I'm at a friend's house right now and I've been here since morning installing my audio system.

We got it all done and I was about to drive off, when bam, I noticed that my car was acting VERY weird. There was a narly smell of oil or petroleum everywhere. There is also a LOT of smoke coming out of the exhaust with funky black oil-goo stuff in my tailpipe.

There's a slight whine coming from the engine
Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong with it?

1999 Subaru Impreza 2.5 RS.

 

ummm..you were installing a stereo and now your car is smoking?



Well, is the whine coming through the speakers? That could just be interference.

 

Did you install the stereo in the engine bay? sorry...

If you don't have mods on the car, probably best to bring it to the dealership. perhaps you need a better power source? a more powerful amp? how much power is the system making?

 

ummm did you guy drill into the body without check what's down there first????

(BTDT... )

 

That might be so. We drilled four holes on each side for the amp (8 holes total). The mechanic is going to take a look at it tomorrow. It's hard to remember these things.

 

shattered rods from too much bass

seriously though, i hope it turns out to be okay. unfortunately, from the symptoms you described, it doesn't sound good. it sounds like you're burning oil which usually has to do with bad rings. the weird thing is that it happened right after installing a bunch of car audio stuff. leo's comment about drilling into something is certainly a valid one. i can't imagine that drilling into something in a place other than the engine bay could cause so much oil to be entering the combustion chambers. i would imagine your cats are already dead if there's goo coming out of your tailpipe, but that's a chance to add some aftermarket ones and get some free ponies.

let us know what it ends up being, we'll be interested to hear. and again, good luck.

Tim

 

Bump.

 

Man,

how many miles do you have on that car?

-Gagan

 

An old friend of mine (bit of a stoner), used to work at a local car audio store. One day he installed a very nice system into a new mercedes. The merceded came back about a week later saying that the inside of the car reeked of gas. Sure enough my friend had drilled a couple of nice sized holes into the gas tank. Needless to say he doesn't work there anymore.

Moral of the story, a new mercedes gas tank costs a lot

 

ouch.....that hadta hurt....hopefully thats not the problem.....but from what he described....I dunno what else would cause that bad of an odor....as for the tailpipe goo......well.....uhhh, er....

Have you been using your muffler as a b0nG again?

LMAO....j/k sorry, I couldn't resist.

-Ted

 

LMFAO

that would be cool though!

 

Have you never seen Idle Hands?!

***Jessica Alba is hot***

 

A couple years ago I installed a CD/MP3 player in my Jetta, and afterwards the car wouldn't start for about an hour. Something about disconnecting and reconnecting the battery made it seriously unhappy. I hope it's something as simple as that with your car, maybe the ECU was temporarily confused.

Edit: as usual, I wish I could spell.

 

What possible shred of relevance does that have to this thread?

Hi there.
I believe I've got around 86K on it.

UPDATE: Mechanic reports that car is in "a little better condition" after he fixed a gap between the spark plugs or some such thing.

The car is still having problems.

I'll keep you guys updated!

 

i had to recently replace my plug wires at 115k, and also clean the terminals on the coil pack with a wire brush and some battery terminal solvent. That has made all my misfires, and rough idling go away.

I hope everything turns out ok. Do you have the standard 60k warranty? or the upgraded 100k?

-Gagan