have had no problems like this before, but today, half way to work, I stopped, queing in traffic & looked back & couldnt see anything for the oil smoke behind me!

did it all the rest of the way. only when I stopped & it idled.
got to work - rev'ed it - was ok.

came out of work - started it, no smoke !

drove home - smoked, on idle, once it had warmmed up.

got home & checked the turbo -> intercooler hose & there is a small film of oil there, but no more than the other day when I took the whole intercooler off!

so am I looking at
a) valve oil seals ?
b) rings
c) melted pistons/rings

car is my97, with a few less cats, stnd boost & DOES have a bit of piston slap from cold.
can anyone give me any more pointers where to look / check?

cheers
Steve

 

Was it actually blue smoke or white smoke?

White smoke it is most likely to be a head gasket on it's way out.

 

Are you sure its just not steam mate..??? its been pretty cold in the mornings recently..

Dan

 

was white-ish - but blue tinted. smelt like oil smoke to me, too.

ok about head gasket - no obvious water in oil, or visa versa at the moment - but will be keeping an eye on then!

Steve

 

definatly NOT water vapour - was about 30miles from cold!
& it STUNK ! oilly STINKY

 

when the car is warm, try letting it idle and holding sum glass, or sumbodys glasses up to the tail pipe and see if misture apears on the glass

a bloke did that on my vectra diesel which then told him my head gasket was fuuubared

could be worth a shot

 

get it compression tested to check the HG, maybe a Turbo failure sounds very similar to the smoke I got from my old supra when the turbo went on that, that turned out to be an oil seal on the unit itself which got re-sealed by turbotechnics

 

thatnks for the input so far guys!

update - nothing on cold start this morning - just a bit of water vapor it spat out.
driving for half the journey i saw nothing & it was fine.
stopped about 3/4 of the way in a layby and let it idle for about 5 mins. NOTHING !

then, on the same downhill bit (quite steep), it did it again. then did it a few miles down the road at some traffic lights (slightly down hill this time)

got to work, parked it up (downhill) and left it for 5 mins - nothing. gave it a rev, nothing. left it to idle & it wouldnt do a thing!

REALLY confused now!

will try the glass thing - I take it you saw water dropplets forming on the glass/es ???

Steve

 

I've had this before, and never got to the bottom of the problem.

Yet having changed and stuck with Motul 300v 15w50 oil its been fine

My problems started when i used Mobil 1 Motorsport 15w50.

Cheers



Iain

 

ok - update 2

just moved the car & nothing on startup. it's now parked on a slant sideways ( passenger side lower) & it smokes like a trooper!

I'm now thinking along the lines of the dreaded No4 piston getting ring blow-by, as all the oil is pushing itself that way due to the slope! ?

thoughts?

Steve

 

if your engine is low on oil (is it?) then that would indeed look likely when you drove it did you spin up the turbo at all? if so did it smoke on overun?

 

car is 3/4 full of oil - never gets filled to max.

yes it boosts fine & hold boost ok. no apparent burn on overrun. it's ONLY when you sit it and idle it.
but then I did that at the end of my journey & it wouldnt smoke!
but then I moved the car (as I said above) and it wouldnt stop smoking!

there was no more oil smear in the intercooler pipework that there was a week ago when I removed the whole intercooler.
I think it's gota be rings or stem seals.
any idea how to prove 1 or other? (compression test I guess?)

Steve

 

compression test would answer the HG question, you said there was no obvious white stuff on the oil filler cap? is the car overheating at all?

 

nope- no problem with oil in water or visa versa.
car is running perfectly! no overheating, no stutering, nothing!

will try to get the plugs out tonight - but never done that before & I know its bl00dy hard!

will check the oil & water as I leave later & at when home tonight.

Steve

 

ok - so this gets weirder!

took the car apart tonight. plugs out - all ok.
compression tested the lot - all within about 5psi (~145 psi)

little bit of oil in intercooler piping - but as I've said - not much & no more than I remember the week or so before. have cleaned them out, so any new stuff will be easy to see.

think it's getting worse too. when you drive, NOTHING comes out. and when you stop, nothing. wait 20-30 seconds & it starts with a ligth blue haze, then thicker, then turns into white clouds, at which point, you cant see a thing!
rev it & it stops - then comes back again!

this has gotta be the head gasket in early stages hasnt it?

