2003 1.6 Beetle smoking from exhaust

[`Shack]

Hi All.
I' new to this forum... I was pointed into the direction from someone off another forum

My girlfriend has a 1.6L 2003 petrol that's done 66k miles. The car has started smoking quite heavily out of the exhaust when its got warm, and is left to idle (usually sat in traffic or parked up)

we took the car down to a garage where my car was being serviced/mot'd at the time. they had a look... and rev'd it and it threw out a load of black/grey (possibly blue-ish) smoke. so they automatically said it was piston rings and wanted to rip the eingine to pieces and replace them... I told them I wanted to take it somewhere else for a second opinion first.
so far I've been to another two garages and they've both had two different answers to offer me.

Garage 1 - (Very quick inspection)
said everything was fine when he first turned the car on, seemed to run fine. took it for a quick drive and again all seemed fine. then he left it running for abit outside his garage... and the smoke reared its head.
his answer was that he wasn't 100% sure as to why it was doing this... and that his only guess could be a possible cracked head gasket allowing oil through into the combustion chambers... he suggested we got another opinion because he wasn't confident.

Garage 2 - (more indepth)
His first ideas where blocked breather pipes possibly causing pressure imbalances and maybe throwing oil into the engine.
When he took the cover off the engine.. some nice person had duct taped the breather pipes together, so this needed sorting obviously. he said if the engine isn't breathing properly it could cause all sorts of strange things to occur.
once the new pipe where fitted there was no real change to the situation... he seemed stumped to why the car was doing this... he said it isn't showing the usual symptoms for piston rings so didn't want to dive into the engine to possibly no avail.
He did mention that the temperature indicator on the dash wasn't going off at all... even when the car is hot (fan running also).

He said take it to a VAG electrics specialist to see if they can check everything is talking to each other properly.. with the fan coming on and the light not turning off then something deffinately isn't right electrically. - so this could be causing other things to not be working properly.

my dad also had a quick look and seems pretty convinced the smoke smells more of fuel... and as if the car is running on choke (not a mechanic just had a lot of old cars haha)


so I guess the question is... has anyone else had/heard of these symptoms before? and know of any possible resolutions to the issue?
the summary ive got to so far is;

• possible head gasket crack
• bad piston rings
• bad thermostat/temp sensor - causing valves/relays/switches not to act properly
• car isn't showing error codes or warning lights
• MAF sensor malfunction?

just want other peoples opinions for next steps to take... obviously don't want to commit to ripping the engine to pieces if there are some easier options to try first.
I'm going to try take the car to a electrics specialist tomorrow to see if they can uncover anything.

any help would be greatly appreciated.
sorry for the long post
Danny

[Lukenkarl]

A scan will help, VCDS is what's needed.

[gianni67]

Hi Danny
Just found your post on search - have exactly the same issues with my 1.6 beetle with the smoke only on hot when stuck in traffic, temperature light staying illuminated even when the engine is h etc. My local specialist also suggested piston rings but again was not that confident. Did you manage to get to the bottom of the problem?

would be very grateful for any pointers

cheers
Gianni