If you are sure it is smoke ...
I had a Metro Turbo that produced a lot of white smoke when cold. It was not the turbo bearings but valve guides. The smoke signals stopped when the car was warm.

I have recently bought a MY97 Catalunya with 21000 miles on the clock.

It starts to put out white smoke from the exhaust after idling for a couple of minutes, but clears quickly when revs are lifted.

Would appreciate some advice prior to going back to the dealer.

Thanks, Ade.

Is that smoke or steam can you confirm, if white smoke it usually indicates worn turbo bearings but this does not normally happen at idle. Steam occurs after start up at idle because the exhaust is cold and the hot exhaust gasses are condensing back.

Bob

A bit more info.....

It is definitely not the usual 'steam' you get from a cold engine in the morning.

Having got home tonight, I left it idling for 5 minutes with hot engine, no smoke.

Left it for about 1 hour and then restarted, leaving to idle. After approx 2 minutes, any increase in throttle produced white 'smoke'. Did not smell like oil smoke, but rather more like paint thinners.

Any the wiser?

It does sound very like the problem I had with the Metro. On a cold day you would start that and it would produce lots of white smoke - this was hard to tell apart from the steam you might get but hung around for a bit longer and was a bit thicker than steam. It didn't really smell all that oily. Once the car was warmed up the smoke would stop and the car drove normally with a small amount of blue smoke when booted.
An engine pressure test might be a good start before you start blaming the turbo and spending lots of money on the wrong thing like I did. On a turbocharged car everyone seems to assume the turbo must be the problem.

Good Luck.

This smoke can be very heavy condesation produced before the cat "lights up". The odd smell would suggest this is probably the case.

We use a quick and easy test which is usually correct.

Blue smoke - oil
White smoke - water
Black smoke - fuel

I have to agree with David, i've owned several " CVH " engined cars and they suffer with hard valve stem seals, when you start (cold) it gives off the oil thats run into the cylinders overnight as a light blue haze ( a cloud when they are really bad! ) the smell changes with the type of oil, synthetic gives off a diffrent smell compared to the cheap stuff you see in some places for £1.99 a gallon !

when the engine has warmed up everything expands and swells and it stops burning oil. The problem is so widespread that a clever guy has designed a tool which you connect into the sparkplug hole and it fills your cylinder with compressed air ( to keep the valves shut ) and you can remove the valve springs and re-new the stem seals and back together without removing the head....just wish I'd thought of it.

Kev.