Burning Oil
by balow34 » Mon Jan 10, 2011 6:48 am
Hey everyone,
I've been having an issue with my 99 Solara SE V6 that started about 2 months ago. After I had a routine oil change approximately 2 weeks later I began smelling burning oil within my car while stopped at traffic lights. It was faint at first and gradually became worse and worse. My first assumption was that either 1) they spilled oil on my engine during my oil change or 2) they didn't put the filter on tightly. I kept a close eye on the ground each time I parked my car and every single time, no oil marks. Also, my assumption was that if they spilled a little oil on the engine in a short amount of time it'd burn off; however, the smell lasted for over a week so I decided to have it looked at.
Took the car into a local automotive repair shop, they said oil was all over the back of the engine. In order to find the location of the potential leak they did a degrease and dye job, told me to drive it for a few days and bring it back. I did as instructed, took it back 3 or 4 days later and they said I had a minor leak on my rear valve gasket, but nothing I should be worried about.
I've been driving the car for about another 2 weeks with nothing and then suddenly out of nowhere yesterday the smell came back in full force. I read a much older post on here with someone who had a similar issue, had the gasket replaced two separate times and STILL had the issue. Unfortunately that post was 3 years ago and they never posted whether or not they had it resolved. One comment left by another member was that perhaps the cover had warped over time and/or the aluminum screws may have been stripped causing it to leak.
As a side note I live in Dayton, OH and I first noticed this problem once it started to get really cold out. After the shop did the degrease and dye job on the vehicle the temperatures were up to the mid-30's and even low-40's. Saturday (the first day I noticed the smell really bad again) the temp was down to 9 deg. overnight...so MUCH colder than the previous week. Is this pure coincidence or does that potentially point to a different problem? Obviously the smell doesn't occur at first and gets gradually worse and worse as the vehicle warms up and oil starts pumping.
I have not done anything to this point and would desperately like to avoid paying someone $400 to replace a gasket on my Solara that's now pushing 197,000 miles if it doesn't mean a guaranteed fix!! The alternative is fixing it myself (which I do have the gaskets in hand), however, based upon my issues and the previous post I read from another owner am I doomed to discover the issue is from elsewhere?
I've been having an issue with my 99 Solara SE V6 that started about 2 months ago. After I had a routine oil change approximately 2 weeks later I began smelling burning oil within my car while stopped at traffic lights. It was faint at first and gradually became worse and worse. My first assumption was that either 1) they spilled oil on my engine during my oil change or 2) they didn't put the filter on tightly. I kept a close eye on the ground each time I parked my car and every single time, no oil marks. Also, my assumption was that if they spilled a little oil on the engine in a short amount of time it'd burn off; however, the smell lasted for over a week so I decided to have it looked at.
Took the car into a local automotive repair shop, they said oil was all over the back of the engine. In order to find the location of the potential leak they did a degrease and dye job, told me to drive it for a few days and bring it back. I did as instructed, took it back 3 or 4 days later and they said I had a minor leak on my rear valve gasket, but nothing I should be worried about.
I've been driving the car for about another 2 weeks with nothing and then suddenly out of nowhere yesterday the smell came back in full force. I read a much older post on here with someone who had a similar issue, had the gasket replaced two separate times and STILL had the issue. Unfortunately that post was 3 years ago and they never posted whether or not they had it resolved. One comment left by another member was that perhaps the cover had warped over time and/or the aluminum screws may have been stripped causing it to leak.
As a side note I live in Dayton, OH and I first noticed this problem once it started to get really cold out. After the shop did the degrease and dye job on the vehicle the temperatures were up to the mid-30's and even low-40's. Saturday (the first day I noticed the smell really bad again) the temp was down to 9 deg. overnight...so MUCH colder than the previous week. Is this pure coincidence or does that potentially point to a different problem? Obviously the smell doesn't occur at first and gets gradually worse and worse as the vehicle warms up and oil starts pumping.
I have not done anything to this point and would desperately like to avoid paying someone $400 to replace a gasket on my Solara that's now pushing 197,000 miles if it doesn't mean a guaranteed fix!! The alternative is fixing it myself (which I do have the gaskets in hand), however, based upon my issues and the previous post I read from another owner am I doomed to discover the issue is from elsewhere?
- balow34
- Just Licensed SolaraGuy
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Mon Jun 28, 2004 11:59 am
