oil leak/smoking engine

[Renée96]

History:

 

'96 Outback wagon, ~150k miles, 5spd.

 

I knew I had an oil leak somewhere from the rear of the engine, and the passenger side valve cover. I had the pass. side valve cover seal replaced, and my (trusted) local mechanic said that might take care of the largest oil leak, but there was a lot of oil at the rear of the engine and there might be another seal back there that was leaking as well, and I should check the oil regularly and if it stayed at the same level, then the valve cover gasket was the main culprit and I should be okay.

 

That was a week ago. The oil level has not dropped at all in the last week. Yesterday, I noticed a burning smell (not oil burning, more like a burning rubber smell) and saw smoke coming from the exhaust. I pulled over, looked under the hood, and it appeared that a little smoke was coming from under the passenger side valve cover. I had it towed to a garage (too far to tow to my trusty local guy) and they told me today that the rear oil separator plate was leaking like a sieve and needed to be replaced. They said they'd have to pull the engine to do it and they might as well replace the rest of the seals with the engine out (cam seals, rear main seal, plus the water pump, t-belt, and other stuff while the engine was out). So, I told him about the valve cover deal and that maybe the oil at the back of the engine was still from that. I also asked him about the smokey deal, and apparently they just assumed the smoke was from oil dripping on the exhaust pipe, and didn't read the symptoms I gave them. He said he'd have to check that out and get back to me (the original reason I brought the car in).

 

On to my questions:

 

after reading on here, I think I know that there's really no way he could know for sure that the oil separator plate was leaking, unless he pulled the engine or trans, right?

 

If it is leaking, but slow, it's not really necessary to replace it, unless it makes the clutch slip, right?

 

The clutch was replaced, according to the previous owner, about 13k ago. He supposedly had all maintenance done by a local dealer. If they replaced the clutch, most likely they would have put in the improved aluminum oil plate, right? I'm in the process of trying to check with them, but I don't know exactly which dealer he took it too.

 

Any ideas on the smoke/non-burning-oil-smell thing?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Renée96]

Oh, should have mentioned, the temp guage never went past halfway (never has since I've had the car, which is a couple months, maybe 2000 miles).

 

Also, it seemed to run fine, no warning lights, nothing at all, other than the smell and visual white-ish smoke from the exhaust, and then wisps of smoke coming from under the passenger side valve cover. I didn't think to check the coolant level, but it wasn't running hot so I didn't consider it.

[tunered]

my guess is all the smell is from built up burnt oil,until you clean off underneath and be sure where the oil is coming from its a guess,it could be either or both?

[Renée96]

I'm pretty sure it's not burning oil. It smelled different than that, best way I can describe it is it smelled like burning rubber or something, plus I could see smoke coming out of the tailpipe (thin white smoke), more when the engine was revved. I did that once to observe it, then I shut it off, although it did seem to be running fine.

[nipper]

it doesnt take much oil to make alot of smoke. You may never really see the oil loss on the dipstick. Did you check the power steering fluid?nipper

[Renée96]

Nope, didn't check the power steering fluid. I'll take a look at that asap.I've been smelling the oil burning on the exhaust ever since I had the car, so I'm familiar with that. This smelled different, and happened while I was driving at ~45 mph. With the burning oil on the exhaust, that only smells when sitting still.

[Renée96]

The mechanic mentioned that the smoke in the exhaust could be a head gasket problem; he said he sees those a lot. I mentioned to him that I thought the 2.5 engines had all the head gasket problems, not the 2.2, and he said no, they see them on the 2.2 engines with this range of mileage all the time. I've searched on here a bit, and it doesn't seem like there are very many folks at all with 2.2 head gasket problems.

[ballitch]

if you have the motor pulled, have all the seals replaced, timing belt water pump, yada, yada.... as far a the separator plate, ya, you ownt really know if its leaking unless it is gushing oil, or dripping. for the most part, you might just be burning some other kind of fluid, but your best bet is that it is burning left over crud. the headgasket thing for the EJ22, at 150k if you havent had to do some kind of semi-major engine work, it is a blessing. that means the car went about 10 years worth of driving and didnt take a crap on you. sounds like a good deal to me.

 

 

 

 

~Josh~

[nipper]

The mechanic mentioned that the smoke in the exhaust could be a head gasket problem; he said he sees those a lot. I mentioned to him that I thought the 2.5 engines had all the head gasket problems, not the 2.2, and he said no, they see them on the 2.2 engines with this range of mileage all the time. I've searched on here a bit, and it doesn't seem like there are very many folks at all with 2.2 head gasket problems.

 

Exactly how did he come to this conclusion? did he do a exhaust gas test at the radiator? did he do a compression test? did he do a cooling system leak down test?

 

nipper

[Renée96]

Well, I got the car back tonight and the mechanic wasn't actually able to find anything flat out wrong with the engine. They did an exhaust analysis on it (I think that's what he said) and didn't any traces of telltale chemicals which would indicate a headgasket problem, so he felt very confident that that was not the problem. The only thing he could say was that the passenger side real cam plug seal was leaking, and that the oil separator plate was leaking- although I still don't see how he could know that without pulling the engine or trans.

 

Anyway, after paying him for an hour of diagnostics time, from which couldn't find anything wrong other than oil leaks, I decided it should be okay to drive the 15 miles over the hill and take the car to my normal mechanic down the street from my house. My local mechanic will tell me exactly what the problem is, how serious it is, if I can do the repairs myself, risks of not repairing, etc. Due to money shortages, I can live with small oil leaks if that's all it is.

 

The mechanic I got it back from could only think that there was condensation or water or something in the exhaust, which created the white "smoke" (vapor?) That might make sense, since I did have to plow through some fairly deep, wet snow to get out of the neighborhood yesterday, although I drove it about 30 highway miles before the whole smell/smoke thing started.