I have oil in the ac vents, and a pretty strong oil smell inside the vehicle while driving. Could this be caused by a rear main seal leak? Valve cover gasket?

 

No. That is bizarre. The ONLY reason I can think of to have oil in the A/C vents is if your A/C condenser has a leak, but then your A/C wouldn't be working.

 

Do you have a oil leak that lets oil on to the exhaust manifold? It might be drawing in smoke or fumes somewhere.

 

x2 on what swampfox said i had the same problem.

 

I think its your evaporator not the condenser. Evaporator is under dash, condenser is in front of radiator.

 

The only leak I am aware of is the rear main seal and the valve cover gasket. The valve cover gasket was just replaced a month or two ago. The darn thing is leaking again. As far as the evaporator goes, I pretty much stripped the whole interior to run power, rca, and speaker wires. I didn't notice anything odd, visually nor anything that smelled like oil from under there. The AC vents are covered with a film of oil. The odor gets worse the further I drive or the harder the car has to work. The timing belt, front cam seals, crankshaft seals were all replaced when the valve cover gasket was done. All the upper plenum gaskets and throttle body gaskets were also replaced.

 

The only place that could be doing that is the valve cover. I don't know of any other place where oil could be dripping down onto the exhaust manifold.

 

what was the cause of it? did you get it fixed?

 

valve cover gasket, ya but went with the gasket maker by toyota instead of the rubber one. some people also use it on oil pans, i forget the name some one might be able to name it for me

 

ok i found the name toyota fipg sealant that's the stuff you wana use

 

OK, so you didn't use the rubber gasket?

 

Sorry; you're right. Had a senior moment there~

 

I'm not sure about oil in the vents but I currently have a very small leak in the back of my passenger side valve cover. Unfortunately that is right above the damn crossover pipe and I do get a pretty strong burnt oil smell in the cab sometimes.