Oil leaking onto catalytic converter

[WillGT]

So I just got home from a long day of commuting on the highway and I smelled burnt oil coming from my Baja, I opened the hood and saw a little bit of bluish smoke coming from the top of the catalytic converter. Oil seems to be leaking from somewhere on the cat converter and burning off. I just had my oil changed about a month ago with a front axle replacement , dipstick seems really high when I first pull it up, but upon wiping it, seems normal. Any easy way to tell where I could be leaking oil? Its an Auto trans, fluids seem level also. Really hoping its not the rear main seal especially since I only have 45000 miles on it.

[tsmart]

look at the front diffrential dip stick, it is located to the left of center
under the air cleaner. You will probably have to move some small hoses out of the way to see the yellow top of the stick.
That would leak directly onto the eat sheild causing the smell. It happened to me, that dipstick was not all the way down, caused smoke too.

If you find thats it, get some degreaser and degrease that heat shield from above as well as under the passenger side wheel well. If you do not, it will smell for quite some time.

[WillGT]

Thanks man Ill check that out, really hoping that is it, and not a possible rear main seal issue

[WillGT]

just had a look under the car, there is defiantly a lot of oil leaking from somewhere. its really wet on the plastic cover under the engine, the front diff, front left axle inner boot and cat converter. i checked all the oil dipsticks, (main, a/t, and front diff. The main oil and diff dipsticks are still just a tad above the F letter. Im pretty baffled right now b/c either something was really over filled when I had the oil changed and passenger axle replace or something else is leaking

[Senomar]

Happen to me and discovered it had a small hole in the oil pan. the problem was that the holes is near the drain hole and the bolt hides it. check it out the leak might from the oil pan

[WillGT]

Ill check that out as well, you would think though if oil were to be leaking from the oil pan or any of the seals that it would be noticeable when I check the dipstick right?

[tsmart]

I would definately MAKE SURE nothing is overfilled. Heres why. I filled my AT fluid when COLD, because the manual said "fill it only to "here" if cold" well that was some erroneous info to be sure....cause tho I did it by the book, I checked it HOT the next day, and it showed WAAAAY over filled. so that stuff expands HUGELY.

Hope its nothing serious.

[WillGT]

yeah the oil is gotta be overfilled, im taking it to a real mechanic next week. First time I had the oil changed I noticed it was overfilled a bit, took it back and they refilled it and assured me it was fine. I bet that has caused the seals to leak now

[WillGT]

The dealer I bought it from offered me a complimentary oil change this week, figured I would have them look over it even though it is a Mazda dealer. Luckily they had some one one staff that used to work on Subarus. Anyways what they told me is that I have 3 small leaks, oil pan, oil drain plug, and power steering. They could not tell me however which one was causing the mess on my cat converter. Any ideas?

[X20]

dude, sorry im late. i had the exact same thing happen to me just last month. Blue smoke on catalytic, oil in the same areas, all fluid levels seemed good. It was the front right axel, the boot came off and the oil/grease was thown all over that area. i know you said you just got it replaced, just make sure they did it right. I went through 3 brand new after market axels and all would make a creaking noise. i ended up buying a genuine Subaru re manufactured axel from the dealer, and it fit like a glove, no creaking.

[WillGT]

thanks man, it turned out to be several things. First was the grease from the first axle that had the boot blow out. It was never cleaned properly. On top of that the left head gasket was leaking. I had those fixed, but ended up selling that Baja and got a better one