Technical Hot oily smell coming through air vents?

[dac69er]

My girlfriend's 100hp has a burnt oil type smell coming through the vents when the engine has warmed up.

I can't see an oil leak from anywhere. Bottom of the engine is dry. Breather pipe is fine.
No leaks from the gearbox Inc the shifter.

There is what looks like a damp patch near where the injectors area, which may be a small cam cover leak, but that looks like a right pain to change as the cams are housed within it?

Any ideas of what else it could be? Car has done 160k miles so everything is quite well used.

Thanks

 

[portland_bill]

You've checked the obvious places.
The smell you describe is 'hot', meaing any leak is getting onto the exhaust. This will burn it off, and leave only a stain, making it more difficult to find. So you need to look for staining, anywhere oil could drip.

I had similar a while ago. On the 1.2, the right diff seal is directly above the exhaust. I'd expect the 1.4 to be similar. The seal hardens due to the heat, and the resultant leak drips onto the exhaust, which is dirty anyway, making finding it difficult.
Changing the seal requires disconnecting the bottom ball joint that side, to pull the driveshaft out. Then the seal will prise out, but the exhaust really gets in the way.

 

[koalar]

You've checked the obvious places.
The smell you describe is 'hot', meaing any leak is getting onto the exhaust. This will burn it off, and leave only a stain,

Correct


Almost certainly the case as it burns off after a while

Probably worth checking after it’s stood awhile

 

[dac69er]

That's the strange thing. It's is bone dry around the seals/driveshafts??? No oil underneath either?

I guess it could be a very fine mist, but I would have expected a build up of oil over time?

I may try and fashion a deflector between the driveshaft and exhaust to see if that stops it temporarily. I don't want to change a driveshaft seal for the sake of it if it's ok.

 

[The Panda Nut]

We have had this. One of the pipes on the engine breather system had come off the underside of the airbox and boy did it smell. The small pipe had actually broken off the airbix. I cleaned this and repaired it with specialist black plastic glue which has never moved again in 3 years. You need to look down the left side of the air box and obvoisly if its the same thing give it a clean as well. The fix stopped the smell immediately. In the maoin breather pipe is a fire trap. Its basically a mesh filter. If this gets blocked it exaserbates the problem, It can be worked out of the breather pipe and cleaned or a new breather is required. They are not expensive.

 

[dac69er]

We have had this. One of the pipes on the engine breather system had come off the underside of the airbox and boy did it smell. The small pipe had actually broken off the airbix. I cleaned this and repaired it with specialist black plastic glue which has never moved again in 3 years. You need to look down the left side of the air box and obvoisly if its the same thing give it a clean as well. The fix stopped the smell immediately. In the maoin breather pipe is a fire trap. Its basically a mesh filter. If this gets blocked it exaserbates the problem, It can be worked out of the breather pipe and cleaned or a new breather is required. They are not expensive.

As mentioned, breather is fine. I took it off, cleaned and checked it for any splits of cracks and then Refitted it.


It's quite smelly oil, so I think it is gearbox, but hot burnt engine oil can smell pretty pungent too!

 

[The Panda Nut]

As mentioned, breather is fine. I took it off, cleaned and checked it for any splits of cracks and then Refitted it.


It's quite smelly oil, so I think it is gearbox, but hot burnt engine oil can smell pretty pungent too!

Unusual for gear box to smell through the air vents. You more often smell it from outside. Panda gearbox oil is really vile smelling stuff too. I hope you find the cause and its a minor thing.

 

[dac69er]

Unusual for gear box to smell through the air vents. You more often smell it from outside. Panda gearbox oil is really vile smelling stuff too. I hope you find the cause and its a minor thing.

You can smell it a bit from outside the car and it's only when you stop and the engine is hot.

Anything that smells in the engine bay is likely to get drawn in via the "duck bill" drains into the area where the fan draws air from.

 

[portland_bill]

Check the front edge of the cam cover, for oil leaking onto the exhaust manifold.

 

[koalar]

I can’t tell the difference between engine and gearbox oil these days

I don’t know if my nose has changed or the oils we now use

I have a bottle of each here and wouldn’t like to call it.

 

[dac69er]

Check the front edge of the cam cover, for oil leaking onto the exhaust manifold.

If that is where the leak is from, it looks like a mission compared to most cam cover seals. It's coming up to another cambelt change, so could do to then I guess!!!

 

[koalar]

Cam cover leaking at the back definitely smells as before buttoning everything down after a head gasket I test drove the car without adding any sealant to the gasket

It mainly leaked at the rear right(1.2 69hp) It smelt quite strongly. It was wet though not slightly damp.

 

[dac69er]

Cam cover leaking at the back definitely smells as before buttoning everything down after a head gasket I test drove the car without adding any sealant to the gasket

It mainly leaked at the rear right(1.2 69hp) It smelt quite strongly. It was wet though not slightly damp.

The 100hp cam cover is a mission though as it houses the cams by the looks of it, so you need to take the cambelt off to do it!!!

The older engines are 2 minute job to replace as I have had to do it multiple times on my Cinquecento.

 

[koalar]

If it’s similar to the 1.2 then it’s not too bad

1.2 has these which would be worth changing as it feed the oil around the cam

I don’t have access to the 1.4 elearn at the moment

 

[dac69er]

If it’s similar to the 1.2 then it’s not too bad

1.2 has these which would be worth changing as it feed the oil around the cam

I don’t have access to the 1.4 elearn at the moment

View attachment 410749

It looks completely different. The 1.2 looks similar to the older fire like my cinq.

Never heard of anyone having to change the cam cover gasket on a 100hp

 

[koalar]

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[dac69er]

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Completely different.....

 

[koalar]

Completely different.....

Dam only 1.4 Fiat I could find

 

[dac69er]

It's like this:

Mk1 1.2 16V cam cover removal - help! | FIAT Punto (Mk1)

Hi, My other halfs punto (mk1 1.2 16v 85 ELX) has blown it's head gasket. I'm failing to remove the cam cover. I removed the cover (12 in the pic below) I then tried to get a socket in to remove 11. I purchased some long reach 1/4" drive sockets to get the depth over the cap heads on the bolts...

www.fiatforum.com

I'm surprised it's the 1.4 fiat 500 in that video as I though that was the same engine as the 100hp?

 

[koalar]

It's like this:

Mk1 1.2 16V cam cover removal - help! | FIAT Punto (Mk1)

Hi, My other halfs punto (mk1 1.2 16v 85 ELX) has blown it's head gasket. I'm failing to remove the cam cover. I removed the cover (12 in the pic below) I then tried to get a socket in to remove 11. I purchased some long reach 1/4" drive sockets to get the depth over the cap heads on the bolts...

www.fiatforum.com

I'm surprised it's the 1.4 fiat 500 in that video as I though that was the same engine as the 100hp?

1016B12 SINGLE CAMSHAFT HOUSING - R.R. WITH TIMING BELT REMOVED - REPLACE GASKET - Fiat - NUOVA BRAVO - eLearn - 4CarData

Same as the bravo maybe ?