Stinky smoke
 

Just got back from Tunbridge Wells and the car was wafting lots of oily smoke out of the back. Pulled into a layby before the long grind up towards Caterham-on-the-hill and captured the following short video clip. Apologies for the brevity.

I have a feeling it's gearbox-related due to the funny garlic/onion-ey smell. I thought that if the gearbox seal went, it normally dripped on the passenger side cat? I took a look under the car and saw that it was almost covered in liquid on the driver's side. The vanity tray looks to be rather full of liquid too when viewed from above looking into the engine compartment. Unless there's a minor miracle, it looks like it will be a week or so before I can get a grease monkey to take a look. Any words of wisdom?

Happy Christmas!

That looks like cam cover gaskets leaking on to the exhaust manifold - pretty catastrophically by the amount of smoke. If you pull the plastic covers off you should see where it's leaking.

My Murple does the same. I am refraining from driving it until I can fix it tbh because it strikes me as something of a fire hazard. If its your only car then cleaning the dripping oil with carb cleaner spray regularly might mitigate it until you can get it sorted.

Cam cover gaskets are 077198025A - £50 from TPS. Victor Reinz alternatives can be had for £25 or so if you shop around.

Cheers MJ for sharing your knowledge and also the gasket reference ID. I have to agree with your 'catastrophically' leaking comment. I was able to get the car home safely and it will remain dormant until the local garage can look at it on Friday.

Back in the garage tomorrow (Weds)
 

Helga (my A8L) has been back to the garage once already, as the new gaskets fitted started leaking again. New gasket fitted to left-hand cam cover bank. Was OK for a week or so which included a trip to Crewkerne in Somerset. I had to 'give it some beans' recently when overtaking someone and within 5 minutes, I was wafting my now all too familiar oily smoke underneath the car and out of the sides... Suffice to say, she won't be going anywhere until it's fixed.

Car booked in again tomorrow to attempt second replacement gasket set for right-hand cam bank. I look forward to the day when it's not leaking like the Deepwater Horizon and also not having to check the dipstick every time I use the car.

Did they put sealant in the sharp corners of the gasket?

I will assume that they didn't, bearing in mind the previous visit was to replace the LHS gasket again and reseal. That side seems fixed so hopefully more of the same with tomorrow's repair of the RHS (as you look at the engine with the bonnet open).

I've just checked under the bonnet and the leak seems to be confined to the front right corner of the cam cover, so I will get them to focus on that area. The dripping oil has covered my power steering hoses and also managed to travel down towards the exhaust manifold, which resulted in the tell-tale smoke.