Stinky Legacy, Not Clutch

[rts]

Has anyone else experienced this. When taking my car for it's initial test drive I noticed a distinct odor, especailly when stopped. I wrote this off to the car being new and that it was just finishing oils etc. of a fresh engine and burning off. This appeared to be the case because I noticed the small for the first couple of hundred miles and then it seemed to go away. After the first oil change (done by my dealer) the odor seemed to reappear. Again, after several hundred miles it seems to be going away. Does the oil change process tend to slop oil onto the under engine panels which may supply a source of the smell?? The smell is quite easy to notice, you don't have to have your head stuck into the engine compartment to smell it. Just walking by the car after shutting it off is enough. Any thoughts?

 

I'd hate to think I will have this odor every time I have an oil change. It may not be associated with the oil change at all but it did seem to reappear after the first oil change.

 

I know it is not the clutch as I have the 2.5i automatic.

[Ed_T]

Sometimes when I stomp on the xway (5EAT), I'll get a sulphuric smell in the cabin, regardless of windows opened or closed. Does not always happen, and I always buy my gas at the same two places.

 

What I'd like to know is how is exhaust getting in, if it is exiting through the tailpipe? I figure maybe the turbo's got some bypass letting it out in front of the firewall to the atmosphere, but frankly I dunno.

 

While you are not saddled with turbo complexity, it could in fact be newness burning off. But as you indicated it should be gone by now. If they somehow got oil on hot engine//exhaust parts, yes you'll smell it until it burns off. You might also have a leak. If they missed the oil fill it could have dripped everywhere down there, and likely they did not clean the mess.

[nyogi116]

What was the smell like? Did it smell like burning oil? Or perhaps brakes? Exhaust?

[David Bernat]

I experienced the same thing. It is a break-in thing. It eventually goes away.

[Accord Lover]

It could be the engine oil slipped off when they were changing and stuck somewhere you cant see. Does it smell like plastic burning or candle burning? then it is the engine oil burning off outside of the engine. It's nothing to worry about i think....

[sirhecubus42]

The mufflers will also produce a kind of acrid smell during the breakin period.

[rts]

The smell is more oil smell. I don't think it is exhaust. When the car was new my immediate thought was finishing oils on new metal burning off. The odor did go away after several hundred miles, however returned after the first oil change and went away as before. The car does not appear to be losing oil. At least the dip stick reads full every time I check it. It just has a hot, oily smell. Not the smell of a car burning oil out the tail pipe but more like the smell of oils on hot surfaces. It is not the rotten egg smell of a catalytic converter and doesn't smell "electrical" in nature. The car is not running hot and operationally everything appears normal.

 

I will have my dealer check it out next trip. However, I find that members of this forum often are better informed that Subaru's service techs so I thought I'd get some input prior to presenting the problem to my dealer.

 

I have not changed the oil myself as of yet, but I know there are plastic panels enclosing the bottom of the engine compartment. My first thought was that if it were very easy for oil to puddle on one of these, either from draining the oil or removing the filter, it might be oil pooled on one of these panels doing it. This may explain the odor going away as I would think sooner or later water spray from driving or just the heat of the engine would rid it of any oil residue sooner or later.

 

Since the engine is new and clean, I don't notice any unusual dirt, etc. indicating a leak anywhere, at least where visible.

 

You do not need to be in an enclosed space to notice it. At an interstate rest stop I noticed it as I walked beside the car to get in. Again, the car was not running hot and everything appeared normal except for the odor.

[Max Capacity]

I change my own oil, I just changed the tranny oil and made a mess. It will take a few days for the oil to burn off. I have 27,000 miles on my 05GT Wagon. Up until I made the mess there has not been any oil smells. Yours is most likely just a messy oil change.

[Jduke]

This has been talked about quite a bit.... the Egg/sulfer smell is from the cats heating up and doing there job. I don't think anyone has figured out why it is coming into the cabin. Mine does it almost always when stomping on it in 3rd 4th, and 5th, when the turbo is doing allot of work. But I can only smell it when the windows are down.

 

The Oil smell is different, there is actually allot of slop when changing the oil and I get quite a bit of "splash" sometimes when I take the oil drain plug off, so most likely this is what you are smelling, if it goes away after driving a bit and your not leaking oil I would not worry about it to much.