Hello guys

My R56 (2008) now smokes through the exhaust white blueish smoke. Is not a constant smoke, its only when I turn the car on then it goes away. Then after a while it comes back when I stop in somewhere. For example, I drive for 10 min and stop at a stop sign, then when I take off it smokes for maybe 10 Sec.

I do have a small oil leak not sure if it has to do with the car smoking.

I will be taking it in for service, but just to have an idea what this would be am asking on here.

Is it the turbo going bad? Gasket?

Thanks in advance

 

how many miles ? White smoke is oil, make sure your still good there before real problems happen. And if more than say 70K could very well be turbo seal leaking oil and if that happens you should replace CAT as well unless you want to replace the turbo again sooner than expected.

 

White smoke is coolant, blue smoke is oil, black smoke is too much fuel.

Dave

 

Well 111111 to be exact lol, and well turbo would be more of a blue and more constant if am not mistaken? But I will be taking it in because I do have an engine leak as well, it is a seal that's broken from what he told me.

Thanks Dave I hope they just give me a new turbo and fix whatever is causing the smoke hahah

 

White smoke that smells sweet is coolant. Sometimes the "blue" versus "white" colors can be a little hard to distinguish--but if it smells sweet like coolant, it is coolant. If it smells like fuel, it is fuel. Oil smoke has its own smell (hang out with any aircooled VW folks and you'll learn the smell!) but isn't as easy to describe.

 

Worn Valve Guides or seals allowing oil to get past and into cylinder when stopped of off.

 

i have to triple check, to bad i dont hang out with VW folks lol

this is a good one, so by this it wont exactly mean that the turbo is going bad?

 

I am 72 so back in the day it was very common for an engine to smoke a little when the valve guides or seals wore. Fixed by installing new seals or doing a valve job and knurling the valve guides and or installing new guides. But when you do the valves you always replaced the seals. It as common to replace seals while the heads were still on the engine, use air pressure to hold valves closed remove rockers, valve spring and old seals and reassemble with new seals. A good mechanic could do it in it in a day. My 04 Expedition smokes a little on start up but has a 140K on it just a quick puff upon starting after sitting overnight or a long period. Probably doesn't on acceleration also but don't follow it to see. My 66 Mustang does it also.

 

72 and wise thats for sure, thanks for the advice. ill be taking it in next Monday to my mechanic so he can take it from there. hopefully is nothing major so i can keep working on my little project car

 

My guess would be head gasket.

- Mark

 

You don't want it to be coolant because if that's the case head gasket is allowing coolant into the engine. Check your oil and make sure there's just oil in there.

 

i hope soo

I don't think so because my mechanic would of seen it on the last oil change I did, I had the problem by that time. I think he would notice it if there was some kind of coolant or water in the engine by looking at the old oil. Plus, wouldn't the coolant tank have some kind of oil in it or not?

 

A head gasket in the early stages of failure won't necessarily show obvious contamination in the engine oi or coolant - the leak may be only between the coolant passages and the combustion chambers and if the ring seal is good, the coolant will be burned before any significant quantity makes it into the sump. You should start noticing a drop in coolant level.

The key symptom of head gasket failure is copious white smoke on startup. After shutdown, the pressurized cooling system continuously leaks coolant into the combustion chambers where it is all burned at once at the next startup. While running, the problem still occurs but the there is no accumulation.

- Mark

 

This sounds more like it, this is basically what's happening to me every time , when I start the car up just a little bit of white smoke comes out , then after I drive the car through out the day I see a little bit of more smoke

 

Markjenn makes a very good point, as for the oil in the coolant tank oil is concerned you might not notice it right away. Also have a look at your oil filter housing, the oil and coolant flow through right next to each other through the oil filter housing. I remember one member notice coolant mixed with the oil, he caught it early. Sounds like the beginning of a serious problem that needs attention!

 

I'll double check and I'll be pissed if my mechanic did not notice this because it was like 3 weeks ago I changed the oil and I had this smoke problem for about 2 weeks before I took it for an oil change. I do have warranty but it sucks that my mechanic didn't chatch that

 

Well it is German and British so it has two of the worst things when it comes to oil. It leaks and burns oil. Look at some 5+ year old BMWs they all burn oil. My MINI is at 116k and has been burning oil for about 20k. I just keep topping it off and waiting for the day the engine finally gives so I can rebuild it with something better.

 

I've had this happen, but...it's also hard to start and runs rough until the coolant is gone from the cylinder(s).

I think your turbo seals are leaking.

 

i can agree, if something of that matter like coolant leaking into my cylinders was happening i think my car wouldn't be turning on or even ruining at all.

 

We're all just speculating, but you can have a minor head gasket leak that will allow the car to run more/less normally for thousands of miles before it gets bad enough to do anything other than cause some steam smoke on startup.

Report back when you get a diagnosis.

- Mark

 

It's been over a week since the first post and I think some pretty good advice has been offered. Now for my observation: the longer this is allowed to continue, the easier it will be to diagnose. Unfortunately, it may cost more for the necessary repairs.

 

Check this link out! When a turbo is about ready to fail you'll see white smoke, if your also burning oil it could be passing through the seals in the turbo housing.

 

alright guys here is an update from the technician

Turbo is done
time chain needs to be replaced
valve stem seals leaking oil into cylinders
oil leaking by the filter housing gasket.

the tech said the turbo dried up do to the big leaks on the mini and the leak on the cylinder was causing the white smoke

all this will be getting fixed and hopefully i wont be seeing that white smoke ever again

 

Great news, well at least now you know what it is. Thing is when oil gets burned inside the engine it produces blue smock not white.

 

well thats why i said whiteishh smoke, but all the above is getting fixed. cant wait to get her back fully running