blowing smoke, loosing coolant, throwing codes
 

i've got a 2001 with ~114k miles, original turbos. i've only owned the car for just over a month but am already having some serious problems.

i had the car looked at by what i thought was a reputable shop and had the all clear before i bought it but have since discovered i have some serious repairs coming up. i've replaced the diverter valves and the throttle body boot as well as addressed a couple boost leaks. I also found that the bank 2 turbo was "wet" and i had oil up on the driver's side of the throttle body boot. After draining the intercoolers i have since been manually turbo timing the car for at least a minute.

The car still smokes at idle and the smoke never goes away. i just took the car on a road trip about 700 miles away and while i was driving around my family driving behind me mentioned that i had puffs of smoke coming from the tail pipes (they couldn't comment on timing).

On the trip my oil level light would come on every couple hours, if i pulled over and checked the oil(which was never low) the light would go away for a short time. During one stretch of having the oil light on my red oil light and CEL came on so i pulled over, checked everything and aside from burning a very small amount of oil everything else seemed normal. i also had to top the coolant from min to max twice in my 1400 mile trip. i got the car to the shop when i got back.

They replaced the oil level sensor and pulled the following codes:
When i went to pick up the car i started the car and sat and chatted with the owner for a little while(~10 minutes) and when i went to my car i noticed the smoke at idle had increased dramatically.

As i pulled away i was blowing more smoke than i've ever seen come out of a car. My wife came to drop me off and she was driving behind me but there was enough blue/white smoke that i couldn't even see her. She said the smoke didn't actually go away until we got to speed on the highway but also that it came back after a few miles (but not in ridiculous amounts, just sporadic).

The next morning the car smoked at idle like normal and with my wife driving behind me for a about a mile she said it didn't really smoke at all. As i got a couple miles down the road (she turned off to go to work) and got onto the highway i had a biker behind me and i noticed as i got onto the onramp the car started to smoke again. By the time i got on the highway (at partial throttle) i had enough smoke behind me to completely blind the unfortunate biker. The car smoked pretty much until i got into work.

i decided to go out during lunch and see if i could get this smoke on camera with a co-worker but ended up only getting a small but noticeable amount of smoke but only between shifts off throttle. (i have a video if anyone wants to see it)

After work as i was driving through traffic the car started smoking a lot more off throttle and decelerating and finally my red oil light came on. i pulled to the shoulder, shut it off, turned the key back to ready, hit the self diagnose button which said "OK". i started it up, got back into rush hour traffic and got the shop on the phone - they told me if the red light comes on again it would be safer to tow it. And as they said it the light came on so i pulled over and had the car towed.

The car isn't loosing power or making any screeching turbo noises. So i'm wondering:

1) any ideas on the smoke? turbos? HG? head problems? block problems?
2) any ideas on the disappearing coolant? found one small leak but nothing to explain the constant top offs.

Sorry for the long post :P

thanks
bret

Smoke issue
 

Bret -
Ive read somewhere (I think on here- searched archives but couldn't find the post) that when your turbos can go bad "the right way".
When the bearings wear out inside the turbo, this excess shaft play allows for the veins to rub against the inside of the housing and make the whining or 'dentist drill' noise - that is the wrong way.
However, If they go bad 'the right way' the oil seals go out rather than the bushings, so they don't whine but they burn oil and/or coolant, and this residue covers your 02 sensor and results in a no activity code for either bank 1 or bank 2 sensor. So although you are still making boost and don't hear a whine, it is likely the seals that went bad.
The oil in the intake is also indicative of worn seals.

Excessive oil in the intake is a sign turbo failure (and PCV valve). Unfortunatly you haven't owned the car long enough to really have a feel for this. These cars always have some level of oil in the intake system. Just not "that" much.

That sounds like a lot of smoke. I remember when my car blew a turbo it was like, OMFG SMOKE SMOKE SMOKE.... SMOKE SMOKE SMOKE, flashing CEL, SMOKE, flashing CEL. Me and my friend saying "WTF just happened." Then I was like "FU**, I bet a blew a turbo."

But of coarse 95% of peoples bearings go and the turbo blows the "wrong way". I was one of the extra rare ones who had a failed EGT and sonic shocked the exhaust turbine right off the spindle.

Anyway back to the topic. If the white smoke smells sweet, (or sometimes like waffles) it is burning coolent. So it would probabaly be a headgastket or a turbo in that case.

Like waffles LMAO... best post ever

Lol, the dirt bikes we had always had there coolent expantion overflow hose over the muffler. Smelt like waffles every time.

Yeah i've been searching on all iterations of my issues and coming up reasonably empty handed. i found one post when my only real symptoms were loosing coolant and light smoke at start up that pointed to turbo failure but i can't seem to find it now...

Afterthought: i'm inclined to agree and it was my first thought too but i wanted to see what other people thought.

complacentsee: the smoke is definitely not coolant-smelling. it's white/blue and has a distinct oil burning smell. i've seen a lot of PCV posts but it doesn't seem to be related much to it being really cold out.

The shop i have it at now also suggested that the oil pressure light might actually be accurate because of the seals and that i might actually be loosing/burning enough oil at those points to make the light come on...

thanks
bret

Have them check the passeneger side(IIRC it is the passenger side) lower intercooler hose. If its filled up with oil then it could be the PCV.

Will do - thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZlMbpXT98

there's the video of the car smoking lightly off throttle we took during lunch. Again that's really light compared to the smoke i saw that morning and after work.

The person who took that video is AWESOME and must have a sweet car!