blue smoke from cold

[jc_geddes]

Morning guys and girls

My 100ps PD passat has started to emit a visable cloud of blueish smoke, when I idle the car from cold and then drive it away. Th smokle is not present when the car idles, just when there is some boost - this generaly only happen the once and as soon as there is some heat in the system there is not at all - the oil level is not going down by a visable amount.

I am thinking that the Turbo oil seals are on there way out - would this be a fair assesment?

Cheers
John

[cazyp]

Could be, but....
What is your mileage? How often is oil changed? What oil do you use? Have you checked all the vacuum pipes for leaks as this will also cause some smoking? Checked the breather for blockage? Are there any other driving issues? Are you 100% sure it's oil and not fuel smoke? I would always expect a bit of smoke from a diesel anyhow.. HTH.

[jc_geddes]

The vehicle has 60K on the clock. The oil in it is the correct PD oil (althought the garage that did the belt, also did the service)
I have only owned the vehicle for a short while, but I would intend to change the oil every 5K ish (I have always done this with all my vehicles)

I do know about vaccum leaks but I would assume that they would cause a fault code somewhere - I am not getting any, and there are no other driving issues.

The smoke is produced is a bluish white, the long it idles when stone cold the larger the cloud - if I don't idle it then I don't get a cloud.

[martin1810]

If the smoke was due to turbo oil seals you wouldn't need to ask..... too much smoke. So I don't think you have a turbo problem. Whats the fuel consumption like. Could be a faulty temperature sensor or even a faulty glowplug.

[jc_geddes]

I have replaced the temperature sensor and the fault code which was shown every now and again, has not reappeared, in around a thousdand miles.

The fuel consumption is good in my view - on a motorway run sitting at 80 it returns between 52-55 MPG.

Faulty glow plug?? would this be shown via a fault code or via vag com?

The strange thing I have found is that the "smoke" is stored until there is some engine speed ie air flow through the engine.

[martin1810]

I wonder if it is oil in the intercooler and pipes. Might be worth testing the glowplugs just incase the smoke is unburnt diesel.

[jc_geddes]

When you say test the glow plugs how exactly? check the voltage and the current?

If it was a glow plug then would I not expect a lumpy idle quality? and a cylinder not firing?

How easy is it to remove the intercooler pipes? Also where does the oil come from that gets traped there?

[lukev6tdi]

hello iam glad you asked about that because my v6 tdi passat does that to it blows a huge cloud of blue smoke on cold startup but soon clears.

[martin1810]

Pull the big air pipes apart and have a look inside. A small amount of oil can look like alot of smoke. Ask a garage with a dc clamp meter to test the glow plugs. Take them about ten minutes. Lukev6tdi... Yours could be oil in the air pipes.

[lukev6tdi]

cheers martin i will certainly have that checked but if theres oil in the pipes what does that mean cheers again

[martin1810]

Small amounts of oil get into the pipes via the turbo seals, cam ventilation pipe, etc. This normally burns off but if a car does lots of cold starts or short journeys you might build up more. It could just be a little bit of oil being burnt from valve stems. If it doesn't use more than a litre of oil per 1000miles you can probably ignore it.

[ChillOut]

This sounds just like my problem - not fixed yet.

Watch this space - if the vac pipes ever get here, we will see if that cures it.

[lukev6tdi]

hello again the car has just had a major service done and it doesnt use oil but your right in what your saying i do alot of short journeys sometimes the car doesnt even warm up so i think thats me problem thanks again for the advice.

[ChillOut]

hello again the car has just had a major service done and it doesnt use oil but your right in what your saying i do alot of short journeys sometimes the car doesnt even warm up so i think thats me problem thanks again for the advice.

That's odd - mine just had a major service when my problem started.