Occasional Startup Blue Smoke - Bad K03S Turbo or Valve Stem Seals?

[A4orce84]

Hey Guys,

Hope everyone is doing well! I needed some help trying to diagnose my car if it has a turbo that is on its last legs or if it is valve steam seals going bad. I go into the full details of the problem and troubleshooting I've done thus far below:

Car Background:
2004.5 Audi A4 1.8T with APR 1+ Tune. Nearly 200K on the clock and no major driving issues thus far. Still peaking at the usual 21-22PSI on my APR 1+ Tune and everything feels and sounds normal, with no dentist-drill or any type of weird noise as far as I can tell. However, I am also burning quite a bit of extra oil (oil consumption has increased, grabbing an extra quart every 1-2K miles) and upon removal of FMIC piping recently, there was much more than a teaspoon's worth of oil in the piping.

The Problem:
Occasionally, on a cold startup (first thing in the morning) I will get a puff of blue smoke coming from the tailpipes of the car. It appears it only happens on cold startups, once the car is warmed up (such as if I drive again later on in the day), there is no blue smoke coming out of the tail-pipes and all appears normal.

Root-Cause - Bad Turbo or Valve Steam Seals:
Looking online, I know blue smoke tends to be associated with turbo's going bad. However, I've also been reading a few things that blue smoke can also be attributed to bad valve steam seals. I'm leaning towards the turbo being bad (with nearly 200K miles and my sudden increase in oil consumption), however I was NOT sure what the signs of bad valve stem seals are.

If anyone could offer any assistance / thoughts / feedback, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for everyone's time and help!

Thanks,
Asif

[BumblebVR6]

Hey Guys,

Hope everyone is doing well! I needed some help trying to diagnose my car if it has a turbo that is on its last legs or if it is valve steam seals going bad. I go into the full details of the problem and troubleshooting I've done thus far below:

Car Background:
2004.5 Audi A4 1.8T with APR 1+ Tune. Nearly 200K on the clock and no major driving issues thus far. Still peaking at the usual 21-22PSI on my APR 1+ Tune and everything feels and sounds normal, with no dentist-drill or any type of weird noise as far as I can tell. However, I am also burning quite a bit of extra oil (oil consumption has increased, grabbing an extra quart every 1-2K miles) and upon removal of FMIC piping recently, there was much more than a teaspoon's worth of oil in the piping.

The Problem:
Occasionally, on a cold startup (first thing in the morning) I will get a puff of blue smoke coming from the tailpipes of the car. It appears it only happens on cold startups, once the car is warmed up (such as if I drive again later on in the day), there is no blue smoke coming out of the tail-pipes and all appears normal.

Root-Cause - Bad Turbo or Valve Steam Seals:
Looking online, I know blue smoke tends to be associated with turbo's going bad. However, I've also been reading a few things that blue smoke can also be attributed to bad valve steam seals. I'm leaning towards the turbo being bad (with nearly 200K miles and my sudden increase in oil consumption), however I was NOT sure what the signs of bad valve stem seals are.

If anyone could offer any assistance / thoughts / feedback, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for everyone's time and help!

Thanks,
Asif

How's it going Asif? I just replaced my K03 with almost 170K miles on it. I had acquired an eliminator GTRS a while back so while doing some other work on the car, decided to check the shaft play on my K03. It had quite a bit of play, although it boosted fine and I never would have known if I hadn't checked it. I'd say with almost 200K on the K03, its getting close if not overdue for a replacement/upgrade :). I was on APR for a long time and switched to Motoza and 550cc Bosch EV14's while I was still on the K03. Night and day difference in just that alone. The APR file was crap on my car. Ran super lean on the dyno and only made 172 awhp on the dyno. I'd recommend checking the turbo first and going from there. Let me know if you need any help. I just went thru all this recently so its still pretty fresh in my mind.

Martin

[old guy]

Hi Asif -

Try this. Find a long straight downhill section of road where you can drive somewhere between 40→60 mph. At the start of the downhill let off the gas and drift down the hill.
once you get to the bottom, accelerate briskly and watch your rear mirror. If your valve guide seals are leaking this will load up a bit of oil in the cylinders and create a brief smoke screen behind you.

[BumblebVR6]

Hi Asif -

Try this. Find a long straight downhill section of road where you can drive somewhere between 40→60 mph. At the start of the downhill let off the gas and drift down the hill.
once you get to the bottom, accelerate briskly and watch your rear mirror. If your valve guide seals are leaking this will load up a bit of oil in the cylinders and create a brief smoke screen behind you.

Maybe have someone follow you while doing this to get a better view and possibly shoot a video :)