vintagelex

So for a while now, whenever I'm standing at a stoplight and I have heating or AC on, I get really smelly smog coming in through the vents... I can see it and after a while of standing (20 sec or more) you can literally see it everywhere inside the cabin. Now I thought this was just oil from my valve cover leak that was burning off after dripping onto the exhaust manifold and I didn't think anything of it. But a month and a half ago I replaced the leaking gasket and cleaned up all the oil mess. That was the only leak so there are no leaks now, but I still get the smell and the smog coming in through the vents.

So my question is this: could it be the exhaust? I just realized that this didn't start hapenning until we got the Y-pipe replaced a year or so ago. And the reason why I think it might be exhaust is because at high rpm's (like 3000 and above) I can hear a faint buzzing noise, and it seems to me like they didn't get a perfect fit between the new Y-pipe and the exhaust manifolds or the cat. converter. I have the FSM but I wasn't able to find where the air for cabin ventilation comes in (is it through the main air cleaner?)

So if anyone has any input that would be much appreciated. If it is in fact exhaust I want to get it fixed.

BDSL

If you want to know if you have an exhaust leak, do Seafoam treatment on the intake manifold. You will see where exhaust white smoke is coming out.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

The air intake is up by the wiper blades, inside the black plastic cowl. You definitely want to get that fixed, exhaust gases are very hazardous...for obvious reasons.

vintagelex

So I finally got around to taking it to the shop yesterday, and I guess there is both good and bad news. Good news is we found the cause of the smoke and smell, and it's not exhaust. The bad part is both the rear valve cover and the oil pan gasket are leaking and oil is dripping onto the exhaust causing the smell. The guys at Car-X quoted me $475.99 just for replacing the oil pan gasket (I told them I would do the valve cover myself). Basically $20 for the part and $450 for the labor.... is this a fair price? It seems way too much to me, since it doesn't look too hard to get the oil pan off (the mechanic said the y-pipe would have to be loosened propably to be able to get the oil pan off, but still, $475???)

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

None of those sound like fun. I would pay the shop to do it for you.

LeX2K

$450 just to seal the oil pan back up seems too high. All you have to do is drop the y-pipe, remove the pan, clean the surfaces, and re-seal. There is no gasket BTW, although you can buy them aftermarket although I do not recommend this, they will very likely end up leaking.

Are you sure the oil pan is actually leaking? It's usually something else that makes it look like an oil pan leak.

vintagelex

Seems like it's leaking, but then again I never have to add oil and I'm guessing if it was leaking it would cause quite a bit of oil to leak out... maybe it's just a few years of leaked oil through the valve cover that's covering everything. Gotta clean it up and look again in a week, that should make it more obvious hopefully.