White smoke coming from engine - BG5 legacy

[Guest]

Was driving car (1998 Subaru Legacy GTB Limited wagon) and when got home after longish drive, there was white smoke coming out of bonnet. Had a look and couldnt quite see where it was coming from, didnt really smell like the clutch. Took it into the mechanic today, it needed a service anyway so got a service and full engine flush done on it, plus got him to dry steam clean the whole engine bay as he suspected the white smoke to be oil burning on the exhaust pipes or something. So picked car up today, engine all cleaned and he cleaned all the oil etc off and he mentioned that both rocker gaskets are leaking and suggested replacing them. So not sure if this is the cause of the problem or not? Drove the car home and pulled into the shed, the same white smoke emitting from out of the engine still, opened it up and the white smoke was distinctly coming from the passenger side turbo area, and you could faintly hear something burning or something and thats definately the area where the smoke is coming from. Any idea on what the problem may be? still oil leaking? just replace the rocker gaskets are they are leaking? clutch problem maybe? (althought clutch appears to be fine and also the mechanic said clutch was good). or something else? turbo etc? is the passenger side turbo the primary or secondary?

any help would be appreciated as really want to get to the bottom of this.

cheers

[DRFVDR]

90% sure it the rocker cover gaskets

they are designed to leak by Subaru (cant be any other reason as they all do it )

[dubbedup]

Ninja edit (DV beat me to it)

Will be rocker cover gaskets as mine sometimes smell oily after a decent drive and both mine are needing to be replaced (....still)

Also could be a leak out the turbo oil return pipe? (dunno much bout TT system sorry)

[Guest]

yea the mechanic had a good look over the engine and he seems to think its the rocker gaskets. Is it not weird for them to emit smoke just from the passenger side only? Is it a big job to replace them, and expensive??

cheers

[dubbedup]

not a big job, any semi mechanically minded person with patience could do it.

[Guest]

sweet, will get mechanic to price it up tomorrow. Hopefully not too costly.lol.cheers for your help. Hope this is the solution to the problem

[dubbedup]

If its not, they might be able to diagnose the prob while they are in there.

[Guest]

yea true, just hope its nothing to expensive, owning a subaru whilst being a student aint easy.lol

[dubbedup]

yeah i reckon

!

[Bazza-NZ]

 subleggtb said:

yea true, just hope its nothing to expensive, owning a subaru whilst being a student aint easy.lol

+1

Make it hard trying to find time to study and fix it oh plus the money constraint

But they are worth owning, besides my last year so bring on the high paying job and car bling

[Joker]

do both sides at same time...

will save doing it again in 6 months on other side

[Koom]

 DRFVDR said:

90% sure it the rocker cover gaskets

they are designed to leak by Subaru (cant be any other reason as they all do it )

Conspiracy between Subaru, the oil companies and silicon/gasket companies so they can sell more products

[Volcanix]

 subleggtb said:

Was driving car (1998 Subaru Legacy GTB Limited wagon) and when got home after longish drive, there was white smoke coming out of bonnet. Had a look and couldnt quite see where it was coming from, didnt really smell like the clutch. Took it into the mechanic today, it needed a service anyway so got a service and full engine flush done on it, plus got him to dry steam clean the whole engine bay as he suspected the white smoke to be oil burning on the exhaust pipes or something. So picked car up today, engine all cleaned and he cleaned all the oil etc off and he mentioned that both rocker gaskets are leaking and suggested replacing them. So not sure if this is the cause of the problem or not? Drove the car home and pulled into the shed, the same white smoke emitting from out of the engine still, opened it up and the white smoke was distinctly coming from the passenger side turbo area, and you could faintly hear something burning or something and thats definately the area where the smoke is coming from. Any idea on what the problem may be? still oil leaking? just replace the rocker gaskets are they are leaking? clutch problem maybe? (althought clutch appears to be fine and also the mechanic said clutch was good). or something else? turbo etc? is the passenger side turbo the primary or secondary?

any help would be appreciated as really want to get to the bottom of this.

cheers

sounds like what my Bd5 legacy did

cost me liek 300 bux all up to replace both rocker cover gaskets and it hasnt leaked oil from htere since, If u want you could try the cheaper ioption and get STP Stop oil leak , works a treat as it reconditions the seals in the enigine and stabilises the oil aswell, ive put it in mine because i think ether my oil pump or my cam seal is leaking.

[mattapo]

There is lots of info on here and via a google search. My drivers side one needs doing

[Guest]

Had the quote for the work to be carried out come throught today, all up gonna cost $400 to replace both rocker gaskets, with labour, all the bolts and seals etc, this seem reasonable? And does it most likely sound like the problem of where the white smoke is coming from? With oil leaking and burning off on the turbo/exhaust pipes? whtie smoke just emits from the passenger side turbo area only, is that the primary turbo?

cheers

[Joker]

yup

[Guest]

Make sure they use genuine subaru gaskets and seals too, i had heaps of trouble with aftermarket ones.

[DRFVDR]

 Zerobyte said:

Make sure they use genuine subaru gaskets and seals too, i had heaps of trouble with aftermarket ones.

+ 1 zillion

do I have to break out my photo of the difference again

[Koom]

 DRFVDR']

[quote name='Zerobyte said:

Make sure they use genuine subaru gaskets and seals too, i had heaps of trouble with aftermarket ones.

/quote]

+ 1 zillion

do I have to break out my photo of the difference again

I'd be interested in seeing the difference

[funkytown]

 Koom']

[quote name='Zerobyte said:

Make sure they use genuine subaru gaskets and seals too, i had heaps of trouble with aftermarket ones.

/quote]

+ 1 zillion

do I have to break out my photo of the difference again

I'd be interested in seeing the difference

serial? post it up drf..

the gromets are sooo much thinner in the "aftermarket version" ==== a million x crap. You cant get enough squeeze out of them

[DRFVDR]

this will be the forth time I think

Only a grommet photo for u grommets

[Koom]

Aaah I've seen those before, probably the other three times you've had to post them Cheers though.

I was thinking you meant the main seals were quite different from each other....

[DRFVDR]

Yeah they are I didnt take a pic of them though the Genuine ones are thicker and sit in the groove way better

[Guest]

This may be too late but i had the same problem, i got mechanic to check everything and he said the same... (its coming from the rocker covers, they all do it). So i got it done, drove back home and the same white smoke.... toke it back and he said its just something that these models doo.. So aafter getting frustrated at it, i got stuck into it. The problem was the cam seals were leaking, oil comming from cam seal, running down front of block filling in the timming cover and eventualy out the bottom and onto exhaust manifold. So get your mechanic to check that if he can.

[Guest]

hey mate, nah not too late, car is booked in this friday to get the rocker cover gaskets replaced. So when you say the cam seals were leaking, did you have to replace those as well? what did you do to fix the problem? and roughly what sort of cost extra? cheers