[Hoooper]

After a long pull on the highway, I coasted down and then drove for another 20 minutes or so at normal speed. Once in the garage I noticed the car reeked of smoke, and not the normal diesel kind. Turned the car off and noticed that even a couple minutes later I was getting smoke out the exhaust with the engine off. See the video, this is a couple minutes after shutting engine off. So what does the e90 brain trust think? Time for a turbo rebuild? 144k on the stock turbos. Full deletes so its not a DPF/SCR/etc issue.

[Bimmerguy1987]

White dense smoke is burning oil. And that can come thru the turbos if a seal has gone bad.

[BB_cuda]

It said private when I tried to play video. I recall guy having a bad white smoke issue that was eventually rooted in an injector problem. Sure hope your turbos are okay. Good luck

[Major_90]

This happened to me the other day, it was. Cold day and I thought it was normal. It was coming out of only one pipe.

Bad sign?

[Hoooper]

The video was with the engine not running and it smelled like smoke, pretty much smelled like classic hot engine smell. Cold start fog would be a different issue and depending on temperature perfectly normal

[TDIwyse]

Originally Posted by Hoooper

After a long pull on the highway, I coasted down and then drove for another 20 minutes or so at normal speed. Once in the garage I noticed the car reeked of smoke, and not the normal diesel kind. Turned the car off and noticed that even a couple minutes later I was getting smoke out the exhaust with the engine off. See the video, this is a couple minutes after shutting engine off. So what does the e90 brain trust think? Time for a turbo rebuild? 144k on the stock turbos. Full deletes so its not a DPF/SCR/etc issue.

This kinda sounds like you have residual oil and/or diesel in your exhaust that is smoldering...

This is one of the concerns I had when discussing using an exhaust venturi setup for crankcase ventilation back in this thread:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpo...&postcount=373

I did a test of a small length of pipe, and the oil residue inside could be lite and would burn/smolder and make a color of smoke similar to what your video was showing:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showpo...&postcount=401

What does your exhaust system look like? Did you gut the SCR? Just wondering if there are cavities in the exhaust that could collect oil/diesel residue and provide enough material to smolder/smoke for a long time...

Have you noticed any difference in EGT behavior?

[DWR]

White smoke general means there is water vapor. Oil and water is a bluish white. Oil and diesel is gray blue. Sounds like you got the mufflers hot, burning off residuals that had been collecting over time. I have run many miles with turbo diesels. Good synthetic oils and regular changes tend to keep the turbos together for the life of the car (that means 300K+ miles). At least that has been my experience. I'm guessing you take good car of the vehicle and do not have a problem with the turbos.

Of course, if you are looking for an excuse to get a hybrid setup, then yeah, the turbos are shot.

[Hoooper]

Haha, not looking for a hybrid setup. In my experience, if the oil is not actually getting into the combustion chamber and burning it seems to be more of a white color than when its actually burning in the combustion chamber. Dont know why that is, but times when Ive have a little extra oil spill off on headers it seems the oil burns off in a white color. I would think this would be similar since if its oil it would have to be oil that has shot down the exhaust while the engine was running and is smoldering in the exhaust pipe. However, the exhaust tips are bone dry and I dont see anything that looks at all like oil in the exhaust if I poke a light up it.

It is also possible I guess that it is water but im not sure how so much water would still be in the exhaust after almost an hour driving and a long hard pull on the highway.

Also possible that its an injector and it is residual smoldering diesel, but I would think I would be getting an injector code or fueling code of some kind and Im not getting any codes.

I guess Ill just keep an eye on this for a little while, hopefully it was just burning out some of the soot that has collected in the exhaust.

[lnxguy]

That looks like water vapour...

[MCooter]

Bad valve seal maybe? After a high rev oil can sometimes leak through those if they're going bad

[OmahaDZL]

When my turbo seal went bad and I had white smoke, I started burning through that $10 per qt oil faster than I wanted to by far.....

So.....keep an eye on your engine oil level...if it holds...unlikely a seal...

I will tell you that it would happen off and on....sometimes the seal would hold and it would be fine..other times I could feel extreme hesitation and a moment later ..... smokescreen....

But not long after that I got an oil level warning....so it should become obvious quickly.

Also, I have my stock turbos still so if you want them as cores to send off to.....banned one....I still have them, I just havent done anything with them yet.

[Hoooper]

Originally Posted by OmahaDZL

When my turbo seal went bad and I had white smoke, I started burning through that $10 per qt oil faster than I wanted to by far.....

So.....keep an eye on your engine oil level...if it holds...unlikely a seal...

I will tell you that it would happen off and on....sometimes the seal would hold and it would be fine..other times I could feel extreme hesitation and a moment later ..... smokescreen....

But not long after that I got an oil level warning....so it should become obvious quickly.

Also, I have my stock turbos still so if you want them as cores to send off to.....banned one....I still have them, I just havent done anything with them yet.

Well I havent got any smokescreens while driving (at least, not white smokescreens) so mine is at least not quite at the level yours got to...yet. Do you know which turbo went out? Obviously I would service both at the same time anyway at my mileage, just curious.

[OmahaDZL]

Originally Posted by Hoooper

Well I havent got any smokescreens while driving (at least, not white smokescreens) so mine is at least not quite at the level yours got to...yet. Do you know which turbo went out? Obviously I would service both at the same time anyway at my mileage, just curious.

I couldnt say for sure....but I believe the small...the spindle didnt ever wobble and both could spin....so it wasnt ever something you could easily tell....

[JOHNNYBRAVO1]

I'm @ 105,000 and im actually going to have VARGAS or Pure turbos rebuild mine. I'm worried at 105 with the tune and other goodies, I might be do for new seals and clean up. It's been a money pit, might as well avoid another hold up.