Afternoon all,

 

The last few mornings I've noticed 15ish seconds of blue smoke from a cold start with slightly rough running, not just a little bit of smoke I was rather embarrassed as I watched a cloud of it go down the road yesterday :-( The rest of the day absolutely fine, no smoke on start up or heavy acceleration.  It doesn't appear to be using any oil.  Is this anything to worry about?

 

Many thanks

 

Dave

 

Oh 2010 Octavia PD140 engine.

Blue usually indicates oil being burnt. It only takes a tiny amount.

Usual suspects are valve guides and/or piston rings.

Should it be one of the above, then it maybe shows the engine is in the that state of (hopefully) long slow decline, rather than an acute fault.

Could be years, depends on use.

Is lie smoke not valve stem seals?

Thanks for the replys,

 

Are turbo seals also a possibility?  I'm gonna be miffed if it is mechanical failure, its only done 30k...!!

 

Many thanks

 

Dave

Lie smoke?

The valve stem seals seal the valve stems.

Whether only the seals have had it or its the stems/guides cannot be determined without stripping the lot down. Its all the same area and I guess cheaper to change the seals with out any attention to the valve guide and valve stem, for a shorter term fix.

Generally, as the stem and guide wear, they put more pressure on the seal because the valve can flop about, so the seal starts to get worn more quickly.

Its likely it will carry on for a while yet until you feel the smoke gets too much.

Maybe a s/h head, if one comes up?

My PD140 used to do this very occasionally over a number of years. Only recently did I discover that the tandem pump had failed and was slowly leaking engine oil into the fuel. I had the tandem pump replaced in August, ran some fuel system cleaner in a couple of tanks of diesel to flush through the residual oil, and since then I've not noticed any smoke at all so hopefully that was the cause.

Failing injector seals can cause this problem on PDs too as they can allow the oil and fuel to mix in the head.

Thanks guys,

 

Hmmm really annoyingly, the last 2 mornings there's not been any smoke...!!! Grrrr intermittent issues!!!

Check the oil level in the sump.  Could be a simple overfill.