Smoke from exhaust

[quicky1980 0]

Finally converted my car to vr6, but im a little concerned that there is white/grey smoke coming from the exhaust. The engine has sat for a few months and there is a tapping sound from the top end. is this bad or just because its not ran for so long?

didnt want to leave it running in case it caused more damage, thanks

[dr_mat 0]

Did it warm up fully? it's going to steam like mad from cold, there's going to be lots of condensation inside the engine.

The tapping is probably just a sticky tappet. You're going to need to get the revs up once the oil has thinned down a bit to quieten that down properly. I believe the book says "maintain 3000 rpm for five minutes" .. after the oil has reached 85 deg C.

[boost monkey 0]

I'd venture and say that the tappets are fine: the fact that the car has been standing so long is a sure fire way for the oil to drain from the entire drivetrain and back into the sump.

 

This is _exactly_ the same as the jetta which was stood for a year: white smoke on startup and for the first few mins and silly loud tappets.

 

I did an oil change as precaution and now it's all fine.

 

hope this helps.

[quicky1980 0]

I am planning on a oil change anyway, but just thought id find out what you thoughts you guys had. Scary seeing the grey smoke and loud tapping noise. The smoke seems to be worse when reving but like i said i havent really driven the car to run it in.

 

thanks guys

[quicky1980 0]

right the tapping has thankfully gone, and the smoke has died down. But there are still traces of smoke, it can also be seen from the dip stick hole. Im hoping you guys will say it will all settle down but im still worried.

I will be taking the car to be MOT'd soon, can it pass with smoke? cant really drive the car to get rid of smoke untill its legal its a catch 22.

[quicky1980 0]

left the car running and managed to take the car for a drive on private land. Tries to stall when coming to a stop for eg junctions.

Smoke seems to be black now but hard to tell. So this points to a rich mixture i think. what would cause that and how can it be rectified?

 

what is this ecu rest proceedure and what does it do (saw it on the knowledge base)

 

another pointer is that i dont have anything connected to my breather outlet (trackin the part down now)

 

any ideas?

[dr_mat 0]

You have nothing connected to the breather outlet? You mean there's a gaping hole in the inlet ducting post-MAF sensor? That'll be a good reason to have crap running - amazing it runs at all with unmetered air coming in if I understand your comment correctly!

[quicky1980 0]

no i plugged up that hole lol

 

i tried unplugging the maf sensor plug and car still ran, i assumed it would stall? couldnt reach the lambda plug to see if the car changed its runnin

[dr_mat 0]

Late VR will idle with an uplugged MAF, early ones won't. It'll run like a pig though..

[quicky1980 0]

still have the smoke problem though, seems to be rich. i thought maybe a spark plug wasnt firing properly but when i disconnected the leads one by one while engine was running it didnt seem to make any difference to how it ran.

so what could be the possibilities? i dont know much about vr's

[dr_mat 0]

The VR can run on 5 without you really noticing .. :)

If it's running rich, and all the plugs look normal (i.e. one cylinder isn't flooded with petrol), chances are you have a lambda probe problem.

If you get VAGCOM hooked up you can see live readings from the lambda. If it's static, or outside the range [0.8, 1.2] then it's hosed.

[quicky1980 0]

ok will try to get it tested but only put a new one on last year. it was for a 16v so unsure if that makes a difference?

[dr_mat 0]

Couldn't tell you, tbh..

[quicky1980 0]

right been speaking to crazy dave, he seems to know a bit more about VR's.

 

He said it could be the Lambda probe, MAF sensor could be gunked up, or there could be an air leak between the MAF and Lambda so will check those out soon.

 

Also from research on here something about a blue temp sensor may be a cause so may try that at a later date.

[dr_mat 0]

So that's pretty much what we said then .. ;)

[quicky1980 0]

yes you did mention the lambda probe.

 

will get VAG COM to check it out, if its not that i will order a new temp sensor and also clean the MAF. ill let you guys know the outcome incase anyone in the future has the same problem.

 

thanks guys