(p.s. - still no loss of oil / water, or deposits in either. or bubbles)

Steve

 

I had the same problem with my00 only happened after idleing and only cleared after accelaration, had it checked and it was found that the seals had gone on the turbo thus buildind up slight deposits of oil and burning off on accelaration, had a new turbo fitted under warranty, no more smoke.

 

Does this relate to the problem you had on the IOW, or did that one get cured?

Best of luck with it! I can't really think of anything that hasn't been said before...

If the oil level isn't dropping quickly and you're getting loads of smoke then surely whatever the oil is getting at must be very hot to vapourise like it is doing?

 

muuummm mine has done this on a couple of occasions..00MY. Random white / blue smoke that clears with a throttle blip. I did wander if it was the breather circuit dumping a load of oil / water into the inlet and this lot getting burnt.......car does not use oil, water is clean.......

 

muuummm mine has done this on a couple of occasions..00MY. Random white / blue smoke that clears with a throttle blip. I did wander if it was the breather circuit dumping a load of oil / water into the inlet and this lot getting burnt.......car does not use oil, water is clean.......

 

I just made a few changes to my 99MY, switched to fully synthetic oil plus had the downpipe replaced (the rest of the exhaust is non-standard). Took her up to PE yesterday and when I arrived it was smoking like a smoky thing on idle - blueish smoke, clouds of it. Mervyn put it on the rolling road and after the first run - no more smoking. It didn't do it again all day, but this afternoon after I'd been out in her for an hour or so got home and hey presto - smoke city again. I thought it may be the turbo oil seals, I'm keeping an eye on the oil & water, again no signs of contamination in either.

 

kind of the same here ! took it to see my very helpful mechanic man (thanks Mike!) & when I got there it stood for about 3-5mins and nothing!
then it started!

today - nothing. apart from when I left my mates house & then when I stopped at a round-about.

very odd & weird. but I think it's the turbo. smells oily - but not your normal oilly - which is whats been confusing me - it's unburnt oil ...

so probably the oil seal on the exhaust side of the turbo thats gone!

new turbo time!

Steve

 

Had the same problem on a cosworth it was the turbo.

 

Sounds like it's possible that my turbo may be dying too then. I wonder if the warranty is going to hold up on this..... better book her in and see what the experts think...

 

sounds like the turbos leaking a touch, its a pisser but with things like this i genraly find u gotat let it get a bit worse b4 u can even find out whats causing the problem

when the turbo went in my vectra it dumped loads of oil down the downpipe

 

yeah - think it's the turbo too . but today, AGAIN, it didnt do it when I got to work ... but 20mins later, when I moved the car it did - but it was more white-ish smoke than blue!

but - will get the turbo swapped out at the weekend & see if that cures it. if not .. I'll need to apply for one of these super low rate / 0% transfer Credit Cards !

Steve

 

I had a friend with this problem on his Talon. He had put in a engine breather kit, and when the oil soaked the filter he started getting the smoking. Do you have any aftermarket stuff on you crankcase ventillation system?

 

You may find the offside rocker gasket is leaking.
The black stuff drips onto the exhaust header and hey presto, when things get a bit hot, oil smokes like a trooper.
Have just discovered same problem on my newly acquired STI3.
Hope this helps.
All the best.

 

You may find the offside rocker gasket is leaking.
The black stuff drips onto the exhaust header and hey presto, when things get a bit hot, oil smokes like a trooper.
Have just discovered same problem on my newly acquired STI3.
Problem is it doesn't do it all the time so can mislead!!
I only use mine at weekends so it has all week to build up a nice puddle on header.
Hope this helps.
All the best.

 

Try an oil catch can.

http://www.nipponpower.com/accessories/catchcan/greddy_catchcan.html

Had a friend with the same sort of problem and that fixed it

 

glennage - it was definatly coming out of the exhaust - not from under the car/ engine bay .. so dont think it could have been that.

anyway .. had it diagnoised as a turbo oil seal .. so managed to track down a replacement & get it fitted @ thames valley motorsport & so far it all looks fixed ( tmrw will tell!)
so thanks for all the hard work Colin!

cheers
Steve