1992 Camry Losing Oil

[dustoff]

Hi everybody,

1992 camry, 4 cylinder, automatic.

The car is now losing oil and I also smell smoke coming from the engine bay. I have to add a 1 qt/week or every 500 miles. The smoke is barely visible when driving though it's pretty obvious when I open the hood. It appears to be coming from the exhaust pipe.

The mechanic told me the the car is leaking oil from the top of the engine where the distributor is. He said the distributor o-ring needs to be replaced. I don't really see much oil in that area after I stop the car, though there are some deposits in that area. Do I need to replace this to stop the smoke and oil burning?

The car has also started making some screeching sound if I accelerate too quickly. What's wrong?

[JohnGD]

The 4-cyl commonly leaks from the rear side of the engine, from the valve cover gasket (~$14 a set, rockauto.com). If you put a mirror and flashlight to that area you may be able to see the source of the leaks. The distributor o-ring is also a well known source of leaks. You should also check to see that the head gasket isn't leaking oil.

As far as screeching goes, it's probably old drive belt losing tension. They need to be tightened. And if they've been tightened before then it's probably time to replace them before they snap.

Toyotas lack automatic tensioners, so it's recommended to use a belt tension gauge to properly set the tension, because deflection method never worked very well for me.

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Originally Posted by dustoff

Hi everybody,

1992 camry, 4 cylinder, automatic.

The car is now losing oil and I also smell smoke coming from the engine bay. I have to add a 1 qt/week or every 500 miles. The smoke is barely visible when driving though it's pretty obvious when I open the hood. It appears to be coming from the exhaust pipe.

The mechanic told me the the car is leaking oil from the top of the engine where the distributor is. He said the distributor o-ring needs to be replaced. I don't really see much oil in that area after I stop the car, though there are some deposits in that area. Do I need to replace this to stop the smoke and oil burning?

The car has also started making some screeching sound if I accelerate too quickly. What's wrong?

[dustoff]

Thanks for the response. I'll take a look at the drive belt. As for the smoke, I guess I'll have to try harder to find the leak.