Hey everyone. So I've searched around on the forums, found a lot of things similar to what's going on with my car but not exactly. Long story short, it's idling rough, accelerating rough (stuttering), and after sitting at a stoplight or anything for more than 10 seconds I get huge clouds of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. Smoke smells like gunpowder.

The car was recently at the dealership to have the timing chain replaced along with the valve cover and gaskets. The whole system was smoke and pressure tested, no leaks were found. Spark plugs, coilpacks etc. were tested and are all fine. The techs at the dealership looked everywhere and could not find any mechanical issues. The car was also walnut blasted before I picked it up. They did the oil change as well.

The codes that have showed up on my Scangauge are P1497 and P2188. Went to a small euro shop here to have the codes read to double check and what came up there was P2B64, P2786, and P2885. I know what most of these codes mean but everything they point to has been checked and is fine. The dealership's only suggestion after giving up was to do the factory re-programming (which hasn't been done in years) and then get it re-tuned.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

 

Sounds like burning oil...

 

White smoke? Usually means a blown head gasket. What does the oil look like?

 

I wonder if the turbo is leaking oil into the intake tract under vacuum at idle. Chance are if this was happening, someone would have noticed oil in the intake when they pulled it for the walnut blasting. My guess is that significant oil burning tends to result in blue smoke.

Can you remove the tune to see if that is an issue?

Are you using the stock dp, how much oil are you using?

Are the codes for misfires? If so, have you checked the coils?

Have fun,
Mike

 

Mike,
I've been wondering about the competence of the techs at the dealership. Either they're completely missing huge signs like that or I'm just wrong about all of the issues with the car so far. But, as far as I know, they checked everything extensively, and would have noticed something like that.

I plan on removing the tune tomorrow to see if that will help. I just have to dig up the threads on RMW and the DimSport tool as I have no memory of how the whole process works haha.

As for the dp, I am still using the stock one. If that's a point of interest I should be looking at let me know, the car is currently at 135k miles. One of my friends mentioned at one point this could be dp related... Oil level is normal, it was changed less than 300 miles ago. None of the codes are for misfires at this point, so I'm pretty sure the coils are good. That was something I had the dealership check as well.

Thanks again for the help. I really don't know what's going on here and the car's running rough enough to have me seriously concerned.

 

Just an update. Took the tune off yesterday, the car's now running even rougher than before. Super rough up and down idling.

 

Did you ever figure out what was causing this?

Sent from my iPhone using NAMotoring

 

Update of what's happened so far. Apparantly the dealership managed to not notice both o2 sensors were dead, so we replaced them and it's still smoking (confirmed burning oil). All we can think now is cylinder head valve stem seals. I'll keep updating as we go. Ugh...

 

any updates?

 

Cylinder head valve stem seals. Had to pull the head and rebuild.

 

ugh, I was hoping you wouldn't say that. I seem to be having the same issues as you were.

 

So it was just the valve stem seals and nothing else? You had intake air coming from the usual intake tract and from the blow-by gasses AKA PCV system drawing in air and oil.

 

Valve Stem Seals were just the cause of the smoke. We also found that the little valve (don't even know what it was called) that allows oil to drain back down to the pan from the crankcase was stuck in the open position. There were numerous other issues occurring at the time as well (as there usually are with my car.) I had oil leaks from several gaskets, and a leak from the vac pump, which amongst other things was causing the limp mode. When I finally got the cylinder head rebuilt and put back in, I was just out of money and had to put the other issues on the back burner. This is usually the case with my car, something is always broken, but the more important broken things get addressed first lol. So yeah, as of now I don't have limp mode issues anymore, but I'm still getting a recurrent P2188 (rich at idle) which cuts high end boost. Only seen P1497 come back up once since.

 

I searched to see why I am having the stumbling issue.

Installed oil catch can last year, does prevent some oil from creating carbon build-up. Been cleaned out too.

It went into limp mode recently, but ran ok after a pause during errands.

Shop in town found two codes, which the dealer discounted. Fuel filters been replaced. Just put in new spark plugs.

