Good Morning, new to the toyota forum, altho I have owned Toyotas since I bought my 1st one in 1984. The one I currently own is a 1997 camry 4 cylinder with 299,886 miles on it, waiting to hit the big 300,000. My question is, my wife has a 2000 camry and last week I noticed a burning oil smell from under the hood. I poped the hood, and noticed a very light coating of oil on the silver heat shield in front of the engine. That is where smeall was coming from, so I wiped it off, and checked around. I noticed a round dark spot on the underside of the hood in the sound proof material. The pcv value looks and sounds good,(rattles when you shake it) so just wondering if anyone knows where this little bit of oil might be coming from? I checked it again this week, and again it has a very light covering, but no burning smell this time. It doesn't appear to be losing any engine oil as I check it weekly. Any ideas would be appreciated. thanks.

 

Oil on the hood would unusual. If about the PCV valve suggest changing it and the grommet

Check around the spark plug ign sockets in the valve cover as there is a gasket at each location.

Check valve cover gasket.

 

maybe its just a simply leak coming out and it smells maybe because of over heating.