Hi Guys,

Was driving in our capital's traffic last week. when it opened, i accelerated hard in second gear and noticed smoke out of the back. I slowed down and accelerated hard again in second gear but this time no smoke.

This happen again on a different day after driving slowly for a while and then accelerating hard.

Is this the turbo seals dying or something else?

Are you sure it wasn't steam? I find, in this weather I get steam after sitting in traffic (when the exhaust isn't all that hot), once I get going and the exhaust gets hot, it stops.

what colour was the smoke?

blue, black, grey?

It is blue smoke

oil in turbo..

could be the seals have gone hard.

do you have a standard exhaust?

Yes I have the standard exhaust

Yes I have the standard exhaust

Sounds like you may require a new turbo :(

let the car idle for a bit and then blip the throttle.

if it smokes blue, then turbo is likely to require a rebuild.

Im slowly learning about this. Having just blown the Turbo on our Diesel & Ive come across a few horror stories.

Not sure what your car is but......

On a diesel if enough oil is going into the engine it will act as a fuel, on ours the revs started to hang when changing gear. If this gets worse the engine can actually destroy itself, the engine will rev up & self destruct. Jabba recently had one that did just that, aparently the car just sped up & couldnt be stalled so the driver could only declutch to avoid having an accident, it then revved up & went pop in fine style, bend rods & a hole in the block !

Ive also been told a massive amount of oil can hydraulic the Engine with similar results. If your cars a diesel I suggest you drive it carefully ! Im only guessing that the hydralicing problem could also be a problem on a petrol car

If your cars a Mk1 Octy I have a KO3 off of my 4x4 sitting in the garage which is the same as the RS, It had done about 50,000 before Jabba fitted a "slightly bigger one" ;) PM me if you are interested

Blue smoke is strongly indicitive of an oil problem.

I'd not like to speculate as to whether it's the turbo, valve stem seals or blow by from the info available.

Blue smoke is strongly indicitive of an oil problem.

I'd not like to speculate as to whether it's the turbo, valve stem seals or blow by from the info available.

Hard Stem seals where an issue back in the day but not so much now. very rarely see any modern car emitting blue smoke.

Blow by would be a pistons / rings issue - again i'd say unlikely unless his car has covered alot of miles.

Hard Stem seals where an issue back in the day but not so much now. very rarely see any modern car emitting blue smoke.

Blow by would be a pistons / rings issue - again i'd say unlikely unless his car has covered alot of miles.

All true, but I've not seen any of them happen on a car that was well maintained or very high mileage, except the seals.

I didn't mean the sort of wear that really affects the performance; just the sort that causes off-on throttle smoke with the sharp increase in manifold depression.

it is unusual, as i've had rover's with original turbo's that have covered over 120k miles and not smoked..

I've seen cars manage twice that mileage without anything smoking (ok diesels but still), and know people who've claimed over 500_000 miles on original engine and turbo.

OTOH I've seen turbo seals go like a "James Bond" smokescreen at as little as 50_000 (twice).

Thanks for the info. will get it check out shortly

let us know how you get on:)