no oil loss, no sippage anywgere up or down
any ideas ?
ADD: smells like FRESH oil ! not burnt !
no smell under hood whatsoever with engine running. checked pcv and vacuum hoses.
i'm running hollowed out cats with completely stock exhaust.

 

research points to...... weak trunk seal ! turns out, when window is open, there's low pressure zone inside the cabin, and exhaust gets sucked in thru the trunk.
will try to lube the seal tomorrow

 

Fresh oil and exhaust smells different. did you just get oil change recently? Could be just spillage from fill.

 

I changed it 7k ago, and no, there's no sippage, spills, wetness etc. Car just been on lift for inspection. All looking good. Mechanic said, that's the trunk seal idea is viable... Will spray some silicone on the seal and check it later today.

 

you don't live near the Gulf do you¿¿ too soon? sorry, i gots nothin else.

 

Well, i live in Moscow But that's where they count money for oil - not drilling for it here )))
Ok,, mech said, that it's most prolly light exhaust fraction, not fresh oil. He said that he had this smell on his Honda until he installed some tail pipes extensions. That (he claims) took care of this aerodynamics mystery

 

hahah yeah that's a good one ^ ^ ^, i bet they are still laughing about that in georgia

 

Oil in the exhaust seems highly unlikely to me. Oil passing out the exhaust would likely be burned, which causes a very light colored exhaust. It only take a very small amount of burned oil to produce voluminous amount of smoke. Seems it would take a lot of oil leakage out the engine to contain enough unburned oil to be able to smell it. I would think the car would virtually look like a smoke machine and totally undrivable on the road

Also, extending the exhaust pipes to correct exhausted oil sounds a bit suspicious on the LS430. The aerodynamic design of this car is very highly tuned and efficient.

 

That's what i was thinking...
Yes, smelling fresh oil at 70mph is strange to say the least... But i still do.

 

I'd check the condition of the cabin air filter.

 

Will do ! But i do not smell any bloody thing with windows closed even if blower is in full blast.
The smell will get in fastest thru open moonroof.

 

how many miles do you have? Any chance your head gasket's are leaking? I swapped mine around 190,xxx and they was pretty hard to spot the leak

 

Mine have 217000kms.
Why, oh why then i cannot smell even a hint of oil smell, when i stop suddenly, open hood and smell around ?

 

If anyone is interested in fix for this - it's the rubber 'vent door valve', which is under rear bumper, both sides, it was torn and hanging. So it wasnt isolating the cabin from the exhaust properly. I used new piece of rubber and some glue to avoid getting a new part.
Smell was fixed.