Exhaust smoke on startup recently (video)

I have a 2001 Jetta with 245K. Been running strong no problems other than minor stuff. Over the last few months it’s been slowly blowing smoke at startup. Not a ton but enough I’m a little concerned. Originally it looked blue in color but now I’m thinking it’s a little more light grey or white? It does it almost every startup If it’s been sitting more than a few hours. No trouble starting it fires right up everytime. Previously I would only get an occasional blue puff during winter months, but this is middle of summer where it’s around ~90F. Oil consumption seems pretty low but it appears to maybe be using a little bit (dropped 1-2 dashed lines on the dipstick since I changed it 8.5k ago). Going to do a change soon at 10k and should be able to have a more details on usage.

No knocking or strange sounds seems to be coming from engine and the turbo seems to be spooling up okay too. I have noticed if I floor it in 1st or 2nd gear at around 2200rpm and run it up to 4500-5500rpm I get a puff of smoke in the rear view mirror (oil in intercooler maybe?). It’s hard to tell the color as I’m driving away but it looks blue-ish maybe light grey, does not look black. I was thinking I would drain the intercooler it has not been done during the 80k I have owned the car and maybe never. After that I will give it a good “Italian Tune Up” and maybe a compression test. Based on the video below I’m thinking it could be valve seals, injector nozzles, turbo seals, or oil in the intercooler. Does anyone have any tests I can do to possibly determine the problem or any other suggestions or ideas on what the issue may be?

Here is a video of startup this morning:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TJTRfXrEiEA

Thanks,
Tony

Give it a few rounds of Diesel purge. If you can cycle a whole can through and let it soak overnight then drive the car. Ideally do it on a low tank and add some to the tank for a better dillution ratio. If this doesn’t work you New nozzles will clear it up.

I recently had a car with same issue only a little worse. Also when accelerating up-hill the engine would smoke significantly. It was the turbo oil seal on the turbine side (exhaust).
Replaced the turbo and problem solved.

Also... check for oily residue at the tail pipe.

I did a diesel purge before my last oil change and ran 1 1/2 cans of liquid moly diesel purge through it directly by bypassing the fuel filter and doing the technique others have used on this forum. Come to think of it my smoking started shortly after that. Is it possible the purge could of knocked something loose on one of the injectors that may have been caked on over time? Is there any way to check the injectors before replacing? If I replace one faulty injector is it best to replace all of them at the same time?

As for the turbo is it possible to change the seals without replacing entire turbo?

I can say that your engine burns oil. So you have to built up

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tonyweiss11 said:

I did a diesel purge before my last oil change and ran 1 1/2 cans of liquid moly diesel purge through it directly by bypassing the fuel filter and doing the technique others have used on this forum. Come to think of it my smoking started shortly after that. Is it possible the purge could of knocked something loose on one of the injectors that may have been caked on over time? Is there any way to check the injectors before replacing? If I replace one faulty injector is it best to replace all of them at the same time?

As for the turbo is it possible to change the seals without replacing entire turbo?

Click to expand...

Did you filter the cleaner as you ran it through, that could allow something in the injector if you recycled it back in to whatever you were drawing it from. You can replace the cartridge for the turbo, if that is it. If an injector is leaking as it sits, you could try flushing again or if you replace, replace all. Get someone with diesel knowledge to follow you and determine if it is oil or fuel you are burning upon acceleration. If oil, most likely the turbo

I’ll get someone to follow me and report back with results. I did use an inline filter when doing the diesel purge so I don’t think anything could of been reintroduced back into the engine that way. I’ll try another purge and see if that yeilds anything. I’m going to drain the intercooler as well and see if that yeilds anything. If it was injectors would it smoke all the time rather than just on start up and hard accelerations?

If you remove the intercooler to clean it stuff a rag in the lower end.
First time I did it I had a good puddle when I tipped it over.

Will do. If MPG has dropped by about 4-5 over my last couple tanks as the exhaust smoke has increased, would that usually mean injectors?

I'm tracking down a very similar problem. If you have a VCDS, you can check group 13 for injector balance. If one of the nozzles was gakked you would see it show up there.

Mine were within spec, IIRC if they are all within 1mg/stroke of each other they're probably fine. I bought new ones and they didn't stop the smoke. Now I have a spare set.
I'll be looking at the turbo seal possibility tomorrow I hope.

Flashmayo, any luck on your issue? I took a closer look and it appears I am using more oil than I thought, it has dropped from within the middle of the dashed lines to well below in the matter of 2k miles or less. I check the intercooler tonight and drained it and it didn’t have much oil at all. Maybe 2 tablespoons? I drilled a hole first and only got drips then took off the hose and soaked up some more with a rag. I also disconnected the hose from the air filter box to the turbo. Downstream of the mfa there was a fair bit of oil. Not a ton but a small pool and the walls were definitely coated. Is this normal? See picture 1 below for more details.

The other interesting thing I found was I could see on my heat sheid where oil had been dripping, after examining the engine bay it appears oil is coming out of the egr vent hole. It is running down the egr and all over the back of the engine down the turbo and onto the heat shield. Not a ton but it was hard to tell how much really. I cleaned the intake manifold and egr last winter but only used wire brushes and certain degreasers recommends on this site. I had never noticed that much oil leaking out of there before. See picture 2 below for what it looked like AFTER I wiped it off before hand it was totally black (Should of taken a picture before). Could this be related to my white puff of smoke on startup at all? Would this indicate a bad turbo seal or a bad egr seal or both?

Well if those are the injectors/nozzles that came with the car, you can replace them, they're wore out.
1 quart of oil in 10,000 miles normal.

Can I replace the nozzles rather than injextoros or do I need to replace both? Nozzles are much cheaper. Both are original to my knowledge.

Also was looking at it today and noticed one of my fuel return lines was cracked right at the 3rd Injector (largest one with electrical hook up too it) and leaking a bit, I replaced the hose. Could this of be a contribution to some of the smoke I might of been seeing?

Thanks,
Tony

Tonyweiss11, no good news yet. I’ve noticed that my EGR is oilier on the outside than before. This could have started around the same time the smoke issue started, not sure.
I bought new nozzles even though my balance was pretty good. My ALH runs as smoothe as it has since I bought it at 80k so it seems unlikely that I have a bad injector. I’ll update more as I try other things.