Gents,

True to LR's reputation, I am now experiencing another issue. I can smell a distinct and clear smell that is kind of off.... At times it has a sweet smell like WD40 and a few seconds later it turns into a petrol/oil type of odour. While the car is in motion there is no smell but as soon as I stop at a light it creeps into the cabin. I know the rear sway bar is leaking somewhere but I opened the resevoir and the oil inside doesn't smell like anything I am smelling now.

Currently, with the exception of a few drops on the ground coming from the ACE fluid on the passenger side (rear) I have not noticed any other oil stain or leak anywhere. Has anyone ever experienced this?

2010 RRS S/C 5.0 Petrol

Cheers and thanks

Any leaking around the rear diff? I seem to remember a similar smell from a leaking diff seal issue last year. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Good question,

I'm gonna creep under the car tonight and have a closer look. Will report in later.

BTW,

Off the top of my head, I didn't notice a leak around the rear diff.

Update:

I had as good a look as I could under the hood and under the car and yes, the oil leak at the back is definitely coming from the sway bar actuator... As for the gas/oily smell. the only thing I found was a slight and semi dry dark patch of oil near the back of the engine at the top. There is absolutely no other leaks or stains be they on the floor or coming from the bottom of the car. As far as I can tell it's only the Sway bar Actuator. The rear diff is dry as a bone.

Just going off pics from the internet, the oily patch is around the passenger side rear corner of the intake manifold along the intake manifold gasket. Now, I do know that because these vehicles are direct injection, could it be that something is allowing too much oil into the intake manifold? surprisingly, I have yet to find the valve covers on this beast but I'm still looking.

You would know if it was diff oil, it smells like cat p*ss

Have you lost any coolant ? the glycerin in it would make is smell sweet initially and then as it burns it would become acrid.

Oh and I would suspect that block 7 on your image is the valve cover.

Thank Socast,

To answer your questions, no cat smell haha, I have lost a lot of coolant so you have a point there but still not a drop of it on the floor of my garage so where I'm losing it is a mystery and weirdly enough that sweet smell blends perfectly with the raw oil (not burnt) smell to mimick the familiar WD40 smell. To give you a better idea of the smell, open the oil fill port at the top of your engine and have a whiff, that smell along with a hint of sweetness is what I'm getting lol.

And finally yes, i agree that's the valve cover and gasket but strangely enough I'm seeing the slow leak at the rear passenger side (drivers side for the Brits) corner of the highlighted image... it's a bit of a mystery how the supercharger is mounted on the 5.0 engine so I'm trying to imagine how oil can get there. Again, I don't smell any burnt oil as if it's dripping onto a hot exhaust pipe so I'm still trying to figure it out.

With you losing coolant I think that's the issue rather than oil. Finding the leak will be the problem, it could be a hairline crack that opens when the engine is warm (so the coolant evaporates leaving very little trace), when you park and it starts to cool the crack/split seals itself preventing any cold drops from pooling on your garage floor.

I know it's not much help but the leak will be in the engine bay rather than the cab elements leaking (otherwise you would have the smell all the time and it wouldn't smell burnt).

It's a good excuse to start replacing hoses with colour coded silicone ones haha

Just realised the damp patch you have is on the inlet manifold. You will want to get that sorted asap, the slight damp patch will be due to the small amount of oil that is picked up by the recirculated air from the crank case. The manifold is pressurized by the charger which is whats causing the oil leak, you're also losing boost+air so your fuel trims will be off and the engine will be running lean. I'm surprised it's not thrown an EML

Socast,

Thanks for the quick reply. Yeah no EML code or light on the dash... Yet.

Last night I scanned for codes and nothing really unusual came up:

L320 - Range Rover Sport 2010
Vehicle scanned on 19-04-2017 20:58
Using IIDTool BT V3.0 B2444

BCM-Body Control

C1A57-14 (6C) Front left initiator - General electrical failure - circuit short to ground or open
( on 24-11-2016 09:01:01 at 93340 km )
DDM-Driver Door

B110A-11 (6 Rear door driver side central locking motor - General electrical failure - circuit short to ground
( on 15-04-2017 12:45:47 at 97530 km )
HVAC-Ventilation

U0422-86 (6C) Invalid data received from the body control module - Bus signal/message failure - signal is invalid
( on 23-11-2016 23:13:05 at 93329 km )
U3000-55 (2F) Control module - System programming failure - is not configured
( on 23-11-2016 23:13:05 at 93329 km )
IPC-Instrument Pack

B1A85-96 (2E) Ambient light sensor circuit - Component failure - internal failure
( on 24-11-2016 15:10:01 at 93343 km )
KVM-Keyless

B10C2-00 (6 Rear left unlock pull switch
B10C3-00 (6 Front right unlock pull switch
PCM-Engine Petrol

P0526-17 (6 Fan speed sensor circuit - General electrical failure - circuit voltage above threshold
PDM-Passenger Door

B110B-11 (6C) Rear door passenger side central locking motor - General electrical failure - circuit short to ground
( on 30-11-2016 13:46:21 at 93433 km )

I'll see if I can get my old Audi mechanic to replace that seal. He's all about the Gerries but he's willing to take a stab at the Range Rover. Sadly finding an independent Land Rover tech here in Ottawa is like finding a needle in a haystack.

As you say nothing really out of the norm, but there are a couple for the drivers door. So it might be worth looking at the wiring from the door to the body, see if any wires are worn.

Your friend should be fine to change that gasket, nothing specialist about that haha. Once it's replaced you will find your mpg drops as the fuel trims settle back to the norm.

Perfect. I'll give him a ring and see if he can do it.

Thanks

So update on the smell. It's definitely gas.

The smell has become worse and finally my suspicions were confirmed. 2 days ago I got in the car to drive to work and the engine sputtered coughed and came to life. Of course the gas smell was present so I contacted the dealership and let them know that this is now a safetey hazard and I am bringing it in. Got an email telling me to bring it in Monday (tomorrow). On my drive back home sure enough it hesitated on startup and the gas smell was worst than ever. When I got home I had a look underneath thinking; "There's gotta be gas dripping down now." and there was. I was a little relieved because now it wasn't a mystery and definitely a gas leak as opposed to the top manifold gasket which I suspected might be the culprit.

So my next question is: Out of the major parts that could be leaking. Injector, fuel rails, HP fuel pump. which one would it most likely be?

Cheers and thanks

P.S. The leak stops a few mins after the engine has shut off so once the fuel pressure dies off, the leak slows considerably or stops altogether.

So it's not the fuel tank

If you had a leaking injector, it would leak into the cylinder in 99.99% cases. My bet is on the fuel rail seals. Regards etc.,

Wojtek

---
WAS: 2006 RRS Supercharged
IS: 2010 RRS TDV8 HSE

Thank God it's not the tank. When they replaced the Fuel pump and filter they had to lift the body off the frame. Apparently it's the easiest way to do it but takes a loooong time. Hopefully some fuel rail seals will not cost too much in shop time.