Gio
Well-Known Forum User
Last year, I got the dreaded blue smoke - occasionally. So I got paranoid about my turbos.
The symptoms (for me, anyway) were that in normal use, no smoke. But when it had been left in idle for a period of several minutes (eg at an MOT test), both exhausts would start to blue smoke. This disappeared after a few minutes of normal driving.
But still worrying.
I had the PCV valves replaced in June and everything seemed to be fine. During the next MOT (Aug) the smoke returned - first from the left bank then the right. But a lot less than it used to be so clearly, clearing the breathing problem (caused by gunky PCV valves etc) had a good effect.
During some other work, I asked the mechanic (Steve at Lucas Garage) to give the turbos a good inspection and checkover as I was concerned about the smoke. He reported that they looked fine with no leaks (one was bone dry and the other had a slight oil smear but only what you would expect on something in a 14 year old engine bay). They sounded fine as well.
His opinion is that this smoke is not from the turbos but indicates a very slight valve stem leak. And, at the current stage, not worth doing anything about.
Now of course you have to be sensitive to blue smoke as this can be very serious. So don't use this story as an excuse to do nothing! But I though you might be interested anyway.
Toodle-pip - Gio
The symptoms (for me, anyway) were that in normal use, no smoke. But when it had been left in idle for a period of several minutes (eg at an MOT test), both exhausts would start to blue smoke. This disappeared after a few minutes of normal driving.
But still worrying.
I had the PCV valves replaced in June and everything seemed to be fine. During the next MOT (Aug) the smoke returned - first from the left bank then the right. But a lot less than it used to be so clearly, clearing the breathing problem (caused by gunky PCV valves etc) had a good effect.
During some other work, I asked the mechanic (Steve at Lucas Garage) to give the turbos a good inspection and checkover as I was concerned about the smoke. He reported that they looked fine with no leaks (one was bone dry and the other had a slight oil smear but only what you would expect on something in a 14 year old engine bay). They sounded fine as well.
His opinion is that this smoke is not from the turbos but indicates a very slight valve stem leak. And, at the current stage, not worth doing anything about.
Now of course you have to be sensitive to blue smoke as this can be very serious. So don't use this story as an excuse to do nothing! But I though you might be interested anyway.
Toodle-pip - Gio