Winter Blues

[john-w]

Evening folks,

I'm not exactly a massive contributor here and I am certainly no mechanic, so please, bare with me on this one as it is more a fatherly "word of advice" from one to another. It's long, I'm not lecturing anyone but I have certainly learnt from this.

I've had my Fabia vRS for just over two years now and I can honestly say it's been a love hate relationship, but, mechanically it has been perfect, up until I screwed everything up. For those of you who know, it's all related to the "elephant" mod.

After reading posts from numerous people, looking at plenty of pictures and even planning a catch can of my own, I went ahead and took off the pipe that comes from the top of the crank case and used a nice, thick rubber pipe (from Halfords, which I believe is used for a fuel pipe of some sort?) and ran it from the crankcase and down past the cabin firewall. I had done this last summer and much to my surprise saw a big different in the MPG on my dashboard display, albeit I don't think it actually made any difference. I use the Road Trip app for iPhone and log it that way and it's usually pretty consistent, so if anyone is thinking of doing this modification for economy, then don't bother. At best it perhaps increased fresh air flow, but in my opinion I would have been better off with a better air filter.

So, everyone by now is aware of the shocking winter we've had. Everything was running peachy until I was driving to work one day and had to stop for a set of traffic lights. A dingy looking van pulled up beside me followed by a nice thick blue smoke cloud. To my surprise, the blue smoke was coming from my car. In utter shock I drove it another mile to work and then parked it for at least 8 hours. I couldn't see what was wrong with it, nothing was obvious under the bonnet and after leaving it for 5 minutes, started it up again and nothing happened. I left it, carried on with my usual day and drove it to my parents to get my dad to help me look over it. On the way there it started to blue smoke terribly out the rear end, but thankfully it was only a mile away. The cause? The elephant mod. Despite all the rubbish weather in the build up to christmas, it hit me smack bang on the 23rd, halfway through all the crappy weather. The entire length of the pipe had frozen internally, forcing whatever was trying to get OUT of the crankcase BACK into it.

I took the pipe off and re-fit a short rubber pipe from the crankcase back into where it originally went and ran it for a short while, idling, but nothing happened. I braved it, and drove home. Again, a set of traffic lights were about to become my worst enemy as blue smoke billowed out the back. I couldn't just turn the engine off, I was on a busy road and was forced to drive forward, but changing gear from 1st to 2nd saw the car redline itself and stick to it. At worst it stayed there for 2 seconds before I switched off the ignition and rolled it up a kerb. It would't start after that and the engine struggled to turn over. I left it, admitted defeat and called the AA.

It took them an hour to arrive and by which point the engine would start when he prompted me to give it a quick try. It ticked over, but I didn't want to risk it. Diagnosis? Frozen engine and oil forced through the turbo due to a build up of whatever **** couldn't escape my crankcase. Yes, it's my own fault, I know that. I should have checked my coolant. I did, in a sense. It looked pink to me. Really pink in fact, but, it didn't matter, the concentration was rubbish and was totally wrong. The frozen engine was news to me and the AA chap said more damage could have occurred if I hadn't been so lucky.

My dad and I spent the next two days with the car in his garage defrosting with a heater. We drained the entire system, did a nice 50/50 mix and ran it for about 45 minutes to pull it all through. I drove it home, nothing went wrong, everything was fine.

Story over? No, not quite. Every single time the car is left overnight, or for a long period, i.e. 8-9 hours, it gives me a nice puff of blue smoke on startup. What's more is it struggles to fire up whenever it's cold (glow-plugs I'm guessing, I hope anyway!). I've ran some Forté Seal Conditioner and Oil Fortifier through it and I'm now 200 miles further than when I put it in. Difference? Not much, although it started flawlessly the other day, mid morning, after being left for about 12 hours overnight. No smoke, no struggle. This morning was different however. It didn't struggle, but it did smoke. It isn't using oil either, so it can't be the oil stem seals surely? I've learnt my lesson and I'm checking it daily, every morning, before I start the car and on flat ground. It doesn't appear to have used ANY oil at all and that's since christmas eve. I'm going to try an engine flush in case the pressure in the crankcase was so high that it forced a load through into the combustion chamber. I don't know. We'll see.

I've learnt my lesson from this. Don't be complacent; simple as that. Do your checks. If you do a mod, be aware of the risks (which I'd seen people had the mod in as low as -10c before, albeit perhaps for not such a long time as we have had this winter).

