C350 exhaust smell with foot down and sunroof open

[MrGreedy]

Oil/soot stains around the engine are not what I would call 'normal'. Wear/degradation of oil seals (cam cover gasket, head gasket, crank seals etc) resulting weeping of small amounts of oil on high mileage cars is not uncommon, but it is not 'normal' and should be able to be corrected by fitting of new seals.

I've got a bit of sooty/oil mess around the turbo area on the LHS of the engine, and at some point I'm going to strip off everything that's mucky, clean it up and replace all seals in the surrounding area, and then monitor very closely. The best way to see where the filth is coming from is when you know it is clean in the first place, otherwise oil mess tends to creep a long way on a hot engine.

It can probably by tolerated for many miles in most cases, and is more of an annoyance due to very minor wear/tear/ageing of seals rather than indicator of major impending catastrophic failure.

 

[merc07]

I know, it's filthy under there and I would have thought new seals should have been fitted when the turbo, inlet manifolds, headers, were all removed when I had the oil cooler seals let go.
The main issue now is the 'jet' of fumes that shoots directly upward out of the turbo area.
That's obviously what I can smell with the sun roof open..
But I get a different answer from each specialist I go to.
1. The plume of fumes is absolutely normal
2. It's your injector seals
3. It's not the injector seals, take it back to the last garage
4. Your turbo is split, a common problem

I am half tempted to drive it 120 miles it so for Olly to look at it - I need to get this sorted asap

 

[merc07]

I know, it's filthy under there and I would have thought new seals should have been fitted when the turbo, inlet manifolds, headers, were all removed when I had the oil cooler seals let go.
The main issue now is the 'jet' of fumes that shoots directly upward out of the turbo area.
That's obviously what I can smell with the sun roof open..
But I get a different answer from each specialist I go to.
1. The plume of fumes is absolutely normal
2. It's your injector seals
3. It's not the injector seals, take it back to the last garage
4. Your turbo is split, a common problem

I am half tempted to drive it 120 miles it so for Olly to look at it - I need to get this sorted asap

Ok, the smell and exhaust plume has been fixed but 1 day later I have a new fault appear that has never happened before !

Apparently the egr pipe had not been fitted correctly and was spewing out fumes - covered in soot. Turbo and all its related parts removed to fix it.

I will start a new thread on the next fault and mention all that has been done..

 

[TeddyRuxpin]

The EGR pipe at the front of the engine, or one connected to the EGR valve itself?

 

[merc07]

Under the turbo, you tell me.
Was leaking after the rebuild....

 

[merc07]

What do you think Teddy ?

 

[BlackC55]

It could be from the exhaust housing of the turbo and/or a snapped bolt on the turbo manifold. The snapped bolts are very common.