My Freaking Car is Smoking...

[HeymyAudi]

IT WAS THE OIL COOLER

I went to the Audi dealer and asked the parts guys about my problem and a cool ass Audi Tech walked in... So he asked me wasup and whats going on.. So I told him... He said " order a oil cooler thats what it is" .. So I did and now im fixed!


OMFG here we go again..... I have been on here searching all evening but I really need to find a place to start..... Ok here are the symtoms....

1. Car is Smoking White Smoke out of the rear

2. Loosing Coolant but I changed the Oil and there was no Coolant in the oil...

3. Vag'ed it and got some Mis-Fires in 3 cylinders...
( Changed Spark Plugs )

4. Coolant Temp Sensor at Radiator came up

5. Also leaking oil from the cam shaft seal in the rear of the head ( the U shaped part ) if that helps any

6. Under boost you see some smoke....


From what I read Im looking at Blown Turbo... Blown Head Gasket ... Or Running Too Rich....

Just to mention could this thing be sucking up oil and vapors from the oil catch can?

I truthfully think that the Coolant leak is from somewhere else and not part of my smoking... But then again with the mis-fires and the white smoke, could be the head gasket... So Im lost anyone feel free to chime in....?? I need a place to start

[eg3232]

Does your coolant resevior look really thick and brown? Busted oil cooler could be part of your problem.

[n7plus1]

when you say its smoking out the rear, you mean through the exhaust right, not just the "rear of the car"

[AudiA4_20T]

Does your coolant resevior look really thick and brown? Busted oil cooler could be part of your problem.

that would be a blown HG... The blown oil cooler does not cause that to happen

[koolade9]

blown turbo seals... thank you...drive through

[sailor]

Sounds like a head gasket.

[HeymyAudi]

Ok so I went outside because there was no way in hell I would be able to sleep without knowing wasup... SO I went outside with my friend on the phone and I checked the Coolant Resevior and this is what I saw....






So I decide to look into the TIP and I pulled it off and Looked at the turbo and the inlet was clean no wetness no oil..

Next I Pulled the Dip Stick because for sure there has to be water on the dip stick right?? Well I pulled it out and the oil was clean as ever... NO WATER ON THE SDIPSTICK

At this point I look at the manifold and I notice some stains on it like coolant and I also see that between the manifold and the turbo there is some crust there also...





Now I was like ok well if water is coming out between the seals in the turbo then this would kinda make sense ... So I loosen up the O2 and I start the car and run it for about 3 minutes and I see light white smoke coming out of the mufflers and it smells like oil... I run and shut the car and and unscrew the o2 and the pipe was filled with smoke...

At this point Im scratching my head saying.... How is it that the oil is mixing in the resevior but not in the crankcase and there is no milking stuff on the dip stick and the oil cap.... Im leaning towards my seals in my turbo..... What do you guys think please any suggestions or comments are welcome..!!! Im going to bed!

[luvin_the_rings]

def the seals on the turbo

[eg3232]

Blown oil cooler would absolutly cause that, and from the looks of the pictures I bet that it has.

[Roy munson]

Leak it down, bubbles in the coolant reservoir means blown headgasket. Very simple.

[HeymyAudi]

Ok lets say its the head gasket wouldnt that mean the same milky mix on the dip stick and in the crankcase, Valve Cover, oil cap... etc etc.... ??

Seals in the turbo- Kinda sounds right to me but I do not know how come its only mixing in the Coolant Resevior?

Oil cooler sounds good too.. I need to figure out what I need to check tomorrow evening to see whats going on... I really dont want to pull the head and then find out it is something else.....

[absolutegtr]

My friend works in a shop and he worked on a 1.8t passat and it was smoking out the rear due to a shot oil cooler...

hit me up on AIM, if you want to know more!

[HeymyAudi]

My friend works in a shop and he worked on a 1.8t passat and it was smoking out the rear due to a shot oil cooler...

hit me up on AIM, if you want to know more!

Thanks I will hit you up tomorrow

[sparkyvw]

could be 3 things

1 head gasket.Would normaly mean your temp will go up and you will get abit of smoke.Also would get a mis fire alot of the time.
2 turbo. Should have alot of white smoke.Boost loss .
3 oil cooler.Get a little bit of smoke.Blown oil cooler is pritty rare but it does happen.

These are all on personal experience.Sounds to me that its blown turbo if your getting alot of smoke.

[eg3232]

blown oil coolers arent that rare, I work at a vw dealership and I see that way more often on 1.8t passats than blown headgaskets or blown turbos.

[HeymyAudi]

Yeah tomorrow I will run it for about 15 mins to see what its doing and when the smoke kicks in and take pics ... and maybe some Video! ... Then we can see whats going on... I had a huge Hvac leak which i fixed on Friday.....So lets see if the code comes back for misfires becuase It was mis-firing bad when it was leaking the air.. But once it was fixed it ran pretty smooth.... I really hope its the oil cooler becuase I am not really into spending alot of cash in this car right now...

[sparkyvw]

Well i was on about personal experience as i worked at a dealer in England and only ever ran into 1 failling. Maybe a problem out here but i wouldnt no that as iv never worked for the dealer here.

