Hello again,

I think my Ka might have a slow oil leak, but i'm not 100% sure where. I noticed after doing a few long (100 mile+) trips recently that the car smells of something hot, which I first thought might be coolant. However, the coolant level isn't really going down any faster than it used to, and the heater still works all the time.

I had noticed steam coming from the front of the engine when stopping, but it has been very wet here recently, so I wrote that off. However, when I pulled up yesterday on a dry road, it was still there a bit. I looked under the bonnet and could see a small amount of oil on top of the exhaust heat shield, which was naturally burning off and creating both smoke and the mystery smell.

This morning I have done the following:

- Run the car from cold with the coolant cap off, to bleed out any air bubbles. Nothing detected.
- Checked the oil after adding 0,5l yesterday. It doesn't appear to be anywhere near as low as before I added it, although my dipstick is difficult to read because the oil always seems to smear up it - is this common? The oil was about 5mm above the lowest notch before I added some.
- Added some right foot for a few minutes. At this point, there was a small amount of smoke again from the shield, so I think it only heats up enough when the engine is under load.

I don't think it is the head gasket because the water is not oily at all, there is no white crud on the dipstick or on the oil filler cap, and there is no white smoke from the exhaust. I have read that the rocker cover gasket is prone to failure, and this area has been quite oily for as long as I have had the car until my wife cleaned it yesterday. The engine does smell rather hot, but the temperature or oil lights are keeping quiet.

Is it possible that oil leaking from that has made its way down onto the exhaust manifold? I have a video of it running:

 

Any help or advice appreciated, as usual :)

Slight update - the wife drove to the shops a little while ago and checked the fan before stopping the engine. It wasn't running, but it had moved, so either it is still working or it was windmilling.

Possibly related, speeds 1 and 2 have stopped working on the interior fan :(

3 hours ago, gkmotorsport said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is it possible that oil leaking from that has made its way down onto the exhaust manifold?

That is very possible, but you'll find out if you dismantle enough bits in order to see.

 

I was trying to add that you may have two independent problems (an oil leak and a water leak),  but the edit went all wrong, as did trying to change it before saving...