Hi all,

Instead of reviving old posts I thought I'd start my own.

Car smokes after it has been stopped at lights for around a minute, not all the time but most of the time and always at the first set of lights of the day. It doesn't smoke straight away after start up.

It's not plumes of smoke but it is very dense white-blue smoke and it stinks of burnt oil, it only lasts until I change into second when pulling away. there is none when driving hard/accelerating and as far as I can see it is worse when the engine is cold.

I am running the car with Castrol edge 0w-30 which is probably a little thin but it also did it on Magnatec 5W-30 just before I changed oil. It really doesn't use much oil at all. I bought 5 litres for last change just over 2000 miles ago and I have kept it to the mark and there is still a dribble in the bottle...so less than half a litre in 2000 miles of mostly town driving.

The car is running a decat 3'' downpipe, CAI, Forge TIP and a custom remap.

PCV- I have replaced some of the breather pipes with Hosing as I was going to fit an OCC and the pipe going to the 'y' was cracked. The hosing is slightly larger and more free flowing than the stock pipe would have been. The inside of the pipes were pretty gunged up putting crap into the TIP. Any way I can rule this out as the cause of the smoking?

Turbo- Original turbo and the car is on 112k miles, I have no reason to believe there is anything wrong with it and as I said it doesn't smoke when being driven, just after sitting idling.

Head - Timing belt done at 100k miles plugs changed about 2000 miles ago. The plugs were old looking but didn't look oily, if anything they were a little brown but not much at all. What causes Valve stem seals to wear?

I don't think it has anything to do with piston rings, the car has good power and on the factory map made 181.7bhp on dynodynamics RR with hardware mods only.

If it does turn out to be valve stem seals is it a big job? I've heard big variations on difficulty and cost. Also, what harm is it doing apart from wasting a little oil and maybe not passing an emissions test?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Michael

i only run 5w 40 quantum at 141000 miles its spot on the work shop lads in the dealers said the 5w30 too thin if mileage is up been on 5w 40 for 4 years of its 9 year life now

try the oil mine uses none at all but i service every 4500-5000 miles :p

I might try that actually! It's still golden, be such a shame to change out Castrol edge after 2k miles! ha!

Was it smoking before you changed the oil, if it was OK then I would go with changing the oil. Make sure you only use the correct VW approved oil grade.

Both oils were VW 'approved' it was smokey on the 5w 30 too maybe not as much though.

That oil consumption isnt right, I dont seem to use any in between 6000 mile yearly services.

Its being burnt somehow...turbo seals?

I run mine on castrol 5w30 and never had an issue,

When you say replaced breather pipes does it still have that little round box thing on intake pipe to turbo as dont they restrict flow slightly so it doesnt suck oil into the intake

The oil consumption is very slight. as in it wouldn't really be noticeable if there was no blue smoke to attract your attention to it.. I'm assuming the short runs and rarely getting up to temperature would use oil in any car?? it's been used every day for 4 months so I would change it in 2 months regardless of mileage anyway and at that amount of loss it would be less than 3/4 of a litre which I didn't think was too bad?

Yeah, the hockey puck shaped thing on the TIP is still there and PCV is still there, just the pipework between that's changed (exact same configuration as standard). I don't know if PCV is working properly?? When does it open/close?

Thats a lot of oil. It has to be burning it, hence the blue smoke.

Yeah, it's definitely oil smoke, not steam or petrol.

Hi all,

Instead of reviving old posts I thought I'd start my own.

Car smokes after it has been stopped at lights for around a minute, not all the time but most of the time and always at the first set of lights of the day. It doesn't smoke straight away after start up.

It's not plumes of smoke but it is very dense white-blue smoke and it stinks of burnt oil, it only lasts until I change into second when pulling away. there is none when driving hard/accelerating and as far as I can see it is worse when the engine is cold.

I am running the car with Castrol edge 0w-30 which is probably a little thin but it also did it on Magnatec 5W-30 just before I changed oil. It really doesn't use much oil at all. I bought 5 litres for last change just over 2000 miles ago and I have kept it to the mark and there is still a dribble in the bottle...so less than half a litre in 2000 miles of mostly town driving.

The car is running a decat 3'' downpipe, CAI, Forge TIP and a custom remap.

PCV- I have replaced some of the breather pipes with Hosing as I was going to fit an OCC and the pipe going to the 'y' was cracked. The hosing is slightly larger and more free flowing than the stock pipe would have been. The inside of the pipes were pretty gunged up putting crap into the TIP. Any way I can rule this out as the cause of the smoking?

Turbo- Original turbo and the car is on 112k miles, I have no reason to believe there is anything wrong with it and as I said it doesn't smoke when being driven, just after sitting idling.

Head - Timing belt done at 100k miles plugs changed about 2000 miles ago. The plugs were old looking but didn't look oily, if anything they were a little brown but not much at all. What causes Valve stem seals to wear?

I don't think it has anything to do with piston rings, the car has good power and on the factory map made 181.7bhp on dynodynamics RR with hardware mods only.

