[martinfpc]

Hi Guys
My car's a 2yo GT with about 16,000 on the clock. A week or so ago, during the cold weather, I had a one-off (I hope) smoking problem. Scenario was:

• Started up (It hadn't been started for 3 or 4 days), it cranked a bit slower than normal but started ok
• Let it idle for 2 to 3 minutes before heading out, all seemed fine.
• Stopped at a shop after about 5 minutes, for about 5 minutes, engine off.
• Started off again, and noticed it was blowing smoke...This was pretty thick and bluish, like it was burning oil - performance seemed normal, i.e. not like it was running on 3 cyls.
• Temperature gauge at this stage had just started to move.
• I kept going as nothing else seemed wrong, but the smoke was getting worse, I wouldn't have liked to have been following it . Engine temp was rising slowly, it was a very cold day.
• This was all happening from 1500 to 2500 rpm, as engine temp was low
• I decided to keep going and get the temp up to normal, so went for a trip down a dual carriageway - as the temp approached normal, the smoke stared to thin out.
• I did about a 10 mile round trip, and by the time I got back home, the smoke had completely gone.
• I've used the car a few times since and no problems, but.
• Next time I used it, I noticed the oil level indicator had dropped a notch to one below max - I checked it on the dipstick this morning, it was about half way down the normal range, I'm sure it was near the top last time I checked (I normally dip it about once a month, about every 500/600 miles).

So has anyone experienced anything similar with a JTD, or have an idea of what might have caused it? I've got about 8 months of warranty left, so would want to get it sorted if it's an indication of something that will cause trouble in future.

Thanks
Martin

 

[airwave88]

Are you sure it was smoke and not steam? Mine steams like a boat on cold morning, it goes away after a few km.
Make sure you measure the oil level in the exact same conditions - same place, same interval after turning off the engine. The oil indicator on mine has dropped one line after like 1000 km (but didn't do it before, after 2500 km) and the consensus around here (see my thread about the trustworthiness of the sensor) is that it's rather unreliable. I've had it displaying anywhere between 3 and 6 lines and the level on the dipstick was always at the maximum. The indicator is also sensitive to the position of the car, i.e. how close to the horizontal it has been parked.
As yours is still under warranty, I'd go and get it checked. Mine is not, so if it breaks, it breaks and gets fixed.

 

[CraigM]

I remember reading (on a VW diesel forum) that turbo seals need some boost for them to seal properly and you shouldn't let the car idle for too long as oil seeps past the turbo seals and builds up in the intercooler.

Could be that a small amount of oil has built up in the intercooler and has worked it's way up the intake where it has been burnt off.

 

[martinfpc]

Definitely smoke, I'm used to the normal condensation...I like the idle theory, I normally just drive off straight away, no matter how cold, but that day I was waiting for my gf to come out of the house, and she'd got a phone call...so it was a few minutes.