# White smoke started to come out while idling??????



## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

In need of some incite I was out taking pics when all of a sudden my car started to billowing white smoke out the back while idling I turned it off and there was still a small amount smoke coming out the tail pipe turned it back on and took off with a large cloud of smoke coming out the back side it stopped smoking after a few meters it did have a strange smell when I got home 10 mins later i let the car idle again for awhile but there was no smoke any idea on what it could be? pic for reference


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## 1.8tguy94 (Mar 26, 2012)

how is the turbo? Generally when there is white smoke its a sign of a bad turbo or the seals in it...just watch the oil consumption and see what happens!


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

Its an apr k04 only 3 months (2k miles) old so I don't think its the problem. I pulled off the hokey puck and it has a lot of oil residue on a new tip. Could that be the problem? What would I replace to remedy this?


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## 1.8tguy94 (Mar 26, 2012)

hockey puck?


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

:sly:


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## DMVDUB (Jan 11, 2010)

Step 1: 

DROP THE MOTHERFUXING BASS!


It will fix the issue :wave:


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

DMVDUB said:


> Step 1:
> 
> DROP THE MOTHERFUXING BASS!
> 
> ...



That will fix my sound issue but what about the smoke?:beer:


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## sponcar (Feb 5, 2010)

I would suggest you to do a compression and leak down test first to avoid the possibility that engine needs some work done. Turbo can be guessed to be the one causing the smoke BUT you won't be 100% sure until you remove the turbo and piece it a part to check all the turbo components. I spent a few hundreds replacing parts that didnt need to be replaced trying to get rid of the smoke coming out of my tailpipe. I gave up and took it to a well known shop close to my town; they did a compression and leak down test so the issue was piston rings buddy. Work done and i upgraded some internals since engine was pieced a parts 

Anyways things you might want to check.
-Inspect your intercooler pipes for oil there.
-remove the spark plugs and check if there is oil burning there.
-open your oil cap while car is on and see if you get a blow by. (google it if you dont know what it is). Blow by could be fixed by replacing a pcv.

Good Luck.


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## hitop (Jan 25, 2012)

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


1.8tguy94 said:


> how is the turbo? Generally when there is white smoke its a sign of a bad turbo or the seals in it...just watch the oil consumption and see what happens!


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

I will check for blow by a soon as I fix the pvc line i broke it while inspecting it :banghead: also ended up pulling the TIP off the turbo while trying to get the hoses off it what a pita that it to get on by myself


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

I also found that I had 1/4q to much oil would that cause the smoke?


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## xxsur3shotxx (Sep 24, 2009)

hiplazma said:


> I also found that I had 1/4q to much oil would that cause the smoke?


yup, too much oil can cause smoking. What does the smoke smell like? Like oil, or like coolant?


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

it just smelled really bad not sweet like coolant but I dont know how synthetic oil smells when its 
burning


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## sponcar (Feb 5, 2010)

hiplazma said:


> I also found that I had 1/4q to much oil would that cause the smoke?


 Yes, It will burn the extra oil it has been put in then it should stop smoking. Hope that was your problem


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## omeletduefromage (Jan 13, 2011)

sounds like its coolant. white smoke is water, blue smoke is oil. your oil lever may be high from coolant mixing with the oil. i would pull the dipstick while the car is running or right after it has ran to check for bubbles in the oil. This means coolant. Or is the oil looks a muddy color, same problem. another way to check is to mark your current coolant level and see if you lose any. 

best of luck. water in places where it shouldnt be is never good.


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## xxsur3shotxx (Sep 24, 2009)

omeletduefromage said:


> sounds like its coolant. white smoke is water, blue smoke is oil. your oil lever may be high from coolant mixing with the oil. i would pull the dipstick while the car is running or right after it has ran to check for bubbles in the oil. This means coolant. Or is the oil looks a muddy color, same problem. another way to check is to mark your current coolant level and see if you lose any.
> 
> best of luck. water in places where it shouldnt be is never good.


 oil will cause a white smoke when it vaporizes through the exhaust, such as when turbine side seals fail. Blue smoke is caused when oil is burned in the combustion chamber in the presence of fuel.


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## omeletduefromage (Jan 13, 2011)

xxsur3shotxx said:


> oil will cause a white smoke when it vaporizes through the exhaust, such as when turbine side seals fail. Blue smoke is caused when oil is burned in the combustion chamber in the presence of fuel.


 if the turbine seals failed he will notice low oil because all of it will be pushed through the turbo. not high oil which is usual with coolant mixing in and raising the level of the fluid. 

op check your coolant level before tearing into things since its so easy to do.


