Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

Dear Deidre,
yesterday I returned home to a foul stench from the car. I checked my deodorant and deduced it was the smell of burning oil. I mooched around in the engine bay and heard a faint drip, drip, dripping.
]looked under the car and there appeared to be some streaking along the base of the down pipe.

I checked the level last night (when cold) and it was midway between min and max.
drove to work this morning, kept off boost all the way (only ocaisionally creeping to 0.1 bar when accelerating and....

nothing, not a whiff not a sausage.
I am going to try to get into subaru-proven today to get them to investigate and replace where necessary but does anybody have any ideas what may be the culprit.

other than that the car runs very well and theres no smoke or owt.
I have to get it done before sturday because Im due on the rollers.
regards.

confused from Portsmouth.

Pete Croney

Peanuts

Almost certainly a rocker cover gasket, most likely the drivers side one. Just a few tiny drips onto the hot exhaust manifold will make a terrible smell.

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

Thanks Pete, any idea how long and how much Im looking at to fix?
what about any residual damage from running while dodgy?

obviously I will be driving off boost until its able to be fixed.
Andy

Matt P

Peanuts

Mine's just starting to weep as well, impreza weak spot. As Pete says one or two drops of oil = lots of smoke and nasty smells. If you're fairly handy with a spanner it doesn't look too hard to do yourself (haven't actually done it yet) and as long as your oil level is ok it won't damage your engine (obviously if it starts hosing out then that statement isn't true!)

DaveW

It took me about 2 hours, but then it was my first time and I was taking my time to do it right.

IIRC Take of the induction pipe, and the spark plug leads. Undo the bolts that hold the rocker cover on. You may need to move a few cables/pipes out of the way to give you enough room to get the rocker cover out. Then just clean up the rubber gaskets (there is one for each spark plug hole) with a cloth. Clean the rocker cover with something like brake cleaner (let it dry). Don't forget to clean the engine side too. Then I used univerasl gasket sealer to coat all the parts where the gasket sits as well as the gasket itself. Finally re-assemble on the car and put it all back together.

If it is still leaking then you may need a new gasket, but for the sake of 2 hours and about £3 I thought I'd give it a try and it seems to be holding so far after about 3 months.

Dave.

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

thanks Dave,
its going on the ramp this afternoon for a check, but they think its three hours labour at subaru prices to rectify.

DIY methinks;

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

righty ho.
the word from the bods at haslemere is thus........
(and from memory so maybe the details are a little vague)

1) there IS a leak from the rocker cover gasket, but it is miniscule and certainly not what is causing my grief.
I am going to either buy a new gasket and DIY it or try to clean the old one and apply gasket sealent (thanks Dave)

2) the primary cause of the aggro is the offside front inner drive shaft grease has leaked out, they are going to strip, clean and pack full of *new improved* grease.

thanks for the input guys, its refreshing to have techie types on the boards.
fore-warned is fore-armed as they sometimes say.

Andy