The burning hurts my eyes!

nene · nene's Garage

After driving the car (86 Carrera) and come to a complete stop, I get a strong sense of, what I think is burning oil, although the underneath of the car is completely clean of it, and no oil residue on the tail pipe. The consumption is not out of hand either. The car has 199k miles on it (PO stated that there was some rebuilding done on it), but can't confirm. So I ask you, what is going on! I hate the stench!!!

Serge

Spenny_b · Spenny_b's Garage

The smell's inside the car? Or outside? If inside, possibly an exhaust leak into the heat exchangers > coming into the cabin via ventilation channels? With 199k miles, would be interesting to see what condition your bottom end is in, i.e., piston rings allowing oil to blow by.

ETA - think my first port of call, with that sort of mileage, would be to get a leakdown test done. If nothing else, it'd be something to take off the list of possibles.

mreid · 12-27-2013, 05:12 PM

This has all the makings of an exhaust leak coming through the heater into the cabin. Check it thoroughly as it can be very dangerous to your health.

nene · nene's Garage

The smell is outside and tends to creep in via the window because if I close the windows, I cant smell it.

johnman001 · johnman001's Garage

Exhaust that burns my eyes tends to be an overly-rich condition. Is your exhaust smoke black in color when the throttle is quickly opened then closed? If it is black (slightly black in color) it is usually fuel. If it is grey/blue in color, it is usually oil. Oil smoke usually isn't bad enough to burn my eyes.

If it is running rich, it could be your O2 sensor, ignition defect, dirty air filter, or your car could be due for a valve adjust/tune-up.

nene · nene's Garage

Thanks all for the feedback, but I recently did adjusted the valves and replaced the o2 due to the car buckning so I can rule those two out. BTW, no black or blue smoke so I am kinda baffled.

johnman001 · johnman001's Garage

Sometimes a white sheet of paper as a background can help to determine the "color" of your exhaust. I'm guessing that your car may be slightly rich. Not enough to show much color, but rich enough to smell. I'm assuming that your complaint is mostly at idle when you are stopped.

Since you are in CA, I assume that you must pass emissions testing. What is your CO %?

You may be able to have someone adjust that for you.