Light blue Smoke

[charlie]

When i dont drive my car for a couple of days, Their is a bit of smoke that
Comes out of the back but clears after a quick blast. But their always seems
to be a slight smell of oil smoke coming from exhaust. I had the turbo re-built
by AET less than 6 months ago and also the head off. Its surposed to have new headgasket, Exhaust manifold gasket,Headbolts,rocker cover gasket and stem seals as i supplied all this items new to person doing the work. Their is also smell of smoke from engine bay after hard run.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Ive tried to ignore the problem
but its time to get it sorted. Any details of a reputable garage/person would
be greatly valued.

[S2central.net]

Who did the work - yourself, a dealer or specialist ?
If something is clearly wrong then the garage should be able to fix it, or at least examine the new turbo to see if its failure will be covered by warranty.

Is it DeCATT'd by any chance ?

[charlie]

I would like to believe that the person who done the work was
Honest.Unable to contact person whocarried out the work. Ive used AET three times Quite happy the first two occasions which had a one week turnover. Third time took six weeks. Could it be the turbo or valve guides. Its only done 101k. cats r still present but has a cat-back milltek system and is MTM tuned.
Any suggestions???

[Martynf]

Hi Charlie,

Apart from your car is fooked and I'll give you a fiver for it maybe its some thing way more simple like rocker cover gasket leaking and dripping onto the exhaust manifold? start the engine, it burns off, dunno... but look at the simple bits first. I'll do the work for you if you want?? I charge £85+vat per hour and I don't have a loan car for the next 16 weeks.

oooo er...., main dealer flash back there!!! sorry Charlie!!!

[charlie]

Hello Martynf,
I think you can guess who last worked on my car.
When i picked up vehicle i noticed alot of oil in engine especially around
Rocker-cover which i questioned but gave them benefit of the doubt. Took some time to clean most of it off but i suspect the two half moons on the back of the rocker-cover. Apart from that car runs perfectly .
BTW yesterday blow away new o4 scooby. Another notch on the wing.

[A6 AVANT]

Maybe the forum should source some tiny stickers in the shape of different cars with crosses through them i.e. scooby,saxo,clio V6 (that one is for Dougs!!!! ), ferrari (doug again!), McLaren F1 (Doug), Tractor (Tom) etc.!!! Stick 'em in the rear side window!!

[jubjub]

Come on Martyn,stop taking the P - Charlie I'll give you a tenner for it I 'spose it could be something that simple, mine was smoking big time a few weeks ago it was leaking hydraulic fluid, was dripping down and burning of everything I was sitting in trafic and could see smoke coming from under the bonnet; i pulled in to the Fick-Twit i was out side and got it onto the ramp.It was leaking from the O-ring on the PS pump.I had the same issue with my RC gasket as well. Mine was leaking a lot from the front and burning on the engine. A new gasket cured the problem but i have noticed a slight ,slight seep from it again I made sure i torqued it down to only teh recommended 10NM as well

[charlie]

What about smoke from exhaust at start up after a couple of days. When i was changing my samco hoses i noticed oil from turbo to IC pipe. ccccccccould it be turbo.???

[SteveH]

Sounds like a poor job if there was oil around the head after the job was done It could be one or more of your valve stem oil seals. If they're not seated properly or damaged they will leak. I'd get it looked at by the guy who worked on it. That is, if you trust them to do any more work on the car.

[jubjub]

I had a little oil on the inside of the pipes. My turbo has also been rebuilt(Turbo Dynamics) but i would have thought most of that would be the oil leaking from before the turbo was rebuilt,no I dont think i get any smoke when it is started when left, but then i have not left it parked up for any amount of days.I had my valve stems done and get no smoke from start up or at idle....It feels good putting a scoob in its place

[Martynf]

Ok, ok... a score it is ;-)

Good point about smoke out the exhaust though..... oil from the trubo to ic is quite normal Charlie, providing its only a small amount. That is normal. Take your intercooler off and tip it up.. see what comes out!!

How much oil is the car using?

[Doug_RS2]

Maybe the forum should source some tiny stickers in the shape of different cars with crosses through them i.e. scooby,saxo,clio V6 (that one is for Dougs!!!! ), ferrari (doug again!), McLaren F1 (Doug), Tractor (Tom) etc.!!! Stick 'em in the rear side window!!

You forgot the motorbikes - i like passing them now

[charlie]

Most tuning companies say if its abit of smoke dont worry about it.
Would adding additives like Slick 50 contribute to this???
I do very little miles in my car, just heart breaking when you get your
shiny polished motor out of the garage start it up on a nice day and see a bit of smoke.
Any more suggestions gents???

[Mark Halligan]

Charlie,

sounds like stem seals to me if it happens after a few days without using it. If it was happening while hot I'd say its the turbo, but the design of the lubrication system holds oil in the head when the engine is switched off, this may be leaking through your the stem seals on its days off and pooling on the piston crowns waiting to be burnt on start up?

Were the stem seals changed when the head was off???

I could be wrong........I know how you feel though, that blue smoke spoils the whole experience of firing up your motor, I've been there.

Cheers,

Mark.

[charlie]

Yes, i supplied new stem seals. I was there when head came off, but engine
was re-built in my abscent so i cannot confirm that the stem seals were
changed. its a worring thought...