Stinky Legacy

[rjundi]

My wife has a 2005 Legacy GT(turbo) wagon with 147,000 miles and it stinks sometimes driving. According to her it happens when first driven in the morning and when she stops a smell comes through the vents and sometimes smoke(she says white) thru the turbo hood scoop.

To me I have never seen it but I smelled it and it was something like burning oil when you stop. You open the hood and nothing but a smell.

A knowledgable Subaru mechanic checked the entire car over and everything is dry and no visible leaks. The oil oil level is full with 2500 miles on it.

It was recently in for a spark plug change and ended up with a failed coil to if that matters.

Any ideas?

 

[Donald]

I would assume oil is leaking and dripping on the exhaust.

Seinfeld has a car that really smelled in one episode. No one would buy it nor even steal it. Maybe your wife got it?

 

[SuperDave456]

Look for any wet or damp areas above a exhaust pipe.

I had a leak like this. I tolerated it for a couple years until this past winter when the burning oil would make a film of vaporized oil on my windshield when the defroster was on.

I can only imagine that it is bad for my lungs too.

 

[JimPghPA]

Try GC oil and see if after about 300 miles of driving with GC the leak stops enough that is is no longer noticed.

 

[mechtech2]

Could also be coolant.

 

[Warstud]

How's the coolant level? Possibly a leaking intake gasket.

 

[JTK]

Eeek! Hopefully not a HG leak.

Did you check your oil filter for leakage? There's a bad batch of blue subaru oil filters floating around. Supposedly the threaded hole isn't quite perpendicular to the gasket surface, causing leaks. 'Course I have a whole box of them at the moment.

 

[05LGTLtd]

Check the passenger side inner cv boot.

 

[The Critic]

Try degreasing and hosing out the engine compartment thoroughly. If this makes the odor go away for a while, then it's probably an oil leak somewhere.

 

[SubLGT]

Check valve cover gaskets for oil leaks, especially around the spark plug holes

 

[rjundi]

Originally Posted By: SubLGT
Check valve cover gaskets for oil leaks, especially around the spark plug holes


Stupid question but would a leak start after the spark plugs were just changed here as it happened right after that?

Wife was having(her car) an intermittent missing issue and the Subie mechanic replaced four spark plugs(OEM

146k) and also a bad spark plug coil.

Changing them was beyond me. He charged 3hrs labor as he said he ended up jacking the motor up a bit to get at some of them.

 

[JimPghPA]

Jacking the motor up could have damaged a gasket such as the oil pan gasket, or a valve cover gasket, depending on how he made contact with the engine to jack it up.

 

[JTK]

Yeah, access to the plugs on turbo models is rough. I would be curious to know what the mechanic did in regards to jacking the engine?!? There's all kinds of gear that would have to be loosened up and/or removed to achieve this.

 

[rjundi]

Originally Posted By: JTK
Yeah, access to the plugs on turbo models is rough. I would be curious to know what the mechanic did in regards to jacking the engine?!? There's all kinds of gear that would have to be loosened up and/or removed to achieve this.


I trust him and don't blame him. He has been wrenching Subaru for 30 years now. His shop typically has 1-2 Outbacks in with motor removed to correct failed head gaskets.

My guess is oil or substance is burning off before it is visible.

 

[cptbarkey]

power steering leak, hitting exhaust, burning off. very typical for subaru.

 

[meep]

the exh'Y' pipe is located beneath/behind the lowest point for drips IIRC. front crank seal, or accessories above that, will drip/weap/flow down to that point where it finally conveniently lands on something hot. at least on the 2.2. things changed a bit early 2000s but not radically.

one could complain, but the 2.3L accord I had was even more dubious... oil was prone to drip into the copper-mesh flex joint where it would deep in like a sponge and couldn't be cleaned out. stinky. had to wrap it in foil whenever doing any messy work.

 

[rationull]

Doesn't it seem odd that he'd have had to jack up the motor to change the plugs? I would guess the Legacy's engine bay is a little bigger than the Imprezas and you can get the plugs out of a WRX without jacking up the engine. Only place I've heard of that being "required" is on the BRZ/FR-S.

Not saying it contributed to the problem necessarily but just strikes me as an unusual step, especially from a mechanic with a lot of Subaru experience. What am I missing?

 

[05LGTLtd]

Originally Posted By: rationull
Doesn't it seem odd that he'd have had to jack up the motor to change the plugs? I would guess the Legacy's engine bay is a little bigger than the Imprezas and you can get the plugs out of a WRX without jacking up the engine. Only place I've heard of that being "required" is on the BRZ/FR-S.

Not saying it contributed to the problem necessarily but just strikes me as an unusual step, especially from a mechanic with a lot of Subaru experience. What am I missing?


Depends on the size of your hands. The Driver side rear plug is the tightest. Other three are not so bad, after pulling the battery and airbox. It's a pain to change the plugs, but it gets easier after you've done it a few times. Three hours shop time is not unheard of, but someone with small hands and experience can knock them out pretty quick.

 

[rjundi]

Does burning fluid make distinct colors? The smoke that I finally saw in person (only really happens first drive of day) came off the exhaust underhood on passenger side was whitish/grey in color. Not coolant as it was not weet and had a pungent burning smell.

 

[rjundi]

Update,

It turns out to be the valve cover gasket on the passenger side is leaking. It is near the turbo etc so not sure if heat effects it. The drivers side is not weeping at all.