burnt oil smell

[Quick]

I took my 2012 SS 45th in for its first oil change last friday.Dealer gave me the first oil change free. I was excited about it but the next day (Saturday) the wife and i went christmas shopping in the next big town about 75 miles away.When we would leave a intersection/stopsign there was this awful burnt oil smell coming through the vents. I thought (maybe) they had spilled some oil during the change and it would burn off...not the case...when we got home it was still there. I took the car to the dealership and nobody there could smell the burnt oil. We took it inside and raised it just to make sure there wasnt a leak..well,there was no leak or seepage anywhere....it was clean everwhere.checked to see if had been overfilled...nope, right on the mark. Mechanic went all over,around and through the engine with me right on his heels. NOTHING.

Now, when I drive my car all I can smell is the nasty oil fumes instead of that new leather.Has anyone else had this strange problem? Am I going crazy? My wife can smell it.Not
one person at the dearlership could...They are a great bunch of people but what can I do? Its ruining my once pleasant driving experience.what else could cause this if there isn't a leak?I never once smelled it during the first 5 thousand miles,just after the first oil change. Help!! I love this car but I will sell it before I put up with the scent of burning oil.

[air1kdf]

That really sucks. I'm betting that their was some that spilled on the exhaust, and your heater is sucking it in the cab. If it were mine I would keep the windows down at night to let the stench out. Keep them up the rest of the time. And go for a cruze.

[skipinminn]

WOW haven't a clue GOOD luck! I'll trade you My 2010 Synergy and I'll put a air freshener in yours and we will both be happy

[gotroost]

Spirited driving? Mine used to have a burnt oil smell sometimes after driving it hard. Catch can solved the problem.

[napalm0666]

Of course the "great bunch" at service can't smell anything. It's just your and your wifes crazy imagination that they did something wrong while changing oil, shame on you! How can you even think about something like that???
Even more, you dared to go in service and COMPLAIN???



Well, go there again. Tell them to change your A/C filter. And don't pay for it later! Next oil change assign to another service who is not going to spill the oil on exhaust during change, later do piss pooor job cleaning it and pretend nothing happened.

[McBeevee]

Hmmmm, it may be a coincidence, but I was just reading about a couple Corvette guys having this problem. You may want to keep an eye on this thread.......

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-c...te-beware.html

[zeke38]

Oil smells good. Best armor all ever...

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

[TheHorse13]

I had an older car that had this exact issue. What happened was oil was spilled on the exhaust during the first oil change (free, like yours). The fumes and smoke passed into the cabin filter and it stunk for about a week. I went the same route as you and asked the dealer to check for leaks and they found nothing. Once I bought a 20 dollar (at the time) cabin filter and changed it, the smell was gone.

[napalm0666]

It's all very simple:

After oil change engine must be started and heated up to check for possible leaks on filter, sump oil plug, or filling cap. (leaks will show more easily when oil is hot due to better viscosity)
If you have spilled only a few drops of oil on exhaust manifold, after engine heats up it will start smoking & smelling bad. If you at the same time forget to switch off ventilation in the car, that smoke will be sucked into passenger comparment through AC intake filter.
Smoking of manifold usually stops fairly quickly, and after that it's even hard to notice that there was oil spill on it. But residue smell will remain long enough in your AC filter to make your life miserable.
It can be even worst if you try to clean exhaust with IVASOL or some other degreaser, becouse they smell even more visciously than burnt oil.

Let it smell for a few days, than change AC filter. If there's no oil leak, it HAS to stop immediately.

[nancygrl]

I have the same thing, no leaks anywhere, but I know why I'm getting the smell. When I was changing the old oil filter I got some oil on the side of the oil pan. I cleaned it up as best as I could but I'm sure that the oil pan being aluminum has soaked some of it into the surface nooks/crannies and whatever residue has burned off after coming up to temp and got sucked up into thru the cabin air filter as I did forget to hit the recirc button after the oil change. So driving with the recirc on = no oil smell, drive in fresh air mode = oil smell. I'll change out the cabin filter in the spring time.

[vroomapunk]

It takes longer than you think for certain residues to burn off, just give it a little while longer.

Burnt anything smells similar, make sure a tool, or rubber, or plastic isnt melting onto something as well.

I had a plastic bag get stuck on my catalytic converter and smelled awful for a couple days

[busabruce]

Mine did the same thing after I changed the oil the first time. I came home a few times and jacked it up and took a look under it to make sure I didn't leave something loose. I looked around a few sites and saw that other people were having the same issue? I can deal with the smell as long as nothing is wrong with the car.

[Quick]

Thanks to all for the insight and suggestions...they were much appreciated.

Never Satisfied....I'll be watching the link...thanks a million.


The car seems to be doing ok as of now...i'll get the cabin filter changed out after the holiday.

[McBeevee]

Originally Posted by Quick

Thanks to all for the insight and suggestions...they were much appreciated.

Never Satisfied....I'll be watching the link...thanks a million.


The car seems to be doing ok as of now...i'll get the cabin filter changed out after the holiday.

No problem. Glad to hear it's ok and hopefully it was just a one time thing from a little oil spilled during the service.