The wifes car (fabia 1.6tdi cayc) has recently started giving off blue smoke after 3-5 mins of running from a cold start until the engine is warm. After the engine warms up there is no smoke, checked the dipstick and the oil level hasn't dropped dramatically.

There is some smoke on idle but mainly when accelerating but like I say nothing when the engine is warm. Millage is 130000+

Am I right in thinking the could be valve stem seals and is it expensive?

Edited 9 March9 Mar by ian89
Update symptoms

Do you not think liked to the issue you posted about in December on the DPF and Oil Pressure light. What have you done since then to the car?

Its had oil & filter changed and the oil pump checked, which was found to be working. Its been driven fine since the start of January. Thanks for the reply 😊

Edited 9 March9 Mar by ian89
Predictive text error

Did the car get the VW Fix and is running that Engine Management and the flow device in the air intake?

No idea, we bought it second hand about 3 years ago. I did have a friend of a friend at skoda check for outstanding recalls and it didn't have any

If no Recall outstanding when you check the MOT Website or the Skoda Recall site then likely the FIX was done. But not Always. Then it could have been rolled back & flow device removed. Worth looking at the Intake before the Air Filter box and see if their MAGIC device is fitted.

Maybe a scan to check if heater plugs are working. My old octavia used to smoke a little after start up as two of the heater plugs had failed. Still started no bother but was a bit lumpy for about 10secs when really cold weather.

Alasdair

I started thinking glow plugs after doing a bit searching around on here, but I always thought blue smoke = burning oil/oil getting into combustion chamber 🤷‍♂️.

I have the car booked into the garage on Friday but nothing comes to their mind either, I will mention the glow plugs to them but I will leave them to the garage (previous bad experience with a stubborn Mondeo 😅)

Failed glow plugs can cause light blue white smoke especially when starting from cold due to small amount of diesel not being burnt properly. Once warm should burn diesel completely as no need for glowplugs. Hopefully a simple fix. Could also be failing turbo seals. My old volvo smoked when at idle for any length of time and cleared itself when revs increased

Alasdair

*Just an update, still not solved*

Typical Friday 13th, took the little Fabia into the garage today and I followed the wife down, low & behold... no smoke. Garage said they would still investigate but they couldn't find anything other than a strong diesel smell. So I asked them to change the glowplugs anyway and... cylinder 4 got stuck so cars in for another week or 2 while they sort that out.

Thats typical. If it still does it after you get it back maybe a tank of supreme diesel and some decent injector cleaner will help. As there is a strong smell of diesel could be a dirty/bad pattern injector or maybe multiple failed dpf regens. Saw a post on here that oil level became very high and caused runaway due to it being diluted with diesel. They had been doing very short runs and dpf never fully regenerated. Get garage to check engine oil if they can.

Alasdair

Edited 14 March14 Mar by Alasdair1

Update the wife had done about 400 miles of driving since getting the car back and today she got a solid glow plug light and the car started running very rough. When I got in, I plugged vagcom in and got code P0203. So it looks like the blue smoke may have been a failing injector.