If it does turn out to be valve stem seals is it a big job? I've heard big variations on difficulty and cost. Also, what harm is it doing apart from wasting a little oil and maybe not passing an emissions test?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Michael

sorry for a slow response, meant to reply to this earlier...Well vw specify that i think 1ltr of oil in 1000miles is within tollerance....but thats crazy, and no way should burning that much, however from what you say you are not (so thats good). Usual suspects could be turbo oil seals, piston rings, or valve stem seals. Stem seals wear, and the seals arent usually expensive in themselves, its the fact that unless you can remove the head yourself, and do the work, its a bit laborious. Ideally, remove it yourself, give it to a machine shop, get them to check the head and valves, then clean, then get the guides changed, stem seals replaced, 3 angle plus valve cut, and then imo ported and polished as you might as well as the head is off. Meant to say sometimes stem seals can be done in situ, this would be a lot cheaper than taking the head off. But i am old school, and think if there is a problem with the head, i want it all checked!

I'm told under the circumstances you mention thats a symptom of Valve stem seals.

Mine is loving oil lately, like a litre every 600 miles ...not good !!

Yet I never have any smoke only steam and it doesn't smell of burning oil either, so fark knows where mine is going !! I may try something a little thicker next time, currently running Synta Platinum 5/40

I'm told under the circumstances you mention thats a symptom of Valve stem seals.

Mine is loving oil lately, like a litre every 600 miles ...not good !!

Yet I never have any smoke only steam and it doesn't smell of burning oil either, so fark knows where mine is going !! I may try something a little thicker next time, currently running Synta Platinum 5/40

well david8, you are an android/cyborg, so perhaps you are drinking it??1ltr every 600 miles, is really not right at all!! can you not see any blue smoke at all? sue you dont have a leak?

Yeah, I saw the seals are very cheap alright. Am I right in thinking that my symptoms are that of worn valve stem seals?

I'm not likely to be able to get this done in the next few weeks but at the minute it's really not that bad as it looks like it's only in the early stages..

I'm not really familiar with machining shops, How much do they charge for an inspection like this?

Yeah, I saw the seals are very cheap alright. Am I right in thinking that my symptoms are that of worn valve stem seals?

I'm not likely to be able to get this done in the next few weeks but at the minute it's really not that bad as it looks like it's only in the early stages..

I'm not really familiar with machining shops, How much do they charge for an inspection like this?

its not gonna blow up the engine, so dont panic, I would go to a proper engine tuner, where they can do it all in house, if you cant take the head off yourself. They can check the car over, see if it is the stem seals, then do the work inhouse. If not you have to go to a mechanic, get them to diagnose it, then remove head, then send it off to who they use, or take it to a specialist of your choice.

just been out at the car now. Haven't driven it all day, started up and idled for 6 minutes, no smoke... revved it up, still no smoke, left to idle for a minute, revved it some more. still nothing. let it back to idle for 3 minutes and turned it off with no smoke at all..... :think:

Maybe it only likes doing it in traffic with with people looking at it and frowning. So it does seem that it may be intermittent.

@David, surely if it was burning that off you'd see smoke, getting into 2 stroke mix amounts there! Must be a leak somewhere.

I'm told under the circumstances you mention thats a symptom of Valve stem seals.

Mine is loving oil lately, like a litre every 600 miles ...not good !!

Yet I never have any smoke only steam and it doesn't smell of burning oil either, so fark knows where mine is going !! I may try something a little thicker next time, currently running Synta Platinum 5/40

Blimey! Get someone to follow and then observe the exhaust smoke?

Im using 0w40 Mobil 1

just been out at the car now. Haven't driven it all day, started up and idled for 6 minutes, no smoke... revved it up, still no smoke, left to idle for a minute, revved it some more. still nothing. let it back to idle for 3 minutes and turned it off with no smoke at all..... :think:

Maybe it only likes doing it in traffic with with people looking at it and frowning. So it does seem that it may be intermittent.

@David, surely if it was burning that off you'd see smoke, getting into 2 stroke mix amounts there! Must be a leak somewhere.

The engine needs to be hot?

Could be difficult enough to find someone with that kind of a setup in Ireland.

I am going to try change the oil to something a little thicker and possibly install an oil catch can to see if that improves it.

Pray for the little things first!

The engine needs to be hot?

That's the thing, where I notice it most is a set of lights that is out my drive and 2 speed bumps away ( 2 minutes driving) wait there for a minute or two for the lights to change and when I go to pull off I leave a cloud of dense blue smoke behind. Then it might not do it again all day.

That's the thing, where I notice it most is a set of lights that is out my drive and 2 speed bumps away ( 2 minutes driving) wait there for a minute or two for the lights to change and when I go to pull off I leave a cloud of dense blue smoke behind. Then it might not do it again all day.

i think its more than likely the seals not the piston rings, rings would smoke all the time, you can also test compression to check if its these, you should be able to eliminate the rings for sure then. However, if its stem seals, it should do it on startup...is it? if not it could be the turbo seals.

That's stem seals for sure. Oil has seeped through overnight and been burnt off when engine warms. Worn rings would smoke constantly.

i agree, i dont think its piston rings, but stem seal should show on startup? so still think it could be turbo oil seals.

Any chance of it being a blocked breather ??