Smoking/Oil Leak Problems

Hey everyone, I have a 94 3.4 V6 and one day it began to smoke lightly from the engine. When I took it to a mechanic, he identified that it was oil leaking onto a hot pipe and causing it to smoke. He said he fixed it, but it came back. Now I don't mind so much having to buy more motor oil every month due to the leak. But when the car smokes whenever I park after a long/hard ride and it comes through my air conditioning, it becomes quite an annoyance. :mad:

An automotive savvy neighbor of mine told me to get some engine degreaser and spray it around the engine, particularly the area of the leak which he identified, but he also said to mind the distributor cap (if i have one) when rinsing it off, because it would mess with the electrical current. He also suggested getting a "Haynes" guide to better know my car. Now I'm just getting into cars and don't know much, so I'm not quite sure what he was saying, or what the engine degreaser would even do for that matter....I only learned how to check my oil 3 months ago. Any feedback? FYI, the only modifications I've made are a K&N cold air filter, but that shouldn't make a difference.

He probably wanted you to spray the degreaser to clean up the engine where you suspect the leakage to be coming from so that you could verify the source. Oil leakage will be pretty easy to spot because anything that's had oil on it (except something hot enough for it to burn off) will either glisten like it's wet or be covered in moist-looking road grime. If your engine is dirty, degreaser will clean it up (oil doesn't just rinse/wipe off) so that you can pinpoint the source of the leak. I know the oil filter on the 3.4 is near the exhaust pipe, and that's a place where the oil could drip and then burn off the pipe. Valve covers are another likely source of oil leakage, particularly if the car has higher mileage (gaskets deteriorate with time/use). You can get a Haynes shop manual from your local autozone or advance auto parts or probably any other parts store. Often libraries have them too. They have very useful information for maintenance procedures, problem diagnosis, major repair procedures, etc. Definitely worth the $17 if you plan on doing any work on your car yourself. Good luck finding the leak and report back with what you find!

Thanks a bunch, peeeot! I'll probably get that Haynes later this week, as I am broke and don't get paid for a bit. I'll report back with my findings as soon as I can.

Also, today the smoke seemed to be coming from under my shifter, seaping through the small space around the stick. Weird.

Thanks again.

-Marc

No problem! It's not so surprising that the smoke would be come up through your shift boot sometimes if it's oil dripping on the exhaust pipe, particularly if there was any air moving under the car towards the rear. There is a hole through the transmission tunnel under that boot that the shift lever passes through, and the gas will rise. You probably want to keep the windows down when you're in the car though. Can't be good to breathe that stuff. :D If you're lucky, your oil filter has just worked its way a little loose, so all you'll have to do is snug it up again.

It turned out to be a leak in the intake manifold.

I had a intake manifold gasket leaking antifreeze. 500$ whoop. -_-