Cadillac Deville Daily Driver
(Wife's) 2007 Toyota Camry LE with Basic Mods
(Sister's) 2011 "Pink Prius"
FLASH
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Re: Burning Oil Smell After week's rest

Postby crankine3 » Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:41 pm

In my opinion it sounds like aging valve seals. And it is a normal thing for high millage and/or older cars. Basically there are rubber seals that look like thimbles that just let a little bit of the oil through given mostly gravity. The longer it sits, the more oil slowly drips (just droplets) into the cylinder to be burned or pushed out into the hot exhaust. And all the oil is dealt with in the first few seconds of ignition, but the smell lingers a few minutes as it takes a bit for all the air to be pushed all the way out of the exhaust, and then pulled into the car somehow with no cabin air filter, and ya, nasty smell. Best thing for slightly aged valve seals is always keep oil in the trunk, monitor the oil levels every month or so (or maybe just every other time driving it, a year in between making sure oil is at proper level is way toooo long), and probably just let it be. If it is hardly depleting the oil, best thing is to leave it. If the oil is really going and you have a straight 4, you might be able to tackle replacing valve seals over a weekend and with several toys. If you have a V6, getting that back bank of valves might require yanking the engine, and if the valve seals are the only problem you'll never recover the costs of all that work versus just replacing some oil between regular oil changes.
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