Burning smell and white smoke after oil change.

bfa1509

Hi,

(if too long to read I put a quick line down the bottom)

I drive an '06 Corsa C. For the last year I've been using semi synthetic 10W-40 oil (I don't know what was used before this). Today I changed the oil and filter. This time I put fully synthetic 5W-30 oil in instead.

I took the car for a test drive this evening. It was running really nicely but when I came to traffic lights I could get a feint smell of oil burning. When I got home I opened the bonnet and noticed some white smoke around the engine (there was also some oil around the oil filler cap but I can't tell if this leaked out or if it was just spillage from when I changed the oil).

I browsed around on the internet and got all kinds of results. I narrowed it down to 3 potential causes:

1. I read that when changing to fully synthetic/lower viscosity oil that it can clean away soot and other crap and seep up the pistons into the combustion chamber (this could very well be the issue)
2. I overfilled with oil (I was careful when refilling, checking the dipstick regularly. The oil reached the max level but it could have gone passed it. It's hard to see with new oil)
3. Head gasket is blown leading to burning of water/coolant (unlikely as the car is driving well)

My question is if my problem is scenario 1 above, is there anything I can do and could it damage the engine?

Any advice welcome! Thanks.

Tldr: Burning smell and white smoke coming from engine after changing to fully synthetic oil. Do I have big problems?

pablo128

I'll bet you spilled a bit on the exhaust and its now burning off.

Atlantic Dawn

2 - For future reference a look on Castrol.co.uk or a Google of the model in question should give the exact amount in litres the car takes, saves spillage.

Seems odd, I'd expect wrong oil or issues with it to result in emissions from exhaust rather than from engine itself. Did you really overfill like put in an extra litre plus? How many litres did you put in, how much was specified amount for the car?

pablo128

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

2 - For future reference a look on Castrol.co.uk or a Google of the model in question should give the exact amount in litres the car takes, saves spillage.

Seems odd, I'd expect wrong oil or issues with it to result in emissions from exhaust rather than from engine itself. Did you really overfill like put in an extra litre plus? How many litres did you put in, how much was specified amount for the car?

Overfilling usually causes the oil to get through the breather and into the engine, and smoking out the exhaust. Actually if the oil was too light, the same would happen.
I googled a pic of the corsa engine bay and it looks like the filler cap is just above the exhaust manifold.;)

bfa1509

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

2 - For future reference a look on Castrol.co.uk or a Google of the model in question should give the exact amount in litres the car takes, saves spillage.

Seems odd, I'd expect wrong oil or issues with it to result in emissions from exhaust rather than from engine itself. Did you really overfill like put in an extra litre plus? How many litres did you put in, how much was specified amount for the car?

I put 3 litres in exactly (did it before without issue). Papa Haynes told me to put 3 litres in.

pablo128 wrote: »

I'll bet you spilled a bit on the exhaust and its now burning off.

pablo128 wrote: »

Overfilling usually causes the oil to get through the breather and into the engine, and smoking out the exhaust. Actually if the oil was too light, the same would happen.
I googled a pic of the corsa engine bay and it looks like the filler cap is just above the exhaust manifold.;)

Ahh! Very good investigating! Just when I read your post I remembered that I did spill a little and also saw oil dripping off the exhaust near the flexi pipe when I was underneath the car!

Thank you very much, I hope this is the cause. I will report back if there is any escalation.