# Help regarding a White smoke cloud



## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

Hi guys,

i've read various other posts on here regarding "White Smoke" from the exhaust.

I've been having similar problems over the past two weeks or so. I've had a compression test done and all's come back fine. So im thinking the turbo :? . The car only seems to puff out the white smoke at idle or when standing still and putting my foot on the accelerator and a cloud of white sweet smelling smoke engulfs the back of the car (quite embarrasing when in traffic). Im not losing any coolant and its eating the usual amount of oil and ive had the car now for 6years and its done 82K miles. When the cars on the motorway or after 5 mins or so the smoke dissapears and i've still got full turbo etc. Any ideas or any other areas i could check as to why this is happening otherwise i feel a turbo replacement coming up [smiley=bigcry.gif]

Any help or guidance would be appreciated as usual.

Cheers

Lee


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## antcole (Apr 4, 2009)

Hi,

So... its not burning any extra oil.... and youre not losing coolant..... and youre not overheating..... and youre not feeling any loss in boost or power.

Well, firstly, how much is your normal amount of oil usage, mine uses about a litre over 3000 miles and im happy with that.

Secondly, do you use any additives in your fuel?, redex, wynns and so on.

Do you have a reputable brand of fully synthetic oil in the engine... and what grade is it, 5w30, 10w40 and so on.

if the turbo is the culprit, it only takes a very small amount of oil to make a big smell and give a hazy exhaust, however, if that much oil is going through anyway, the CAT will suffer eventually.

Its a good one.....


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## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

Cheers for the reply 

Oil is about the same as your if not abit more. Usually about 1.5 litres per 3000 miles. thats always been the case.
I've never used any additives in the fuel.
I do require a good oil change as the stuff thats in there now isn't the best. Its the halfords grade of oil 5w-40 - which i believe is the wrong spec etc. My first service after moving away from expensive Audi services. So planning on doing this at the weekend. Ive bought some Mobile 1 5w-30 with 503.001 spec.

Im going to drop the sump as well at the weekend and do a gunk cleanout. Also should be able to check the turbo oil pipe thats connected to the sump to see if thats blocked etc.

It 's just annoying as everything seems to be working as it should, engine pulls as its always done and the turbo spools up and boosts as usual - its just the white smoke ive got

Lee


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## ViperOneZero (Sep 4, 2008)

Hmmmm,
coolant loss /HGasket = white smoke - your scenario=no loss
Oil leaks / turbo fault- blue smoke- no loss
Over fueling / oxygen sensor /mixture faults- black smoke- not applicable...]

Sweet smelling.... brake fluids, power steering etc.. i know brake fluid produces a noxious white smoke as i once split a load on my exhaust manifold.

condensation is another one...

and chavs spraying crap up your exhaust.... or over zealous hosepipe action from a clean...

At least you have "possibly" ruled out the ££ faults of HG and Turbo fault.


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## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

Im going to do the oil change over the weekend and clean the turbo oil lines, which are more than likely gunked up with oil deposits. I'll also do a quick boost leak test, just to see if theres anything leaking. If its not any of them then im at a loss and pointing the finger at the turbo again :?


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## ViperOneZero (Sep 4, 2008)

check your brake fluid res....


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## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

will do  , ill check the power sreering res as well.

I'll be better off doing a brake fluid change, I dont remember ever doing it


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## ViperOneZero (Sep 4, 2008)

Thats what caused my white cloud... filled the res, then pushed the pistons in.. how foolish.

can be bled with a gunsons easi bleed kit.. however you may need VAGcom to purge the abs block of air... however at the time i didnt have vagcom so drove down the street and manually activated the ABS unit lol.

sorry to digress.


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## Rosso TT (Dec 25, 2010)

Hi.
What about dropping your lower boost hoses, the ones that connect the SMIC to the cross member/joiner pipe.
When i fitted my FMIC i removed then and they had some good ammount of oil in them.


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## phillywilly (Feb 24, 2011)

Rosso TT said:


> Hi.
> What about dropping your lower boost hoses, the ones that connect the SMIC to the cross member/joiner pipe.
> When i fitted my FMIC i removed then and they had some good ammount of oil in them.


thats cos your driving upside down rosso


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## antcole (Apr 4, 2009)

As per the last post, good idea.

The intercoolers are the lowest point in the system and will catch any oil lost from the turbo.... and given enough time and enough oil, they will become quite oily.
I dropped the undertray on mine and undid the jubilees at the lowest point on both and got quite a fair bit of oil out.
Had to very very gently ease a blunt screwdriver between the hose and the pipe as i couldnt remove the hose completely, just enough gap to allow the oil to trickle out. Did get a fair bit too.

Just be very gentle as the intercooler inlet pipe is plastic.


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## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

Thanks Guys, The cars getting stripped and every last inch checked over the weekend. So ill make sure the lower intercooler pipes are on my list 

Lee


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## anthony_m (Aug 28, 2008)

leeq61 said:


> Thanks Guys, The cars getting stripped and every last inch checked over the weekend. So ill make sure the lower intercooler pipes are on my list
> 
> Lee


hi lee,
sweet smelling smoke/condensation usualy points to coolant leaking into cylinder head etc, but this would usualy cause miss-fire in extreeme cases, you say your not losing any coolant which is strange. :? 
anyway, hope you sort it.
Anthony.


