Help Appreciated

[lrobertwood]

I was wondering if anyone can help?? when im driving my 1993 325i i sometimes get a smell in the car of burning oil ?? then it goes again was wondering if it was anything to do with the air filter ??? oil and everything ok i have checked all that ??????????

[basrite]

Hey,

Yeah I had that on my 320i. Thought it was the oil feed hole near the exhaust which can sometimes leak but turned out just to be the rocker cover gasket.

That replaced, no more oil smell.

It was worse in the morning.. 3km up the road pull into a gas station and oil smoke would start to pour out from the bonnet then stop all of a sudden. No leaks on the ground to show what was going on as it burnt off on the down pipes.

Hopefully this helps.

J.

[chapps]

Hello irobertwood,

It appears to be a common problem with this model at this age, honestly why would you expect anything else considering the vent inlet being behind the bonnet.

My limited experience with a similar problem I suggest you look at your air intake vent, lift the bonnet and check for any leak into the flexible between the vent and the inside of the car. I had a small plug missing so the system was sucking air straight from the engine compartment and the cabin smelt something like a burnt plastic rather than oil but plugging the hole eliminated the smell for a while at least. The smell re-appeared not quite the same smell though. I looked again and found a small leak at the back of the rocker cover gasket that could only be seen from under the car so recirculation seems to be the way to go for me for now.

To narrow down where the smell was coming from, I just set the system on recirculation before I started the car. No smell most likely the engine bay is the problem. In my case if the car is stationary engine running and drawing air from the vent then for sure I will have a smell in the cabin.

I am considering re-plumbing the flexible from the vent to the front of the car just to see if I can eliminate the problem completely.

Chapps

[saltshaker185]

look for oil leaks... thats your first bet. clean then engine up real good to pin point the leaks also. fix them and see if you still have the problem.

[johnnyBgood]

I was getting this about a year ago.....burning oil smell in car, I found oil seeping slow out fro the valve cover onto the exhaust headers.....replaced the valve cover gasket & my oil smell was gone.....

johnny,