If anyone has any advice I'd massively appreciate it. I haven't the money at the moment to have the engine apart for what may well be residual oil that had built up somewhere.

If you read it all, thanks. I've needed to vent this somewhere and where else better than where someone could find this helpful and potentially help prevent problems for other people.

-

John

[ste372]

can you smell burning oil when you drive along?

your puff of blue smoke might be the oil left in the exhaust system due to it being forced through the turbo

just a thought

depending on access underneath the car if you can split the exhaust where the cat and middle section met see if any oil comes out of the exhaust???

Edited 11 January, 2011 by ste372

[mark.r.cullen]

I might have to remove mine at the weekend and give it a quick check over after reading this.

I'm quite surprised there was anything in there to freeze the pipe internally in the first place though?!

Hopefully it's not caused any permanent damage!

[john-w]

Ste,

No, no smell of oil at all. Even at idle I can stick my face to the exhaust and not smell anything out of the ordinary.. I don't do that too often though, don't worry! I have a couple of axle stands so I'll look into your suggestion, thanks for that!

Mark,

From my understanding it was just oil vapour that would come through the pipe, so unless condensation had built up in the pipe somehow and mixed with the oil then I have no idea.

[mark.r.cullen]

Indeed. I thought it was just oil vapours. Perhaps the end of the pipe got clogged with snow or something?

Is the smoke now white in colour then? If so that may just be water vapours / steam and nothing to worry about, and the blue smoke after the event may have just been oil that had been pushed through the exhaust as Ste said Mine has been puffing out a fair amount of white smoke in the morning for a few minutes recently. It's also been a bit harder to start during this weather if that helps put your mind at rest at all!

Edited 11 January, 2011 by mark.r.cullen

[Guest BigJase88]

my golf tdi same engine always starts with a puff of smoke when first turned over in the cold....

so the problem was frozen coolant? or the elephant mod?

or just a combination?

[john-w]

my golf tdi same engine always starts with a puff of smoke when first turned over in the cold....

so the problem was frozen coolant? or the elephant mod?

or just a combination?

Is it a puff of blue smoke, or white smoke though? The frozen engine was something else that went wrong.. The elephant mod was a definite cause of this whole escapade with the oil!

[matt_tdv6]

What diameter was the pipe you used for the elephant mod? I cant see why a pipe of oil vapour froze up solid

Plenty of people on here have done the mod and not heard of any other problems and we've all had cold weather

Edited 11 January, 2011 by matt_tdv6

[john-w]

What diameter was the pipe you used for the elephant mod? I cant see why a pipe of oil vapour froze up solid

Plenty of people on here have done the mod and not heard of any other problems and we've all had cold weather

I believe it was this stuff - Not exactly that one, but the same "type" of pipe. It wasn't too small or too large. I was careful to make sure of that. It was the same diameter as the pipe that came off the crankcase. I still have the small piece I used temporarily in the car if you want me to get the exact details of the stuff, but it'll have to be tomorrow.

I appreciate we've all had cold weather, but from the people I've seen using washing machine waste pipes I'm pretty confident that my pipe was far more insulated than that stuff!

[devonutopia]

My elephant hose pipe never froze up. I think the internal diameter of the pipe I am using is around 15mm. Definitely a very chunky pipe for sure.

[Guest BigJase88]

Is it a puff of blue smoke, or white smoke though? The frozen engine was something else that went wrong.. The elephant mod was a definite cause of this whole escapade with the oil!

couldn't tell you, i think it had a hint of blue in it :wonder:

[john-w]

My elephant hose pipe never froze up. I think the internal diameter of the pipe I am using is around 15mm. Definitely a very chunky pipe for sure.

Just checked mine as I'm sure it was bigger, and it is in fact 19mm - 3/4"

Not sure if it was "too" big in this instance then but the pipe fit over the breather pipe and I only needed a cable tie to hold it in place.

[Craig Lovelock]

**** happens eh. We learn from our mistakes... (be it misfortune!)

Moral is... use a catch tank

[matt_tdv6]

Moral is... use a catch tank

Why would a catch tank of solved his problem? Lorrys & Tractors have always had there breather pointing to the ground and ive seen then breathing heavier through there than the exhaust when dragged down on a PTO dyno

I think this had more to do with the coolant freezing

[MoggyTech]

The end of the elephant hose should be cut at a 45 degree angle to prevent possible freezing of the hose. Position the end so it's on top of the steering rack (which gets quite warm) and close to the exhaust as well.