Oil smells of petrol

[jonny1978]

Noticed my oil smelt like petrol a few weeks ago thought the head gasket might be
away.It's not over heating or losing coolant and no water in oil.

just wondering if anyone else has noticed this.

Mines a 57 cupra.. Cheers

 

[MrFwibble]

Yep, mine too, stinks of petrol. Going to get local mechanic to do an oil change and see if it happens again since I've had the camfollower replaced.

Tho, I suspect it will come back. I think it is either a leaking injector or a faulty HPFP. Both are expensive and hard to diagnose

 

[jonny1978]

Please let me know how you get on. I've only had the car a month and it came with
a years SEAT warranty so will be going back if i can prove a fault.

Cheers

 

[MrFwibble]

Will do, not quite sure yet how to approach the dealer with this one. You have to be crafty with them, sneaky buggers

 

[Al]

This has been seen on TFSi cars.

Headgaskets have been known to go but the two most likely causes are

1) HPFP issues
2) Piston seal issues

Note that all these engines have oil that stinks of petrol - be sure you are not being paranoid by sending an oil sample to an independent company that samples oil. For twenty quid or so they will supply you with a test kit which is easy to use an you send the sample away to be analysed and a few days after you send it back, you get a detailed report with all the findings you oils you could want.

It is a lot easier and potentially cheaper than having a mechanic check it at 40+ notes per hour.

I sent a sample off from my 2010 Cupra when I also thought my oil stank of petrol but te test resut was perfect - the type of oil in the engine may smell a bit of petrol once in the engine or a small while.

For what it's worth in my opinion, the oil should be changed at 5k intervals or even more often on tuned cars.

 

[jonny1978]

Just checked a few golf sites in the U.S and a lot of guys say this is normal.
Will do an oil change and keep an eye on it.

My cars only done 24k so lots of short trips before i got it thought this may have
something to do with it.

 

[MrFwibble]

Al, who did you use for the oil sampling?

Ta
Dave

 

[Al]

I googled oil sampling and analysis. There are quite a few companies that do it. As I recall the company I used were called the oil lab or something similar.

 

[MrFwibble]

Thanks