mysterious oil appearance
145

Asked by ravens55 Mar 22, 2013 at 04:22 PM about the 1997 Volkswagen Jetta GL

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

i decided to check under the hood of my 97 jetta mk3 for some reason but i happen to notice there was a wierd smell coming out of my engine and i noticed around the head gasket area there was oil and it wasnt dry what could this mean ? is it serious? are my bolts not tight or what?

2 Answers
176,215

tenspeed answered 11 years ago

A 15 year old car is going to have gaskets that leak. Most likely it is on the valve/cam cover. Clean the oil off and see if you can spot the leak. It may appear only at speed when the oil is really flowing. --- You could get a compression check to see if the head gasket is compromised. Is the car using oil?

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