Hello all, I changed my oil today and I noticed it smelled of gas. After changing the oil, I also noticed my new oil stinks like gas as well... This is not a slight smell, it smells more like a 50/50 mix. Its really stinky... Also, recently my gas mileage has gone from around 33-35 Highway 18-23 City to 25-26 Highway 10-15 City. With little to no change in my driving habits...

After doing some searching on the forums and reading things that I don't really know too much about; I decided to go to pickup a PCV Valve (DURALAST PCV1002DL [Sorry Forums won't allow me to post a picture of my part]). However, I can't for the life of me find out where to put this 4 dollar part... I've searched and searched the forums, without any pictures to guide I'm totally lost. I checked my plugs (NKG IR) and coil packs, as per some advice I saw on the forums. They look pristine...

Also, I've been noticing (over time) a power loss that's quite significant... My wife's 4 banger accord seems to blow the doors off of my 2005 Acura TL (both vehicles stock)... and recently when I start the vehicle it has a white smoke from the exhaust that smells like gas as well...

So, I'm assuming something is terribly wrong. Though, at 125k miles I guess it's not awful. Did the 105k service, have driven it cross country. Always use 91 Octane (west coast) or 93 Octane (east coast). Have always used Mobil 1 synthetic... I'm really a bit lost with all of this... I'm starting to think I need to sell this car quick...

 

your car is farting

 

ouch.

this is something serious.
might be a head gasket

 

If it were a head gasket, there would be antifreeze in the oil. Sounds like you have an injector that's stuck open and is constantly dumping gas, which is leaking down into the cylinder. It will bleed down past the rings into the oil pan. Have it checked out ASAP. Once it's fixed you'll want to change the oil 2-3 times, until it doesn't smell like gas anymore.

BTW, did more than 4.5 qts drain out of the oil pan? I had the same issue with my bike last year (carbureted) and drained a mix of gas/oil which was obviously heavily thinned out by gas. Ended up draining around 5+ qts on a 3.5 qt oil volume. I had left the mechanical petcock in the on position all winter and the float valve stuck open, allowing gas to constantly drain from the tank into the carb's float bowl, where it would then spill over into the cylinders.

 

Not necessarily. I have seen plenty of motors with a bad head gasket, causing it to burn coolant but yet not enough to get past the rings and into the oil.
But i agree with it possibly being a bad/stuck injector. When you looked at the plugs were any wetter than others or have a different color or smell? I would run the car for a little bit then pull the plugs out and check for that.

As for your PCV, its on the Rear valve cover towards the end of it closest to the drivers side.

 

I don't have any codes, so I don't really know how to diagnose it. I took it to pepboys and they said without a code there was nothing they could do. If anyone could please take a picture of the pcv/location I'll pay you a dollar on ebay...

I'm not really sure how to go about testing my injectors but I'll search the forums.


Thank you everyone for your input! It's appreciated

 

Oh yes, If need be I can pull the plugs again. The engine wasn't hot last time I pulled them but I did do about a 5-6 mile drive. I wish I could just post pictures but again, the forums wont allow me...

 

Is the car on a stock tune? If not, may just be running rich as fawk.

 

http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/...All&vinsrch=no

#9

 

The vehicle is completely stock, thank you Houston for the diagram. Apparently Autozone gave me the wrong part. I'll switch that thing out and see if there's any improvement!

 

^^ No problem. You can get the part at a Honda dealer with the same part#. It'll be cheaper then at an Acura dealer and better quality than Autozone.

 

Ok, just to be completely sure... (on laughing at me now ) This is the PCV Valve right?

 

Ok, talked to Ball Acura (San Diego, CA) they checked my PCV Valve and said it's fine...

 

This isn't something you can take lightly, if the engine isn't hurt already it will be soon. If there was a problem while the car is running you would have a CEL from a rich AF or a misfire which will also cause this. I assume you have no misfires?

How does the car start on the first start of the day? Does it stutter or start right up? You can have a leaky injector that work "good enough" when running but bleeds down the contents of the fuel system into a cylinder when it's off.

