29 minutes ago, gidi19 said:

Quick update.

Managed to take glow plug 1,2 and 4 off without any issue.

Glow plug 3 however is just spinning round and round. Im guessing its snapped. I was very careful and spray lots of wd40.

Im going to pour the b12 in the 3 plug holes.

Let it do its job and hope that glow plug 3 doesn't cause a major issue once its all back together again.

I have checked on the oils you listed, and it seems that they are all synthetic, and it will smoke if it gets enough of it into the combustion chamber, which however if it gets enough oil in there, could potentially lead to a runaway engine and self-destruction.

Did you get your car new or 2nd hand, as information I have discovered suggests that if an engine had previously been using mineral oils, and then someone decides to use synthetics, because the synthetics actually clean away carbon and varnish deposits that normal oil leave behind, it will cause increased consumption as the new oil will access areas where it previously couldn't.

It will however, still make smoke if enough is being burnt at a time it seems, I'll continue to search for answers.

Why Smoke is Emitted After an Oil Change

19 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

I have checked on the oils you listed, and it seems that they are all synthetic, and it will smoke if it gets enough of it into the combustion chamber, which however if it gets enough oil in there, could potentially lead to a runaway engine and self-destruction.

Did you get your car new or 2nd hand, as information I have discovered suggests that if an engine had previously been using mineral oils, and then someone decides to use synthetics, because the synthetics actually clean away carbon and varnish deposits that normal oil leave behind, it will cause increased consumption as the new oil will access areas where it previously couldn't.

It will however, still make smoke if enough is being burnt at a time it seems, I'll continue to search for answers.

Why Smoke is Emitted After an Oil Change

Car was bought second hand.

Ive owned it for a year now.

It drives completely fine, but just the loss of oil.

I gave it a full service including the gear box oil.

1 hour ago, gidi19 said:

Car was bought second hand.

Ive owned it for a year now.

It drives completely fine, but just the loss of oil.

I gave it a full service including the gear box oil.

Much the same as mine, this is the second year of owning mine and the loss of oil is a fresh thing with it, and I'm hoping that is a relatively easy fix, like a new turbo etc, something that can be done in a day.

Can anyone confirm if im doing the piston soak correctly. All the videos on the web all relate to a petrol engine.

Ive poured the b12 into the glowplug chamber,let it soak overnight, tried to suck anything out by putting a plastic tube into the glowplug chamber and a hoover attachment. There was suction but nothing came out.

Cranked the engine couple of times after removing the wheel and arch liner.

Poured some more b12 in, bottle emptied and will let it soak till tmrw.

The next step is to turn the engine on and let all the gunk fly out. This part is scaring me a little. Can someone confirm if this is right?

Can't see why there should be any real difference personally, I must admit however when I looked at the videos I was wondering the same, but when you think about it, all your doing is freeing up any stuck oil rings, and the carbon deposits will be there regardless of the type of fuel and the glow plug is located in the combustion chamber, just like the spark plug is, so what is the difference?

Edited 16 May, 20251 yr by Graham Butcher

@gidi19 Suck the remaining liquid before and put an old towel over the plug holes before turning the engine.

Then you crank the engine several times, put plugs back and try to start the engine.

It won’t be easy to turn it on initially. For me it took 5-10 minutes. You try for 5 seconds and then let the starter cooldown for 10-20 seconds.

Once started, there will be smoke. Drive it easily until it cleans out 1-2 kms and then change the oil.

43 minutes ago, fr1nklyn said:

@gidi19 Suck the remaining liquid before and put an old towel over the plug holes before turning the engine.

Then you crank the engine several times, put plugs back and try to start the engine.

It won’t be easy to turn it on initially. For me it took 5-10 minutes. You try for 5 seconds and then let the starter cooldown for 10-20 seconds.

Once started, there will be smoke. Drive it easily until it cleans out 1-2 kms and then change the oil.

How did you suck the liquid out?

Did u put any oil in the chamber before trying to crank it?

Thx

9 hours ago, gidi19 said:

How did you suck the liquid out?

Did u put any oil in the chamber before trying to crank it?

Thx

I used oil pump extractor but this is what I have. You can also use turkey baster or similar tool, whatever you have. You can't suck everything as some of it goes down the pistons which is the purpose of it.

No, you don't add any oil in the chamber.

The injector cleaner you put in the spark plug holes will contaminate the engine oil. This is why you have to change the oil soon after the procedure.

The insulting moment on the petrol engine was starting the engine after the procedure. Some more deposits and debris were softened after I put the spark plugs and tried to start the engine. Which ended up on staining the electrodes and the car couldn't start.

I had to remove the plugs and torch the electrodes to burn the soot a little. Then I was able to start the engine after several attempts.

Finally I changed the oil and put new spark plugs.

But this shouldn't be an issue on a diesel since it ignites the fuel through compression and glow plugs are mainly used for preheating the combustion chambers.

Quick update.

Piston soak has not made much of a difference.

Car has done currently 400 miles and oil dipstick is below half mark.

I had it filled to the top.

Im going to keep driving it till the oil low sign comes on.

Any update with the turbo check?

Car drives completely fine. Managed to hit 110 with no issues, just to try clear any thing out

27 minutes ago, gidi19 said:

Quick update.

Piston soak has not made much of a difference.

Car has done currently 400 miles and oil dipstick is below half mark.

I had it filled to the top.

Im going to keep driving it till the oil low sign comes on.

Any update with the turbo check?

Car drives completely fine. Managed to hit 110 with no issues, just to try clear any thing out

Nope, turned out that all they did and are willing to do, and did was to just plug in their proper VW group diagnostic kit and scan for any fault codes and do a thorough visual check for any oil leaks, and none were found. The DPF was not reporting that needed cleaning or replacing. When I picked the car up that they told me they found no error codes at on the engine, only codes were for the electric seat adjustments memory, the virtual pedal for the boot opening and a bad air quality sensor ☹️, all of which I already knew from using my VCDS. They told me that if my information was correct, then it was out of spec as there is technical bulletin for my engine to say that its normal for my engine to be using about .5 litre every 600 miles. For that they charged me £90.

They claimed that to any more precise would mean costly stripping down the engine to examine the cylinders and rings, and valve guides and the turbo, or supply and fit a new engine would be around the £14,000 mark. Claiming it is not possible to do a rebore, or fit new cylinder liners to VW engines.??

So what ever happened to the old method of doing compression tests on each cylinder, and if any were low, squirting a drop of oil into the cylinder to see if the low reading was due to worn rings or not?

Like yours, my car seems to run just fine, engine has rock steady temperature and never seems to shift from the 90 degree mark on the gauge and pulls like a steam train, never drops any speed on inclines and keeps up with traffic just fine and will if I want to overtake anything, do it with ease.

So I'll just keep an eye on it for now

Shame to hear that. Doesn't seem like mechanics want to do any problem solving anymore. Just a good old, replace the whole engine.

Oil light came on again after heading back from the inlaws on a 110 mile journey

Stopped at a service station and noticed some new oil marks on the oil pcv valve, I made sure I wiped it clean before I set off and intentionally did not top up the oil. So im going to maybe investigate the pcv valve a little further.

Will take a pic and post later