Hey Guys!

The forum is finally fixed! I've been waiting patiently (more or less) to join since I bought my Crossfire a month ago. ('06 base roadster 6 speed) I got it at CarMax. I probably could have gotten a better deal elsewhere but this is my first car purchase and I've never dealt with loans or anything like that. I appreciated the stream-lined process. I also got the extended warranty (36/36) which seemed like a good deal.

Well, the weekend after I bought the car I went on a road trip to Carbondale (I'm in the Chicago burbs) which is about a 360 mile trip. This car is truly a pleasure to drive.

I'm accustomed to pretty bad road conditions around Chicagoland but I was not prepared for Carbondale. I hadn't owned the car for 48 hours yet and I hit a massive pothole (think 8 inches deep and 1.5 feet in diameter) at about 25 MPH. Well, my heart sank. I checked her out and everything seemed ok. On the trip back to Chicago, though, I noticed a small vibration at highway speeds. I brought the car back to the dealer to have it checked out. Apparently both of the passenger side wheels were bent. Of course, I didn't tell them about the pothole. They repaired both of the wheels and gave me a loaner car at no cost. When I got the car back it was pulling to the right quite a lot, so they did an alignment on it at no cost.

Well, the car is much better now, but it still doesn't feel quite right. It still intermittently pulls to the right a little bit at lower speeds. More disconcerting, however, is a slight burning smell. I can't decide whether it smells like burning tires or burning clutch. I only notice it when I come to a complete stop and it comes in through the air vents. I don't notice it after highway driving but do notice it after short, slow trips. For instance I can drive 1.5 blocks from my parking lot to the nearest stop sign and smell it, staying under 25 MPH.

So, sorry for the essay. That's been building up for a month. The burning smell wasn't there before I had the wheels repaired. What do you guys think about it? What about the repaired wheels? Would you trust them? Also, I'm not entirely confident in CarMax's repair abilities. Do you think they're missing an underlying problem?

I'll probably bring it back to them or someone more specialized but I'm looking for ideas/direction.

Thanks!

-Spencer

PS I've been driving stick for 4 years, and I'm pretty confident that I'm not abusing the clutch, but my previous car was a '98 VW Cabrio which had a very forgiving (also sloppy) 5 speed.

 

I imagine the burning smell is the valve cover on the drivers side seeping oil. Mine did and it was smelling as you described. It is something that many Crossfire owners have had fixed under warranty.

Les

 

Thanks for the quick reply Les. A search for "Valve Cover" uncovered a lot of threads with similar symptoms. I'll check it out this weekend.

Any thoughts on the wheel repair/alignment?

-Spencer

 

I would imagine the dealer wouldn't have trouble doing an alignment but it could be off a bit and still be within factory specifications. Have them check it again if possible and ask for a printout of the final results. I usually ask for a printout of how the car is before they change anything just to compare and learn. They don't always want to do it however.

Les

 

I had both problems as well. The burning smell was oil leaking from the small cover that sits on top of the regular valve cover on the drivers side. The oil would leak down onto the exhaust manifold. That was fixed under warranty. They removed the cover, cleaned it and then applied an RTV type sealant since there is no gasket.

The car would drive straight on a flat road, but seemed to want to drift more to the right on a crowned road. During the annual safety and emissions inspection I had the alignment checked. The rear camber was out of alignment. Rear camber on these cars is not adjustable. I had to install a set of Kmac adjustable bushings on the lower control arms. Getting the old bushings out was a major effort. With the new bushings installed I was able to get it aligned and it drives as I expect it to.

 

I was specifically going to mention that it seemed worse on crowned roads. Well now when I bring it back to the dealer I can give them an idea.

I can check the valve cover myself and I know that is covered by the warranty. If CarMax doesn't cover the bushings (assuming that is the issue) I'll have to locate someone in the Chicago area for the repair. In the mean time is the only consequence increased tire wear?

Thanks for the great info guys!

 

If the camber is off it’s not going to damage any other parts, but it will definitely add to tire wear and Crossfire tires are very expensive to replace.

 

Take it out to the EuroCharged guys, they will steer you in the right direction.....

 

Yea, I know, and from what I've gathered they wear pretty quickly without an alignment issue.

