Hey all, I was checking my oil today on my 2014 Escape SE (2.0) and noticed a pretty strong gasoline smell in the oil. I hadn’t noticed this before, and I’ve had the car for about 3 months now. It’s got 92k miles and was well taken care of by the previous owner.
The car runs fine, shifts fine, and the gas mileage is okay (19 city, 28 highway). The only thing I’ve noticed is a slightly rough idle when starting cold, but it smooths out after a minute or so. I’m hoping it’s something simple like an injector issue, but I’m not sure. I’ll be calling the service manager at my local Ford dealership tomorrow. Anyone else dealt with this? Any advice?
If you’re mostly doing short trips with the GDI high-pressure fuel injection system, it’s possible you’re getting oil dilution with fuel. Try to take longer, high-speed trips if you can. Also, it’s important to change the oil more often in cases like this.
@Riley
Thanks for the info. I do mostly short trips—6-8 miles on average, and some are even shorter. I guess that could be causing it. I’ll try to take longer drives when possible.
Have you scanned for codes yet? Rough cold starts and gas in the oil could mean it’s running too rich at startup. A bad O2 sensor or dirty IAT sensor might be causing it to call for too much fuel. You might see a pending code even if it hasn’t triggered the CEL yet. Could also be a dribbling injector.
There aren’t many places where fuel and oil can mix. A leak at the high-pressure fuel pump could let fuel into the head and down into the oil pan through the oil galley.
Ollie said:
There aren’t many places where fuel and oil can mix. A leak at the high-pressure fuel pump could let fuel into the head and down into the oil pan through the oil galley.
Interesting, I hadn’t thought about that. I’ll mention it to the service manager tomorrow. Thanks for the insight!