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

like I said the the turbo is a new k04 only has about 3000 miles on it its a bw kkk k04-001 it only smoked that one time. I took it to the vw classic show today here in Texas I did run it hard the 200 miles here and back and hard the last 2 days just to see if it would smoke again but it didn't i have even let it idle for 15 mins twice to see if would somke again but it didn't what would cause a random blowing of blue/white smoke just one time?


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## omeletduefromage (Jan 13, 2011)

you could have encountered a loss of oil pressure or were just burning excess oil. If it starts to happen again i would get everything checked just to see and make sure.


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## racinmasonc (Aug 3, 2008)

Your car is a pos.. crash it.. your k04 is fine since it only has low miles on it.. keep letting no one help you, you know it all anyway.. figure it out f4g ... 

To everyone else this douche started shyte in my post so he can fix it without any help guys, he's a ****ing know it all. Go start your car on fire, it'll burn a different color then. :beer:


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

omeletduefromage said:


> you could have encountered a loss of oil pressure or were just burning excess oil. If it starts to happen again i would get everything checked just to see and make sure.


 I hope it was just burning off the excess oil I drained some of it and put some sea foam in the crankcase to hopefully seal it up better. From what I have read when you have too much oil the crank slaps the oil whipping it up in to a foam that gets oil into places it shouldn't be. I was driving in hard through the hill country right before the pic maybe it foamed all the way to the crank case breather hose?


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## Neezy13 (Jun 1, 2011)

hiplazma said:


> I hope it was just burning off the excess oil I drained some of it and put some sea foam in the crankcase to hopefully seal it up better. From what I have read when you have too much oil the crank slaps the oil whipping it up in to a foam that gets oil into places it shouldn't be. I was driving in hard through the hill country right before the pic maybe it foamed all the way to the crank case breather hose?


 If you put seafoam in the crank, you'll need to do an oil change within around 200 miles. Seafoam is a strong detergent so its going to clean a lot of gunk out and contaminate the oil.


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## racinmasonc (Aug 3, 2008)

hope that seafoam took out your precious k04.. :laugh: as you can tell i kinda don't like hiplazma.. maybe if he wasn't a dick in my thread... oh well i guess YOU don't get it..


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## forcefedjetta (Aug 14, 2003)

I have been going through this same problem intermittent oil burning at idle after every test in the book I finally found oil leaking around the turbine shaft my ****ty rp turbo has less than 10k on it


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## hiplazma (May 31, 2009)

I hope its not the turbo seals but I did make a catch can. 

For ~$30 in materials 

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I only ended up using a small amount of steel wool and a few of the hobby steel things 

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I think it came out well maybe just spray some wrinkle black on the brass and gray fittings to make them match. 

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## xxsur3shotxx (Sep 24, 2009)

racinmasonc said:


> hope that seafoam took out your precious k04.. :laugh: as you can tell i kinda don't like hiplazma.. maybe if he wasn't a dick in my thread... oh well i guess YOU don't get it..


 yeah, seafoam eats turbos so often. Maybe you should grow up and stop acting like a child. Boo hoo, you don't like the guy. Wishing misfortune on others is just low.


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## speed69 (Jun 21, 2012)

hey Hiplazma,

did you ever find out the cause of this? i just had a 42dd turbo back exhaust installed and mine is doing same thing now too...only smokes at idle though


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## Mr_Long (Dec 9, 2003)

I'm on the same boat and I bet my turbo is hurt :banghead:


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## speed69 (Jun 21, 2012)

I'm considering putting the stock cat back on to solve this issue, but want to know what others have done


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## ~Enigma~ (Jul 8, 2009)

possible causes for smoking at idle (and look to see if it smokes any after you hit the breaks after getting off the throttle)... bad exhaust valve seal(s).

exhaust valve seals
turbo oil seals
bad pcv valve or clogged 'puck' valve
oil in intercooler or intercooler pipes
drop in oil pressuer
miss fire (look at plugs and coil packs)
blow by (caused by some of the above)
o2 sensor over correcting and dumping fuel.


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## speed69 (Jun 21, 2012)

pulled all the plugs out last night and all were fine and clean.....

wierd thing is before i had the cat removed.....i never go any smoke.

if any of those seals were leaking, would have smoked even before cat was eliminated.

besides the embarrasing smoke it also smells really bad and lingers for a while after car is turned off too.

i'll give it a few more days, if it doesn stop the cat is going back on.

seems to be alot of this same complaint, when people with VW's replace their cat with a catless downpipe


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## speed69 (Jun 21, 2012)

having cat reinstalled today


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## boostedvw901 (Apr 25, 2013)

valve seals


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## speed69 (Jun 21, 2012)

Cat is reinstalled and the smoke is gone!! Guy at garage said something to do with needed back-pressure from cat to turbo 

Either way it is no longer smoking hurray


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