White smoke...

[Ruan]

Hi guys!

I have a 2006 Mk5 GTI bwa motor. Whenever I start the car I notice some white smoke coming from the exhaust but it dissapears after a while. It happens on cold starts mostly and sometimes when going WOT. I have a 3" catless dp leading to an R32 rear with high flow exhaust boxes and a BSH pcv block off.

Could it be that when driving it all the gunk and oil goes out my exhaust and sits there when I switch it off? I'm a little worried about this!

 

[Ruan]

Guess it's not much to worry about?

 

[blackmagic08]

If it was catted I would be more concerned. With catless, any number of things could be burning off and smoking. Hopefully someone can help more than this, though.

 

[PRND[S]]

It is the fact that you are catless. Normal.

 

[Ruan]

Think the pcv block off, running B9 on 2+ revo and WMI plays along with this. Luckily the car is USING oil.

 

[The Fed]

White smoke is usually moisture. As long as you're not using coolant, don't worry about it.

 

[HOP929]

White smoke is usually moisture. As long as you're not using coolant, don't worry about it.

this is what i was thinking, check to see if bubbles are forming in your over flow tank when the cap is off. or if you release the pressure from the tank and start the car and it builds pressure right away. then its a problem.

and when you say it happens when the car cools off, only cause its allowing things to shrink back and opening up a port where coolant can seep through and rest on top of the pistons.

if i were you i would let the car cool off over night and try a pressure test to your cooling system. pressurize the system and let it sit for an hour or so. if the pressure drops then well, no good. if it holds pretty steady drops a pound or so wouldnt worry. but anymore than that, "MAYBE" there is a problem. not trying to scare ya into thinking there is a blown head gasket and so on. this is just a small check to do to get an idea.

 

[MYGTI07]

My MK4 Golf 1.8t started to puff white smoke after changing the oil to Mobil1 10w40.
It has a new cylinder head and new cooling system. And just yest. I replaced the cracked
Exhaust manifold gasket, plugs and coils. Check your coolant, make sure its not milky or any yellowish gunk in the reservoir tank.

 

[Ruan]

Thanks for the advice! I'm also thinking it could be turbo seals, i'm saving towards a new turbo at this stage. I have been having a boost issue for a while now, the car doesn't wanna really go over 1.25bar on B9 setting.

 

[queen]

OK, so I have a similar issue that seems to be getting worse. Almost every time now, after sitting at a light, and I start going before I shift (still in 1st gear) I blow a puff of white smoke from my exhaust. Same thing happens if I roll from 20mph except for a little less smoke in this case. In both cases I'm talking about driving normally. It lasts for about a second. It doesn't do it when I go wot or in any other conditions as a matter of fact. The smoke smells like I'm decat (only lighter) but I'm not (200cell HJS cat). No CEL.
Thinking it could be a bad pcv, I replaced it but it's not connected to the intake so it just blows into the atmosphere. Please note that it has always been like that, even my old pcv and there was never smoke. With the new pcv the car is still doing the same thing, so it's not that.
The coolant is at max.
Oil consumption is like it always has been.

The car is booked to be checked on Friday but I'm worried...
What do you think it could be? What should I check?
We'll be doing a compression test (already done one which was OK but has been over a month since).
Boost is fine, no issues, car drives like it should except for the smoke, no weird sounds.
Is my turbo dying?
I need general advice here as my car isn't a GTI, it's a 1.4 Cupra TSI (supercharger+turbo).

 

[ryandm1984]

Mine does the same thing catless. I've seen it fairly thick but disappears in just a min or two. I have no loss of coolant and average oil consumption. Don't worry, if it ain't broke don't fix it. :thumbsup:

 

[queen]

Thing is, it got me worried cause it started out of nowhere and the 1.4 TSI engine is notorious for burning oil and many people have high oil consumption and issues related to faulty valve guide seals and soft piston/valve springs.
Fortunately, so far my car has proven to be an exception. No mechanical issues, no oil consumption, just this one.
Also my warranty has expired, so if anything is out of the ordinary I like to check it immediately to prevent any major damage from happening.

So, today, we run diagnostics and got the N75 error code in idle, so we changed the valve with a new one. Unfortunately it didn't solve my problem.
We also checked my turbo for shaft play, it has some that could explain the white smoke. Given the fact that almost everyone is on vacations now, I'll have the turbo serviced first thing coming September.
Hopefully that will solve my issue. We'll see...

 

[zmoclov21]

Did you get your turbo serviced?

 

[07GTI-2.0T]

It is the fact that you are catless. Normal.

I know this was brought up from the dead but white smoke or ANY smoke most certainly is NOT normal running catless. I've been running catless for over a year and do not smoke. Twice in that time (all with stage II, not stage II+ or FT) I've had the running rich at full throttle black smoke accelerating onto the highway but even those times were anomalies.

 

[Das Gespenst]

Read HOP929's post, he's the most accurate so far as to what to look for and what it could be. Besides the obvious turbo going(excuse for KO4/FT).