White smoke after 5 mins of driving, no obvious reasons

[adamkm]

Hi

So i have an Audi A3 1.9TDI 2008, 94k miles.

About a week ago i walked upto the car and there was about a cup full of liquid on the floor under the car > looking at the car from the bottom is was near the front left. I reversed off it so i could smell what it was and it was odourless. Seems like water. It was a dry day about 14 degrees. So definitely came from my car. Anyway, i drove home (10 minutes) and left it overnight. In the morning i set off and it warned me about coolant low. So popped bonnet and yes there was about a cup full of water gone from the coolant tank. I topped it back up between the min and max mark and off i went.

Since that time, after about 5 mins of driving white smoke comes out of the exhaust. Once it comes out it continues out at idle. There is no more/less if i rev the engine. It does have a kinda burnt smell about it but i've never smelt the exhaust before so i have nothing to compare it with. In the last week i've probably driven around 120 miles, 15-20 miles per day with it and it does the same every day, first 5 mins is fine, then it smokes. The engine isn't overheating, i have checked the coolant tank every day and its Exactly where i topped it upto, its not leaking anything. I have checked the oil and its bang on the minimum mark (which is probably where its always been, i got the car about 3 months ago) so there is oil in and i dont think its leaking. There is no scum in the coolant tank, there is no scum in the oil cap.

It would suggest maybe 1 of the injectors is faulty, but there is no loss of power, or if there is its not at all noticable. I drive around 5 miles of normal road and 10 mile of motorway every day.

I'm not sure what it is ? a head gasket failure i'd expect to be losing water from my cooling tank ?

I can't take it to the garage and be without it at the moment because my girlfriend was due to "pop out" our first child on Monday 15th April (yes she's now overdue) so i cant afford to be without my car at work incase she goes into labour.

Any help ? the engine warning lights etc dont complain about anything. So am i ok thinking that whatever it is, im not breaking it more by driving ? i realise there is of course something wrong but if i can still drive now and book it in the garage after the baby is born, without the cost going from £100 to £1000 because i was driving... that would be a real relief :)

Anything else i can check/look at myself ? im not in any way mechanically minded and had to refer to the manual just to try figure out if i even had a radiator valve to look in (which is not mentioned so i have not opened any water area's except coolant tank)

Thanks for any assistance.

Kind Regards

Adam

[zollaf]

pop the carpet up in the boot and find the engine code. 3 letters should do.
it obviously has a problem, and if whatever the problem is shows itself big time at 3am on way to the hospital, you will not be flavour of the month.

[adamkm]

pop the carpet up in the boot and find the engine code. 3 letters should do.
it obviously has a problem, and if whatever the problem is shows itself big time at 3am on way to the hospital, you will not be flavour of the month.

Ha no i certainly wont be. Luckily the hospital is only 5-8 mins away, i'd have to get a taxi if the worst came to the worst. I cant get the engine code at the minute, the other half has it to do some last minute baby shopping. Personally i find it embarassing to drive ha.

I'll give her a ring and ask her to get the code, hopefully it easy for her to get. Luckily my boot is completely empty except a baby seat.... If this was my last car, it'd have been a 20 minute job to get to see the boot's carpet :)

Thanks

[adamkm]

OK apparently it's engine code BLS and Trans code? - KBL

Thanks

Adam

[adamkm]

Well it's definitely doing it more now. More smoke comes out when revving the car. Enough that people behind me back off!

Any ideas? Oil ring? Although its not losing notable amounts of oil I assume it doesn't need much to smoke? What kinda cost am I looking at if it's injectors or oil ring? Shall I bend over get some lube and walk backwards into a garage?

Thanks
Adam

[adamkm]

Anyone any idea v? Would a vag com help?

[mikey2012]

its worth a shot but i would have thought it will be more of a mechanical problem.

its very strange that you havnt lost any coolant over 120 miles with the problem, and to make driver back odd it must be a hell of a cloud of steam. Is it defiantly white smoke (steam). Has it got a blueish tint to it. Is the car drinking much oil.

[adamkm]

Thanks for posting :)
Well yesterday I took it to a garage and asked them to hook it to a vag com. They cleared 3 errors but didn't say what they were. I also added a litre of oil and some stop leak fluid. I dunno if the oil was leaking, it was low but I don't know how low it was before to compare. So I dove about 30 mile and it definitely smokes way less. Only smokes when I accelerate fast in low gear high revs. If I drive carefully it doesn't smoke. I can't tell if it's got a blue tint, looks totally white but it doesn't dissipate very quickly.

If I'm stationary and rev it I still get small amounts of smoke, only when engine is warm. Also liquid does come out or exhaust will be dripping, it doesn't smell of anything if I dip my finger in it. Still no coolant loss though. Someone at shop said I might have a hole in my turbo hose letting air in and smoking? I have absolutely no power loss though. Possibility?

[mikey2012]

White Smoke is actually steam so the guy at the garage dosnt know what he is talking about, if aditional (unmetered) air was entering the system it would show as black smoke as the engine is overfueling to compensate. I would have thought ERG cooler or headgasket but the lack of coolant loss is very surprising.

I would think the next step would be to have the coolant system pressure leak tested to test for any leaks.

[NHN]

Let us know if the oil drops after the litre top up.

[adamkm]

I'll have the pressure tested as soon as I'm on paternity leave next week hopefully. Other than the loss of a cup full of coolant last week there hasn't been anything leaking. Is it possible it's still burning the liquid from the original time? Although its been like 200 mile. Doesn't smell sweet though. Smell s like burning but I dunno what burning oil or diesel smells like ha.

[mikey2012]

The Burnt smell does tend to point me towards oil then but worth ruling the coolant out.

Good luck with the baby

[adamkm]

The Burnt smell does tend to point me towards oil then but worth ruling the coolant out.

Good luck with the baby

Well today the smoke came back again at idle. I pulled over and stopped the engine. Smoke also comes from between the back of the engine and windscreen under the bonnet. Does that help point at anything ? I haven't noticed oil drop but then again such a small amount is required to produce smoke I dunno how fast i'll be able to tell!

[mikey2012]

Seeing as now the steam is coming out of the engine bay i would defiantly say that it is coolant leaking (might have been oil but say you say it hasnt used any) onto the exhaust, could be anything from head gasket leaking externally or a split hose.

What is the coolant level like?

I would defiantly recommend a pressure test.

[adamkm]

Seeing as now the steam is coming out of the engine bay i would defiantly say that it is coolant leaking (might have been oil but say you say it hasnt used any) onto the exhaust, could be anything from head gasket leaking externally or a split hose.

What is the coolant level like?

I would defiantly recommend a pressure test.

Thanks Mikey

Well its been smoking quite consistently if i drive more than 2500 revs, and then afterwards even idling. It definitely smelt sweet this time round, not burning which is what it smelt like before. I do think i've lost about 0.5 cm in my coolant tank. It was between min and max before and now its nearer to min.

Again lots of smoke coming out of the exhaust, it doesn't dissipate very quickly though.

I'll get the pressure test done as soon as possible!

[adamkm]

Well its in the garage and they told me its most definitely the turbo. That'll set me back £600 for the turbo if i want a proper (not cheap import) turbo, 250 for labour, another 100 for pipes and other accessories so i wont get much change from 1k. He's stripping it down today to determine 100% its the turbo by looking for some marks somewhere? That'll cost me £35-50 just for this strip down apparently and i have to hope there's nothing else wrong. I put a litre of oil in on Saturday and already he says the oils is only just touching the bottom of the stick!