Oil smell inside car cabin

Kanpai · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:02

Car: VW Golf 1.6 TDI (2012)
68k miles

So on Saturday morning I set off for a journey to Heathrow and noticed that there was this weird smell of burning oil coming inside the cabin when I turned the fans on. If I turn the AC on then the smell goes away.

I opened the hood and removed the engine cover to see if I could see any visible leaks or the likes but everything looked okay.

Roll forward today, I turned the car on and could smell the oil again, however once I got onto the motorway the smell cleared up within minutes. I left the car to idle a few minutes after my journey and no smell.

99% of my mileage is motorway but I'm not sure what exactly the issue is.

Can anyone shed some thought on this?

Having problem after problem with this car (so much for the so called reliability of the Golf!)

The car was serviced a month ago and no issues were found, just the annual service and change of filters etc.

wedrum · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:06

oil leaking somewhere and burning on the engine.

paradigm · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:09

If the smell has now gone and doesn't return, it could have just been spilt oil from the service, sat on something hot, which you've now burnt off.

Kanpai · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:20

wedrum said:
oil leaking somewhere and burning on the engine.

I hope not =/

paradigm said:
If the smell has now gone and doesn't return, it could have just been spilt oil from the service, sat on something hot, which you've now burnt off.

Why would the smell only come now though after a month of service? Surely if this was the case the smell would have appeared much sooner?

paradigm · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:24

Depends entirely on how often it's driven and if the oil had to drip down from somewhere that wasn't particularly hot.

I'd still be checking oil level as a matter of course.

Kanpai · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:31

paradigm said:
Depends entirely on how often it's driven and if the oil had to drip down from somewhere that wasn't particularly hot.

I'd still be checking oil level as a matter of course.

Drive it Mon-Fri on motorway about 40 mile return trip daily.

I'll check at home time to see if the smell is still there, I'll check the oil level too, thanks!

GeForce · 26 Jun 2017 at 11:36

I had this where very small amounts of oil were leaking from the cam covers and dripping onto one of the catalysts, where it immediately burned off. Above the catalyst is the cabin fresh air intake, so it smelled very strongly in the cabin.

Smell would disappear once moving since the airflow through the engine bay pushed the oil smoke away from the cabin air intake.

Fixed by re-sealing the cam covers of course

Kanpai · 27 Jun 2017 at 07:35

GeForce said:
I had this where very small amounts of oil were leaking from the cam covers and dripping onto one of the catalysts, where it immediately burned off. Above the catalyst is the cabin fresh air intake, so it smelled very strongly in the cabin.

Smell would disappear once moving since the airflow through the engine bay pushed the oil smoke away from the cabin air intake.

Fixed by re-sealing the cam covers of course

Was this on a Golf mate?

A bit of an update, on the journey home there was no oil smell at all. I went out in the evening later on too and no smell again.

Will check this morning but fingers crossed your theory is correct paradigm!

adam cool dude · 27 Jun 2017 at 10:27

This might sound silly but you were not following a car when you smelt the smell? Could have been the car in front burning oil.

Kanpai · 27 Jun 2017 at 14:44

adam cool dude said:
This might sound silly but you were not following a car when you smelt the smell? Could have been the car in front burning oil.

Nope was defo my car

Kanpai · 27 Jun 2017 at 22:19

Unfortunately the smell came back again today, a few colleagues said they could smell it outside of the car too :/

Have it booked in on Saturday morning for my regular mechanic to take a look at it.

MichaelAwkward · 27 Jun 2017 at 22:22

Did you check the oil level?

Kanpai · 27 Jun 2017 at 23:19

MichaelAwkward said:
Did you check the oil level?

Yep oil levels were fine

GeForce · 30 Jun 2017 at 16:52

SpartaK said:
Was this on a Golf mate?

No, sorry, I should have mentioned. But I thought it could be the same issue.

Kanpai · 2 Jul 2017 at 09:49

Just a bit of an update:

Went to the mechanic who put it on the ramp, no oil leaks whatsoever. He said he could only smell a bit of fumes but that was about it.

Told me to monitor it for the next week and see if it clears away.

Dangerous Dave · 2 Jul 2017 at 10:35

How long have you had the car ? Could be the DPF doing a regen, I wouldn't expect to smell it in the cabin unless the windows are open.

Kanpai · 2 Jul 2017 at 11:52

Dangerous Dave said:
How long have you had the car ? Could be the DPF doing a regen, I wouldn't expect to smell it in the cabin unless the windows are open.

I've had it since October 2013, purchased at 28k miles, now just about to hit 69k

DiscoKandy · 12 Mar 2019 at 20:12

Sorry to drag this thread up from the past, but did you find a fix ?

Exact issue on my 2012 Golf 1.6TDI, have read it could be the gasket and clamp between the Turbo and dpf that seems to fail.

andy_mk3 · 12 Mar 2019 at 20:53

DiscoKandy said:
Sorry to drag this thread up from the past, but did you find a fix ?

Exact issue on my 2012 Golf 1.6TDI, have read it could be the gasket and clamp between the Turbo and dpf that seems to fail.

That is indeed a very common fault and a likely cause.

Rroff · 12 Mar 2019 at 20:57

I've experienced this before/during DPF regen or failure and with EGR failure

(different vehicles).