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## phillywilly (Feb 24, 2011)

real long shot but...your other half hasnt stuck £10 of diesel in it or something like that ?
i know its a million to one but had it happen to a friend of mine recently


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## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

phillywilly said:


> real long shot but...your other half hasnt stuck £10 of diesel in it or something like that ?
> i know its a million to one but had it happen to a friend of mine recently


Dont be silly!! the first and only time she borrowed it, she brought it back with Asda shopping trolley marks along the rear bumper [smiley=argue.gif] , needless to say, she now sticks to her Fiat (shopping car) 500


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## phillywilly (Feb 24, 2011)

leeq61 said:


> phillywilly said:
> 
> 
> > real long shot but...your other half hasnt stuck £10 of diesel in it or something like that ?
> ...


 :lol: :lol:


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## anthony_m (Aug 28, 2008)

My father in law went to the petrol pumps in Tesco one day only put about a Fivers worth in his little fiat, [thank goodness]went to drive off and something was obviously very wrong, anyway, managed to get it to my house a couple of hundred yards away, i took fuel line off and got some fuel pumped into a bottle,and guess what, diesel! the tankers had only filled up the wrong tank at the store!
there were many cases of failing cars due to the pump in question before they realised what had happend.
anyway, as philly said it could be posible.
Anthony.


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## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

Well guys, before i started having a mess about with the car this morning/afternoon i've took a quick video of the white smoke. I am guessing its the turbo/turbo seals as i took the down pipe off to the intercooler and there was plenty of oil in there  . I'm going to book it into Awesome GTI after i come back off holiday and see what they say. I'd appreacite your thoughts....

Cheers Lee


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## antcole (Apr 4, 2009)

leeq61 said:


> Well guys, before i started having a mess about with the car this morning/afternoon i've took a quick video of the white smoke. I am guessing its the turbo/turbo seals as i took the down pipe off to the intercooler and there was plenty of oil in there  . I'm going to book it into Awesome GTI after i come back off holiday and see what they say. I'd appreacite your thoughts....
> 
> Cheers Lee


Hmmmmm.... thats oil alright.

They do produce alot of water vapour/steam normally but that is most definately oil smoke.
You will be right to get it looked at asap before your CAT gives up trying to scrub it clean.

Out of interest, how much oil did you get out of the intercoolers?

You can try and release the TIP at the turbo and feel if the turbine shaft has a ton of slack in it.... if you gently lift the shaft and turn the shaft, the blade tips shouldnt touch the casing... 
There will be a fair bit of slack but id say you definately have a worn out shaft seal.
The shaft seal is simply two tiny piston rings that keep the oil back and when the blower isnt boosting, oil can get drawn past them.

P.S.... obvious warning - do NOT do the above check with the engine running!! (or you will have two much shorter fingers afterwards  )


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## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

Cheers for the reply Ant  . I got roughly about quarter of a cup full of oil... but ive done a compression test on the head and all was fine there and checked the PCV lines etc. 
It's beyond my mechanical skills to remove and refit the turbo once ive had it overhauled. I'd rather stick with my turbo and have it refurbed by midlandturbos or someone like that than an Ebay pile of shite.

I think my best bet is going to be Awesome GTI, as theyre local. I'll see what they quote [smiley=bigcry.gif]


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## antcole (Apr 4, 2009)

The turbo is a pig and a half to get to so youre right to let someone else do it thats done plenty before.

The guys at awesome are just that.... awesome and they will give you the best opinion on it. Good choice.

Definately steer away from ebay turbos as theyre mostly chinese copies and will not be anywhere near as robust as the Schwitzer or Borg Warner KKK.

You should expect to pay anything up to 900 quid for a brand spanker but there are some seriously good repair/exchange companies out there and im sure awesome will advise you fully.

If you love the TT, its worth spending the money, and when you buy first class, you generally only need to pay the once, as opposed to a cheap copy or a DIY seal kit which could cost you twice or more eventually.

Good luck bud [smiley=thumbsup.gif]


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## leeq61 (Apr 20, 2007)

Well, all booked in to Awesome on the 5th April. I'll be glad to get rid of the David Copperfield cloud of smoke but not looking forward to the bill [smiley=bigcry.gif]

Everyones telling me to get rid of it once its sorted.... [smiley=argue.gif] i only use it once a week if that, so why would i spend that amount of money getting the car right and then get rid and for the fact that ive spend ££££'s modding. It's staying


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## reeceturner3 (Sep 8, 2011)

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I was wondering what the outcome of this was, as I have the exact same symptoms, white smoke all the time, sweet smelling, not loosing any coolant, boosts fine, would like to know what the problem was before I spend loads of money getting the while car checked out, also don't know whether it's worth mentioning, the car doesn't ever seem to get up to temp, it only does when I've been idling for quite a while, but as soon as I start driving it will go back down to 70 and stay there, I'm going to order a new thermostat to see if that solves that, and it takes a while for the heaters to get warm, didn't know of this could be related in any way, also just a note, I have a faulty dashpod where empty is at the halfway full mark on the petrol gauge, it's a 225 as well, hope someone can shed some light on this, thanks


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## chrisj82 (Jun 15, 2012)

reeceturner3 said:


> Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I was wondering what the outcome of this was, as I have the exact same symptoms, white smoke all the time, sweet smelling, not loosing any coolant, boosts fine, would like to know what the problem was before I spend loads of money getting the while car checked out, also don't know whether it's worth mentioning, the car doesn't ever seem to get up to temp, it only does when I've been idling for quite a while, but as soon as I start driving it will go back down to 70 and stay there, I'm going to order a new thermostat to see if that solves that, and it takes a while for the heaters to get warm, didn't know of this could be related in any way, also just a note, I have a faulty dashpod where empty is at the halfway full mark on the petrol gauge, it's a 225 as well, hope someone can shed some light on this, thanks


on his vid it says its was turbo


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