Been using best gas recently, when I can find it.

Do the fuel injectors get clogged up, and need replacing after so many miles?

 

The fuel injectors in your case doesn't seem to be an issue, if they were clogged you would be running lean unless there squirting fuel instead of spraying. Typically fuel injectors seem to be solid on our MCS, I have only heard of a few go bad, nothing quite like other failing parts.

 

I'm baaaack.

Limp mode/boost deviation no longer an issue, but...P2188 is pretty much constant. P1497 has showed back up a few times as well. Smoke out of the exhaust after idling is back. Rev searching idle as well as jolting rough acceleration. Oil consumption is high, but I really can't tell if it's any higher than it's always been. FML.

Valve cover in combination with excessive carbon buildup maybe? There's no way in HELL the cylinder head has committed suicide this quickly, right?

 

I believe you have more than one issue going on, how long has it been since your cylinder head was rebuilt? Have you performed a compression test?

 

Have you tried replacing the MAF sensor or at least cleaning it?

 

Oh there's almost definitely more than one issue going on. I'm mid roadtrip at the moment so no real diagnosis possible. Just watching the codes and keeping my fingers crossed. No misfiring or anything as of yet. Car still runs great under throttle, after the initial hesitation in the lower gears. Cylinder head now has about 10k miles on it.

I was thinking about it all today, I really do wonder about the cause of the smoke in my case, mainly because I remembered my car was doing this same thing (smoke-wise) for a good 40k miles prior to the first cylinder head going (that I can recall). Probably for even longer than that. It would always be most noticeable right after oil changes. It was only around 135k miles that the smoking went past the post-idle puff into full on, very clear valve stem seal failure. The clouds got larger, and I noticed smoke more often, and then it would sit at an idle billowing.

Currently, after the initial cloud that comes out after sitting, the car doesn't smoke while driving. There was no smoke this morning on the first start either, but sure enough, got off the freeway after a 150 mile or so stretch, was stopped at a light for less than 30 seconds, and upon engaging first and pulling off sure enough smoke was there.

As usual, any help is greatly appreciated, especially you Systemlord for continuing to give educated feedback . I think the most frustrating thing is not knowing. The dealerships I have used in the past (the only ones within 10 hours of me, and I don't even bother so much as calling them anymore) have been shockingly clueless and useless. The shop I use where I live is great, but the poor guy has literally had to learn every damn thing about these cars solely because of my car, at this point knows more than any dealer tech I've dealt with, and still can't figure it out.

As for the MAF, I haven't cleaned it in a little while but I'll give it a shot. Everything's worth a try right...

 

Systemlord, was reading a thread you commented in regarding valve cover issues and the diaphragm valves...any chance this could be related? I have noticed small beads of oil in the turbo inlet. Have had absurd amounts of carbon buildup throughout owning the car, and the current valve cover has been on for at least 50k miles I believe.


Did some experimenting today. Smoke comes every time after full vacuum, when going back into boost. There's a chance of turbo bearing failure as well. No death whirr yet, but the bearing moves more than I'd like it to.

 

I noticed small beads of oil in the turbo inlet, however after I replaced to valve cover I found zero oil in the turbo inlet when uninstalling my AEM intake. Is the shaft play in your turbo in & out play?

 

Read this article from JM Turbo Coopers:

http://www.jmturbocoopers.com/Cooper...ton-Issue.html

 

Bearing play was side to side. Not drastic by any means, but as I said more than I'd like to see/feel.

cerenkov thanks for that article. That's definitely a possibility I've been thinking with the oil pulling through into the intake tract.

Won't be able to get the car in to the mechanic until after Christmas. I guess I should stop trying to figure the problem out until I actually have time to figure the problem out. lol. Thanks again everyone.

 

Just an fyi. Replaced valve cover on suspicion of faulty pcv diaphragms, no more smoke or rough idle. Thank baby jesus.

 

That's excellent news, at least you know your cylinder head is alright for another 100k miles.