I have a 1987 Mazda 323 1300. When I come to a stop at traffic lights etc, I get a smell of warm oil.
It disappears quickly when you move away but happens everytime you come to a stop for any length of time.
It goes when you turn the engine off, there is no oil dripping onto the ground where its parked and I steam cleaned the engine when I bought it to get rid of all the oil but this made no difference.
The car was also over filled with oil by some margin, but this was drained weeks ago and the smell persists.
I can find no obvious leaks and it bugs me!
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oil not dripping onto exhaust manifold by any chance is it?,though it would burn for a while if this happened.
How much overlimit was it??
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Steve
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split breather pipe? engine to air filter casing?
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Im going to check the breather tomorrow. It was overfilled by about an inch above the maximum on the dipstick, not sure how many litres that amounted to but my mechanic said it had way too much in.
Not sure if its relevant, but it does smoke for about 15 seconds when it is cold, blue smoke but not especially thick. Its done 69,000 miles and has full history so it shouldnt be overly knackered and it doesnt overheat so I didnt think it could be the head gasket either.
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Sounds like bore wear, gummed up piston rings, maybe hardened exhaust valve oil seals too. Not surprising on a car which has been used for short runs for 2 decades. I had this with an old Vauxhall. Stripped the engine, re-ringed it and put new valve seals in and it stopped smoking. Big job for an old car though. Not worth paying a garage to do it IMO.
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Oil is sucked past INLET valve oil seals by the vacuum in the inlet manifold;the Exhaust seals have pressure on the manifold side and will not suck oil down but some will drain down when the engine is not running.
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Ok, next question, should I worry about it?
I do one journey a week in it, 15 mile round trip to try and get it hot. Its only a back up car to last until next summer.
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jc2 was quite right to correct me about the valve oil seals. I should have said INLET valves, not exhaust. Thanks for that jc2 - Good Spot mate. Worn valve guides allow oil to be drained past the INLET valve stem.
If you've the intention of keeping the car short term only, with the kind of use you are proposing, I would run it as it is. If it hasn't had one recently then an oil and filter change wouldn't go amiss I think.
Keep your eye on the oil level because you may find that it uses some, but at 15 miles a week you should be OK. Check it if you do any long runs. I check my oil levels once a month as a matter of routine. Same with coolant and washer bottle. If I'm topping up the washer bottle it only takes a second to check the oil dipstick while the bonnet is open.
Ron
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One more thought;did any oil get into chassis rails or voids in the engine compartment?
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