Oil smell and steam cleaning

[Mojooo]

Recently bought a car which had an oil leak.

My mechanic reckons he has fixed it but there is a bad smell when the engine turns on - I guess it is old oil being burned (the car had the oil leak before I bought it so it may have been there a while).

My mechanic has suggested I have the engine steam cleaned.

Do you think this will get rid of the smell?

The car is a 2002 reg BMW 3 Series. Mechanic says the oil is in places that may be hard to get to as they are under covers etc.

I am currently lookign for a company to clean the engine.

In the meantime is there anyway to stop the nasty smell coming into the cabin? I am guessing it is coming in through the air inlet.

[texaxile]

Hi,
If it's a petrol 4 cylinder model, the chances are that the oil filter housing gasket was leaking , this is on the passenger side of the engine near the front, the oil follows a path along the front of the cylinder head and block onto the exhaust, which is the smell you're getting.

You could pop into your local independent bodyshop and ask them to give it a degrease and a blast, failing that, any HGV fitters or haulier companies will also have a steam cleaner, so you could ask to tip the yard man £20 for him to do it for you.

Otherwise, it's most probably an hours labour charge at your local indy.

The DIY method would be to spray the front of the engine around the exposed areas liberally with a degreasing agent (gunk), then hit it with the hosepipe on high pressure, however, this usually results in a shedload of water everywhere and your car running on 3 cyclinders, water in the airbox or worse.

[Mojooo]

The repair that was done was on something called the breather - though I spose it is possible there is another leak elsewhere (quick search suggests that its a common issue).

Mechanic suggested smell was from the old oil still being in the engine bay.