gpiazza

My girlfriend has a '94 Toyota Corolla. She is complaining about a 'burning smell'. So I did the following.

1. Check for leaks - oil, anti-freeze etc.
Both the engine and ground are clean.

2. Checked radiator overflow container.
Full
But anti-freeze smells burnt. My girlfriend says this is what she is smelling.
Anti-freeze looks dark
3. Start engine
No apparent leaks
Remove oil filler cap.
Oil is shooting out of the oil filler hole. It's all over me, the car, everywhere. I'm 39 years old and have had many, many cars over the years and don't ever remember having this happen.

Is this normal?? Why would the anti-freeze smell burnt?

Thanks for the help.
-Greg

marcucci

It's normal for oil to shoot out of the filler hole- oil is being slapped around in the head. I thought pushrod engines had this problem, and I'm pretty sure all OHC engines do as well. Nothing to worry about.

If the antifreeze is original, it's probably just dead- it discolors with age. Your best bet is to do a complete system flush and fill with fresh coolant.

What do you mean by burnt? Antifreeze is acrid, new or old. You may check the oil after sitting overnight and make sure you don't have antifreeze on top of the oil, that the antifreeze and oil aren't mixing. It would certainly dirty the antifreeze and burning atifreeze will make some nasty smells in the exhaust.

gpiazza

Thanks Marcucci for the reply.

The anti-freeze has an odor like when it falls on a hot engine...burnt.

I was thinking the same thing, that oil and anti-freeze were mixing. The oil looks a little thin and clear. The car has 98K+ miles on it, but the oil was changed only 2K miles ago.

-Greg

marcucci

Has the engine ever overheated, or run hot? Any reports of cracked heads or bad gaskets on those engines? My wife's old '88 Corolla had a bad thermostat in it around 70k miles, and overheated. Might be good reason to suspect a leaky gasket or warped/cracked head.

pfb

That would be my guess... Do a compression and leak-down test to find out.

gpiazza

Not that I know of. My girlfriend has never noticed the 'temp' light coming on, but she is not always paying attention. I quess it's time to bring it to Toyota.

Thanks for your help Marcucci. I'll let you know what they find.

-Greg

marcucci

You're welcome. Honestly, I would do a fluid change, maybe a full tune-up (and all fluids) if they haven't been done recently. See how it shakes out- it's a good car, will probably last a long time and may actually be OK. The dealer may just "find" something that isn't there