Hey folks,

My parking situation has changed, and I've been parking on a very steep driveway for the past 6 months. At first this didn't seem to be an issue at all, but after a few months, my car has started shuddering and idling very rough while on the incline. I don't let it do this long, as a consequence and quickly drive it up and over the top before finishing the warm up, and I turn off the motor as soon as I've parked.

I had been habitually pulling in head-first, but after a few months I noticed a tiny little bit of what looks like oil directly beneath my exhaust pipe. I also just had my Upstream oxygen sensor fail, at only 66k miles.

I'm currently operating under the theory that the Steep angle is allowing the oil level in the engine to reach the Pistons, allowing a small amount of oil up and into the cylinders. This is bad for a variety of reasons, yes? I believe this might explain my fouled oxygen sensor and oil (or perhaps combined with dew) in my exhaust.

Currently I am now backing in to my spot in the hopes of alleviating this issue and preventing further damage. My question is - am I way off target here? Is there something else at Play? And if I'm right, what should I do to remove some of the likely carbon deposits in my top end and exhaust before I put in the new O2 sensor (not wanting it to fail prematurely as well)?

 

Shouldn't be a problem as far as oil getting into places it shouldn't be, moreso of oil getting out of where it should be. Most often we see oil leaks developing around crank seals or oil pan gaskets on cars that park on steeper inclines, but that type of incline isn't very facilitive to oil flow throughout the engine.

Did you actually have oxygen sensor failure codes when it was replaced? Also, when you add oil to the car are you using a funnel, or just the spray and pray method? The most common cause of primary O2 sensor failures on these cars is due to oil ingress from sloppy oil changes or fills.