You could have a malfunction in the EVAP system where it's sucking raw fuel through a vacuum line. Check the EVAP hose that goes into the manifold or throttle body and see if it has fuel in it.

Back to the misfire, all it would take is a continuous misfire from one cylinder to dump raw fuel into the oil.

See if you have a misfire, put a fuel pressure gauge and see how quickly fuel pressure bleeds down when you shut the engine off, take a look at the fuel trims. I don't see how you could not have a CEL for a misfire, EVAP, or something 02 related.

There's not much that will kill an engine quicker than gas in the oil. The damage is being done each time you drive it in this condition.

 

The vehicle doesn't throw any codes, it fires right up no problems. I don't think it misfires, but hell I'm no mechanic... The acura mechanic said my oil smells like gas really bad, and that he'd have to do further research as to what the problem could be. I'll look for pictures and such in regards to the EVAP system, I have no idea what that is...

Thanks I hate cars, I'll get back with you on EVAP...


At 125K, my motors not working correctly, the transmission is harsh as hell, my bluetooth has failed 3 times, this time out of warranty. It vibrates like crazy at speed (75), the stereo rattles... LOL... I doubt I'll buy another Acura again

 

Don't forget. It's a Honda. It does a lot of things well to pretend its a luxury car but its not. Don't count Acura out just because of some issues that can happen to any car.

 

The transmission will shift hard when you're way down on power, I wouldn't worry about it until you get the engine running right.

 

Good luck bro, but I wouldn't mess around with this and continue to drive it. Your spark plugs might help tell you some of what's going on (if you're running that rich in one cylinder the plug electrode color would show black instead of healthy light brown/gray). I'd take it to a stealership, at least to diagnose. You don't want to score your cylinder walls due to a lack of oil lubrication.

 

Yeah, I've driven it about .1 miles since this has all been going down. I'm going to take it to the dealership on monday to have it diagnosed, more than likely I'm just going to sell this damn thing. Hopefully someone with more of a mechanical background can give it a better home than I can provide...

It saddens me to know that my first accord (1989) went 533,000 miles before kicking the bucket, one day on the freeway the top end blew up. This Acura has been nothing but problems since the day I bought it, my wife and I named it 'Squeaky' because, it squeaks, creaks, buzzes and a lot of other odd noises. I won't even likely make it to 125k (123k & change), and the damn thing cost me nearly 36k not to mention all the maintenance I kept up with. Hopefully my wifes 2013 Accord Sport holds out longer than 100k, if not; I'll never buy another Honda product so long as I live :/

@TheDingo - You got that right buddy, me thinks if all goes well with the wifes car I'll stick with Honda. Hopefully their new CVT transmissions last longer than these Accord/TL ones...

@Dannyz - I pulled the plugs, they look brand new as they only have about 15k miles on them, and they're the NKG IR plugs.

@I hate cars - First off I'd like to thank you for you commentary, as I search the forums, I see you are widely notorious for giving feedback. However, I was unable to find the pictures/information in regards to the 'EVAP system'. If you could further nudge me in the right direction, I'd gladly accept the help.

Thank you all for being so responsive, at least if Honda/Acura isn't living up to its name. The Honda/Acura community in my book is #1...

 

After a bit of noise with the dealer they've concluded that absolutely nothing is wrong with the vehicle. That 25-26 MPG is normal, I guess it was a fluke for the first 100k or so miles getting 33-35 MPG...

If you ask me; power is down, my mpg sucks compared to what it used to be, and I'm out 129 dollars for a 'diagnostic test'.

I've since had the wheels balanced, aligned, rotated all that stuff. There's been absolutely no change... Although, my car did backfire in what I presume to be 2nd gear yesterday.

I'm totally out of ideas, there's another garage that specializes in honda/acura on the other side of town but they're more like a 'boy racer' shop. Anyone wanna buy a 2005 base TL with 'nothing wrong with it'?