[Roy munson]

smoke kicks in right away or after the thermostat opens? leak it down man.VERY SIMPLE!

[HeymyAudi]

Ok so after talking to a few people Im going to do a pressure test on the turbo to see if the and tomorrow Im going to do a compression test.... From there I can rule out a couple of things.... Im really leaning towards the oil cooler ... But I still dont understand why oil is mixed in at the resevior and not in the crankcase....

[eg3232]

Its the way the oil cooler is designed, can't really explain why, but thats the way they always fail.

[koolade9]

Its the way the oil cooler is designed, can't really explain why, but thats the way they always fail.

is the oil cooler part of the radiator? similar to how trans fluid is cooled in several applications...

if that's the case, then I could certainly see the failure in this case...though not the oil only in the overflow...that part sounds fishy.

I'm still voting turbo seals...

[HeymyAudi]

Either one will be great as long as its not the head gasket... Tomorrow I should find out more with a compression test

[eg3232]

the oil cooler is actally part of the oil filter housing. two coolant lines come from the cooling system and cools it right off the filter.

[windyctyaudi]

I have the same problem almost. I get a really huge smoke cloud out of my exhaust when I let it idle for about 10 min like a ninja just dissapeared. My colant was the same color. I took it to the dealer because I'm still under warranty and my rear coolant flange was leaking and they said that was the problem but I didn't believe them so they replaced it and gave me a new clear white over flow tank. And the problem went away for a week but it came back recently. So o dont know what it is. They said it wasn't my head gasket so now I think its my turbo seals as well. I hope you can solve the problem.

[KJIV]

99% of the time this same thing happens on the vr6 due to the oil cooler going bad... and I would get it fixed asap because the oil will tear up your coolant hoses.

[keithla4]

DO A LEAK DOWN TEST ON ALL CYLINDERS WITH A PRESSURE TESTER i personally think its s head gasket thats gone bad if your having missfires on cylinders and with smoke coming out from your tail pipes its going to be a head gasket

[HeymyAudi]

Ok here is the latest from today... We did a compression test and got 195's across all 4 cylinders... Now I took off the TIP off of the turbo and did see some oil and dirt in the inlet side.... Then I took a look closer at the turbo and saw like wet spots around the bolts where the compressor side bolts to the exhaust side... So I decided to look at the coolant a bit longer and saw that it wasnt alot of oil in the coolant..... Im taking off the Turbo... But Im looking at bad seals or a crack in the housing... Which is making the car smoke lightly... But today it ran for about 15 mins and warmed up... Then we chacked the oil and it was clean as can be and it was 100% clean oil... Then to make it worst it looks like after shutting it off for a couple of mins I started it back up and then it started to smoke heavy ( first white smoke but then eventually turning purplish blue) then it just dissapeared... my friend who builds race cars was with me and he was leaning towards the Seals in the Turbo... Becuase

A. Blown headgasket would make me run HOT, and I would have a milky mix within the crankcase and the resevior...

B. Lets say it was the oil cooler that was blown...How would that mix end up in my exhaust?


But those are my findings for tonight and I appreciate everyones input.. I will update you guys tomorrow time for bed!

[HeymyAudi]

P.S mis firing was due to the bad Hvac Leak I had.. I was running leaner than a NEW YOUR STEAK PRIME ( 19.2 ) at idle to be exact ... Once i fixed the leak I went back to 13 and change

[eg3232]

You could have two seperate problems, I still think your oil cooler is one of them.

[HeymyAudi]

That is true

[absolutegtr]

I am still set on the oil cooler being the issue....but I also agree with what was said above...you very well could have two problem.

Coincidences happen, lol

BTW, Whta is the mileage on your car? 195psi across the board sounds very good. What is it supposed to be anyways?

[HeymyAudi]

I am still set on the oil cooler being the issue....but I also agree with what was said above...you very well could have two problem.

Coincidences happen, lol

BTW, Whta is the mileage on your car? 195psi across the board sounds very good. What is it supposed to be anyways?

100K ... I was speaking with my friend and he said to just pull the trigger and replace the oil cooler and the turbo and my rear coolant flange.... So I think thats what Im going to do next week....

[absolutegtr]

100K ... I was speaking with my friend and he said to just pull the trigger and replace the oil cooler and the turbo and my rear coolant flange.... So I think thats what Im going to do next week....

Thats kind of a "gamble" to just replace the turbo...are you going bigger?

If you never replaced your coolant flange and your at 100K then yes it probably need to be changed. But then again, if you needed to changed your coolant flange you would have to worry about the brown colored coolant in the resevoir tanks because you would have none, lol.

[HeymyAudi]

Blown oil cooler would absolutly cause that, and from the looks of the pictures I bet that it has.

I got to hand it to you.. You surely know your stuff

[eg3232]

I appreciate that

[windyctyaudi]

did you change the oil cooler yourself or did Audi do it?? I'm asking because i have a very similar problem. I though it was my valve cover gasket that was the problem because i found a lot of oil in my spark plug area but i just changed it and i am still smoking.