[standarren]

afternoon guys i hope someone can help
heres a little background of the car
last year i purchased a saab 9-3 convertible shortly after having it the turbo blew so i replaced the turbo droped the pan cleaned the oil strainer and fitted the new crankshaft ventilation kit new oil filter and plugs and filled with mobil 1 fully synthetic (whilst checking for sludge i found very little and the strainer was pretty good compared to some)
after a few day i noticed a spray of oil at the back of the engine luckily it was only a hose that connects onto the oil trap so a simple jubilee clip sorted that problem out with no oil at the back of the engine anymore
what i am experiencing is a smell of oil in the cabin ?
also my biggest fear is when checking the oil pretty frequently now a days' i'm seeing gunge at the bottom and sides of the dipstick and the oil level has dropped wheres it going theres no patches on the road and i cant see anything around the engine bay
any help would be gladly received

 

[Frank_Drebin]

The fact that you smell oil in the cabin points to it being a leak under the hood. You had several oil-sealing parts of the car recently so it could be any one of them. The fact that you don't see any oil droplets only means that the oil is pooling somewhere then spilling onto the cat or other exhaust system component. Check the banjo bolts on the turbo first then start looking at the head gasket sealing surfaces. I doubt it's the oil pan or you'd see oil on the driveway. Since you upgraded the Crankcase vent system to #6 while you had it apart, did you connect the hoses correctly. They plumb differently than the OEM ones did. Is the check valve installed correctly?

 

[standarren]

The fact that you smell oil in the cabin points to it being a leak under the hood. You had several oil-sealing parts of the car recently so it could be any one of them. The fact that you don't see any oil droplets only means that the oil is pooling somewhere then spilling onto the cat or other exhaust system component. Check the banjo bolts on the turbo first then start looking at the head gasket sealing surfaces. I doubt it's the oil pan or you'd see oil on the driveway. Since you upgraded the Crankcase vent system to #6 while you had it apart, did you connect the hoses correctly. They plumb differently than the OEM ones did. Is the check valve installed correctly?

yes i can confirm that all the banjo bolts are tight with no leaks. it seems that on another forum someone said that if my exchaust fumes smell sweet it possible head gasket failiure and yes its sweet but i havent lost a drop of coolant ?

 

[Frank_Drebin]

yes i can confirm that all the banjo bolts are tight with no leaks. it seems that on another forum someone said that if my exchaust fumes smell sweet it possible head gasket failiure and yes its sweet but i havent lost a drop of coolant ?

Hard to diagnose a leak over the interwebs... I can only go by what you present. You know oil when you smell it, If you smell oil it smells like an old Caprice Classic with taped-up windows. Coolant smells sweet. Sounds like you need to dig in and look for a leak. Check the torque on your head bolts to be sure as well.

 

[standarren]

Hard to diagnose a leak over the interwebs... I can only go by what you present. You know oil when you smell it, If you smell oil it smells like an old Caprice Classic with taped-up windows. Coolant smells sweet. Sounds like you need to dig in and look for a leak. Check the torque on your head bolts to be sure as well.

been out in the car for a run earlier and when the car was nice and hot i checked the exchaust' all that was there was charcoled black no oily deposits
so gunk at bottom of dipstick
losing oil
smell of oil in cabin
no smoke
no wet oil inside exhaust
no lose of coolant
no oil leaks on the road

 

[standarren]

its got to go

been thinking for a while now and i have decided as soon as i come back off my holidays its going up for sale.
I thought the idea of having a convertible was to enjoy it but i havent had chance' its one worry after another i shall not be purchasing one in the future. so top up the oil give it a clean and its gone.
oh well off to cyprus tommorow thank god' one last scrub of the oily finger nails and it will soon be time

 

[Frank_Drebin]

been thinking for a while now and i have decided as soon as i come back off my holidays its going up for sale.
I thought the idea of having a convertible was to enjoy it but i havent had chance' its one worry after another i shall not be purchasing one in the future. so top up the oil give it a clean and its gone.
oh well off to cyprus tommorow thank god' one last scrub of the oily finger nails and it will soon be time

Good call. When it stops being fun, time to move on... These are great cars if properly maintained but it's hard to know what you're getting when you buy a 10-15yr old used car.

 

[standarren]

you no i really should of mentioned this before' but all over the winter period i've been driving to work' the problem is its 2 minutes away i've read somewhere that this is bad for the engine if the oil does not get upto temperature it will not burn off the condensation and cause white gunge in the dipstick could this be it i wonder. i havent lost an once of water but i've been losing oil somewhere ?