Exhaust smoking and spitting oil

[eskimo]

Hi recently my 94 Golf driver 1.8 started losing power and going through a lot of petrol, I brought it to my mechanic and he noticed my thermostat was not working, he replaced this and it seemed to help but maybe that was more wishful thinking.petrol consumption isnt as bad but the car still shakes and smokes a lot when sarted.i put my hand up to the exhaust a noticed black specs on my hand,but when the temp gets up the smoke more or less goes but comes back when i accelerate,any help would be great as i love the car,and they are pretty rare.

[sticky]

i am no expert but i say that your engine is knackered the smoke and oil is probaly due to oil burning which means your piston rings are well worn this is more so when your engine is cold but everything expands once warm so a bit more of seal in the bores but once you put the pressure on as in accelerate all the weakness is shown by the cloud of smoke sorry to be the bearer of bad news no easy fix!!! do a compression check or ask your garage to this will show what is going on
like isaid no expert but heh worth a look

[Crasher]

I would say that due to the stuck open thermostat your engine was running very rich and consequently the lambda sensor in the exhaust has become contaminated with soot and will now need replacing. A fault code read would be a good idea.

[sticky]

crasher just a quick one not questioning your knowledge as i can see you are well known on this site and have plenty of knowledge
would the spark plugs not help with this diagnosis as in (wet and oily) worn rings or covered in hard black carbon (over rich) is both not worth checking???
regards sticky

[Crasher]

It could help him to diagnose the problem in the absence of a fault code reader and exhaust gas analyser and I would expect to see the plugs being dry and black. The black specs he is getting will be water mixed with soot due to over fuelling as if he was burning oil, the smoke would be blue.

[eskimo]

had a another look to day and the specs that come out are not really oily more water based,just a bit of extra info on the problem,first start in the morning shes very shakey on start up and kinda of rocks fowards.is the lambda sensor easy to fix.And the smoke is grey or white colour

thanks for your help.

[sticky]

crasher is right then and yes the lambda is easy to fix it is screwed into your exhaust mine is in front of the catalitic convertor under the car and has cable attached by a multi wiring plug just disconnect you may have clearance issues as in removing and may have to loosen the exhaust at front end to remove be careful with the new one when fitting as to not stuff up the end or cover in dirt as it is sensitive
quite an easy fix you learn every day eh!!!!

[eskimo]

thanks sticky,i'll give that a go,do you reckon that will sort out the shakey starts in the morning.

[sticky]

more than like likely as your engine wil be getting the right imformation about the amount of fuel and air it needs i would also change the plugs as they are probably very grotty and this will help with fuel consumption
like i said there are far more qualified people on this site i am just a bit of a tinkerer and know a few basics
regards sticky
hope this helps

[eskimo]

Thanks Sticky appreciate the the help,i'll let you know how i get on.

[GazBrad]

I know this is an old thread and probably been solved but my L reg 1.8 Driver suffered like this for a while. It was on the back of a major service where the cylinder head gasket had do be replaced due to a leak.

It was stuttering and jerking when cold and blowing all sorts of black smoke under acceleration. Things improved somewhat when the engine was hot but I tried all sorts of remedies with no success.

I eventually took it into a different garage to the one that did the original service and after a long time looking at everything discovered the lambda terminal contacts had been put on the wrong way round. Once swapped the engine ran like a dream and has continued to do to this day. It's now on 157,000 miles and doesn't use any oil or water. Amazing.

Mind you I've replaced pretty much everything else since I've had it! :-)