Hi there,

I'm new to Impreza ownership and i've done a fair amount of searching on the forum before posting this my searches have shown me different issues but none seem to be quite the same as mine, though share similarities so here is my question/issue.

Firslty my car: 02 WRX, 53,000 miles, always been serviced it has no modifications except for a Bailey Dump valve mounted to the top mount & an aftermarket exhaust system thats been de-catted.

The issue: I seem to be using alot of oil. The dipstick was on full when i reset the ODO. i travelled 119miles majority of town driving between 20-40 mph with about 20 miles or so at motorway speeds i checked the dip stick at 119 miles and there was hardly any oil on it. the car was stone cold as it had been in the garage all night (which is level) I put half a litre of oil in and that took the dip stick level back to full.

this seemed a bit odd to me or is this the norm for an Impreza?

The car has steam on start up on a cold morning but the back box is stainless system and it is cold in the mornings so i guess this is the norm.

If i rev the car up when its stood still and been warmed up it does kick out some blackish smoke and does smell like its burning oil. however it does not smoke at all when ideling also if i have the bonnet open some black smoke comes form the right hand side of the engine bay and dump valve when reving, this does not happen on tickover though.

When driving the car it occasionally puts out a very wispy cloud of black smoke (only when warm however) when accelerating in 1st and 2nd at slowish speeds. I do not notice any when i plant my foot though, I haven't noticed any smoking at all however in 3rd gear and above. There are no knocking or banging or general engine breaking noises at any time when i drive the car, it pulls fine and i never notice any delay in power delivery or slumps in speed in any gear.

So how does this sound to people on here? any words of advice or tips? or does this sound completely normal?

apologies for the long thread but like i said i've tried to check as much as I can before posting.

Thanks in advance for some feedback though guys and girls (don't know how many chicks there are on here)

(**apologies for the use of the 60's based word 'chicks' )

Mark

 

Anybody?!?

 

It certainly shouldn't be using that much oil, mine certainly doesn't. The smoke is normal, mine does that a lot, similar age and miles although more heavily modded. Could be a number of things including turbo, rings and valve stem seals although I would expect a blueish smoke if it's burning oil - I'm sure someone more experience can shed some light but certainly worth getting it checked out.

 

cheers mate hopefully get some more opinions shortly

 

Anybody else? sorry to keep bumping but had to put another 1/3 of a litre in today after 115ish miles. I use 10/40w magnetec, someone advised me that they used this in the past and it kept burning off, anyone else expeirenced this? I used it in my old R33 gtst and never had any issues but maybe scoobys don't like it?

 

Lose the bailey, go back to a standard recirculating dumpvalve. You can pick one up on ebay, or at a breakers.

VTA dumpvalves are known to cauyuse over-fuelling, which leads to borewash, which, in turn, can lead to EXactly THE SYMPTOMS YOU DESCRIBE, DUE TO EXCESSIVE WEAR.

uNFORTUNATELY, IT may BE TOOO LATE FOR YOU TO STOP IT.

GET AN OIL PRESSURE TEST DONE ASAP, ALSO GET IT TO A SPECIALIST, not A DEALER, UNLESS YOU HAVE WARRANTY?

Bloody capslock!

 

Interesting didn't relise a dump valve could have that much of an effect just searched on here for dump valve issues and see it does seem to be a common issue... I'll look for a standard as i'm not that fussed about them, just happened to be on there when I bought the car. I'm looking to get an oil pressure gauge A.S.A.P. aswell in the mean time I'll try and find somewhere that does this test. (I don't have a warranty)

Cheers.

 

Normally black wispy smoke is unburnt fuel (not really smoke).......most turbo'd cars tend to kick a bit out as they overfuel a bit (without a VTA) to keep temps down...

 

This is why i'm not to worried bout the smoke as my old R33 used to do exxactly that! just got a quote for a standard re-circ they 200 quid new!l watchin one on ebay at the mo. tho. if it starts stacking up may go for HKS SSQV as the are re circ. right?

 

SSQV is also a VTA, if you want a recirc the standard is the way to go. Put a post in the wanted section, they sell for no more than about £20 second-hand. I have a VTA for my FMIC and have no problems, also used to run a Forge VTA with my old TMIC and again no problems - some cars just seem to be okay with them other don't like them. The amount of fuel required to create borewash is significant, so much so that I have never let that concern me.