Lots Of Smoke!, Smoking on acceleration

[puffthemagicdragon]

The 2l turbo exclusive has a problem: yesterday I noticed a loss of power on hard acceleration and lots and lots of smoke. Smoke stops when going back to steady running.

I'm guessing either a turbo problem or worn valve guides. When I bought her a couple of months ago the documented mileage was only 45K, though the speedo showed a problem soon after. Possibly this had been a long-run issue, so maybe the real mileage is 145K! Otherwise it doesn't seem likely the engine could be worn.

Any thoughts on a diagnosis and solution would be very welcome please.

Cheers

Clive

[xmexclusive]

Hi Clive

The colour of the smoke might be helpful to our petrol experts in giving you a diagnoses. On the other issue of mileage error it is not that easy to clock up a dramatically greater mileage than the cars recorded history unless just the mileometer fails. Then you will have the same mileage on sucessive MOT's. If the speedo has been swapped for a lower mileage one then the MOT's will show a sudden mileage drop one year.

Regards

XMexc

[puffthemagicdragon]

Hi

Well it looked predominately white, and being only apparent whilst hard accelerating I'm thinking busted turbo.

Your thought on the speedo is reassuring: there are lots of service records with a consistent mileage. It could have been "missing" miles for quite some time, but even so it would be bad luck in the extreme to be far removed from the 45K shown.

Cheers

Clive

[puffthemagicdragon]

Sorry, when I said "white" smoke we are talking burning oil colour.

Clive

[DrTim]

I had lots of smoke when I put the wrong oil in my S1 (10W 40 instead of 15W40).

Valve stem oil seals were diagnosed, oil change and some seal conditioner did cure it,
no more white smoke except when starting from very cold since, even with suspect head gasket. Then again that was at about 145k not 45 k.

I thought the cat ate smoke once warmed up? Then again Im a dabbler not a pro with cars.

[mouseflakes]

I have to say your suggestion that the turbo is to blame seems most likely to me. Would also explain the loss of power. I believe valve stem seals show themselves up more on starting and when pulling away after a period of idling, since oil has time to dribble down the stems past the worn seal - certainly was the case on my old Toyota Crown.

[noz]

Hi puff,

Turbo gets my vote from your description. Try putting a Tee piece in the map sensor tube and connect to a small pressure gauge. You can tuck the pressure gauge under your wiper and take it for a spin so that you can see it whilst driving. You're looking for 12-16psi or 0.8-1.2 bar. Not sure of the exact spec for your car but you're not looking for a slight drop you're looking for a significant failure.

cheers

noz

[puffthemagicdragon]

Bizarrely she hasn't done it again the last couple of times we've been out, though I haven't had occasion to floor it either.

Now consigned to the local garage for second opinion

[Little&Large]

Hi DrTim
What was the seal conditioner you used please?
Many thanks
Rob

[DrTim]

Little&Large, I checked the receipt and it says Forte (the e has a little french forward slash over it , I hope you know what I mean, I can't remember the real name for it)
seal conditioner. They also used Forte engine flush on that visit.

Hope this helps.

[puffthemagicdragon]

A happy ending for those who might experience similar problems: the smoke cleared and since she's had a full service.Apparently the air filter was well past it's sell-by date and this was thought to be the most likely culprit. Unusual for me; things like this are most often the most expensive of all possible permutations