Hey all,

I own a 99 Subaru Forester, which has about 50K miles on it. I recently had a road trip from TX to CA. In the middle of the trip near AZ, I smelled a burning smell coming from under the hood. I took it to a mechanic(NAPA network member) and he said that my CV axle was torn and all the grease was spilling out and falling on the exhaust and that was causing the burning smell. I got the CV axle replaced from him. He said he couldn't clean the grease completely, so the smell might last a little bit but it would go off in a while, once all the grease was burnt.

Then I drove it to CA. Could smell the burning still, (strength of smell was reduced though), but I took the mechanic's word and thought it would go away eventually. Came to CA and had an oil change done because of the long trip. In a few days there was a knocking sound from the car, whenever I accelerated from a stop. Took it to another mechanic in CA (NAPA network member), and he said that the CV axle was damaged and that it was causing the knocking sound and he would replace it since it was under warranty. Now , its been about 2 weeks since I got the CV axle replaced, the knocking is gone, but the burning smell came back stronger again. Opened the hood and saw that there was oil/grease in the same location as in AZ. Took it to the mechanic in CA, and he says its an oil leak from the oil cooler gasket. It needs to be resealed. Then we need an oil change and a coolant flush. I am wondering if the first mechanic did not make a proper diagnosis. Is the CV axle near the oil cooler gasket? Could leak from one be mistaken for another?

 

Thanks for reading my story and thanks in advance for the reply.

There are quite a few common places that these cars leak....first question i have for you is the car overheating at all?...a ripped CV boot will not cause grease to get sprayed on the exhaust...however a ripped inner DOJ boot will...if they took care of the axle than the new boot shouldnt have ripped within a few thousand miles....i dont know why the mechanic in CA is telling you you need a coolant flush..to replace the oil cooler o-ring its very easy....you dont need to disconnect any coolant lines on the vechicle to do this...after you have the oil filter off there is a thread nut that the oil filter screws onto...unscrew this and the oil cooler sandwhich plate drops down...pop the old gasket out..pop the new in, rescrew the threaded bolt/nut on and throw your oil filter on....if your doing an LOF it takes all of about an extra 10 minutes to do the gasket....personally i believe you have something going on that there not telling you...do you know if the Head Gaskets have ever been done on the car? how many miles are on the car? these subies tend to leak coolant and oil externally and it drips down right onto the Y pipe and the steering rack boots/engine crossmember...however without being there i dont want to go throwing red flags.....if i were you the next time you bring in the car somewhere ask the tech to clean off the entire underside of the car very well and bring it back in a few days and than the source of the leak should be evident....also you said when you opened the hood there was grease/oil in the same spot as before...which spot is this?..if the P/S inner DOJ boot was torn it could be throwing grease all over the cat. convertor.....

Edited February 7, 200917 yr by EVOthis