 

if the problem is generally while driving on roads with a crown (truckers rut) a new steering stabilizer may be an easy fix?
https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...surprised.html

 

I'm bringing the car in on Monday for diagnosis. I wiped down the valve covers last weekend (they were pretty grimy) so hopefully the tech can spot a leak somewhere. (There was a small pool of fresh-looking oil around one of the passenger-side bolts.)

Thanks again for the help.

 

Well, they found oil leaks on the driver and passenger side valve covers. They also found a slow leak in the right-front tire from a bad bead seal when they reinstalled the wheels/tires after getting them repaired. Hopefully that resolves my issues and I have no more surprises.

Thanks for the info guys. If I hadn't pointed them to the valve covers who knows how many visits I would have needed for them to track down the burning smell.

-Spencer

 

Ok, they repaired the tire bead seal and the car seems to be driving pretty well. They repaired the driver and passenger side valve cover oil leaks, but I think they made the problem worse. I was suspicious because they ordered and installed 2 new valve cover gaskets. From other threads I was pretty sure that the common leak spots used a sealer and not a gasket. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Now the burning oil smell is stronger and more consistent. I'm guessing they made the actual leak worse in the process of replacing the gaskets. Sound about right? I'll have to make another appointment.

-Spencer

 

I brought it in a few weeks ago, and of course they found a leak in the smaller cover. I asked that they use blue loctite on any bolt that they remove because they have a tendency to loosen on their own. I get a call back saying that they don't have to remove any bolts to do the repair. ??? So I'm skeptical once again of their servicing abilities. I get the car back and the problem is better but not gone. In the bright morning sun I can see more than a wisp of smoke escaping from the driver's side of the hood.

Valve cover gaskets aren't rocket science, right? I never give customer service people any crap, but they're gonna get a piece of my mind...and a printed out copy of the DIY.

Frustrated.

 

Let me know what happens. My valve cover leaks a bit and I am afraid to let them fix it... fearing they will make it worse.

 

I prefer to do my own repairs, however, with my crossfire still under warranty I decided to have the dealer fix the leaking valve covers. In my case, it was the small covers on top of the regular covers. These are sealed with a black RTV sealant instead of a gasket. It did take them longer than expected because one of the star bolts broke when they were reinstalling the cover. They assured me they were using a torque wrench. They had to remove one cover again to get the broken stem removed. I’m glad I wasn’t doing it because I wouldn’t have had a spare star head bolt on hand. Their repair work was successfully and there are no more leaks.

 

On my 2nd time of repairing the valve cover leak I had the dealer replace the valve cover.
after that I had NO more leaking.
The two leaks were about 1 year apart +- 30 days.
I hope this will help someone..

 

Well, before dropping the car off this morning I wanted to inspect their previous work to make sure I wasn't giving them crap for an unrelated problem. Both of the valve covers looked clean, but the cap for the oil filter is leaking a surprising amount of oil. I guess that explains the new rattling sound coming from the serpentine belt until the car warms up. (Oil was pouring right onto the belt.) Once they resolve this issue I don't think they'll be touching my car again.

-Spencer

 

Hey,

this is unrelated to your problems but I just thought it was interesting that we both recently bought crossfires and we are coming from manual cabrios (mine was a 1997 with nearly 200k on the odometer). The sloppy shifter problem can be taken care of by polyurethane bushings... Once I did that my cabrio shifts better then the crossfire. The cabrio actually had a few features I missed when switching to the xfire... But I still own the vw.

 

Hey greenlightracer, Thanks for the heads-up on the Cabrio shifter. My dad/brother have it now so I'll pass on the info. The only feature I miss from the Cabrio was the windows up/down with the key in the door. It was kind of gimmicky but I actually used it all the time, especially on hot days to let the inside cool down without having to get in.

CarMax fixed the leaking oil filter cap. They had pinched/destroyed the rubber seal.

Car's driving straight, so that's all good.

After all of this crap, the engine smokes the same as it did on day one. At this point it's just an annoyance. I keep an eye on the oil levels and they seem solid. I'll track it down over the summer. If I do I'll start a new thread, this one's gone all over the place.

Thanks for all your help/input guys.