Hey guys. The problem that I am having is that there is smoke coming from the area where the turbo and where the downpipe is. It does not happen frequently but here and there. I dont know if it just needs a new gasket or something. But was wondering what you guy think it could be. It only started to do this after I tuned the car to stage one. The smoke smells like burning oil.
I have a Cat back exhaust and a downpipe. Tuned to stage one and sometimes stage 2. I am running 10W30 royal purple synthetic oil.
If you guys have any ideas please let me know. Its making me worried. Thanks
The symptom you describe is exactly what is happening to my car. Happened once (on a 90 degree morning, sitting in a drive thru) 2 weeks ago with just a wisp of smoke and a funny smell. Drove car on 1-40mi trips over the next 10 days, and no repeat. However, last Monday morning had a steadier wisp of smoke rising out of the scoop when stopped (leaving home, easy driving, but drastically cooler outside). No symptoms for the next 5 days (1-30mi trips). This morning (leaving home, easy driving, cool outside temp) had steady smoke coming from the "downpipe area"
From visual inspections over that period of time (and today), I have noticed that there is no visible residue (from burnt oil) on any part of the turbo (including the hard oil line) that can be accessed from the top and sides. Today, I also verified that smoking literally halts when turning the car off, or in otherwords the level of smoking looks to be related to "pressure in the line."
After studying the mech manual and online research, I am really hoping that that the oil line (underneath) is loosening/clogged/cracked/??? (this is only an unverified guess at the moment)... Otherwise, any educated opinions would be appreciated from those willing to give them. (Car is stock as far as the engine goes, 79k mi)
I decided to park the car for good today, so I'll be tackling this in the next few days...
Flashing the ECU should have no bearing on oil leakage or smoking.. There has to be a leak of some sort.. It could be oil leaking, exhaust leaking, a number of things.. The ECU will not make the enigne leak however...
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02 WRX.. Tearing up the streets Yet again.. "Hells Yea"..
check your intercooler! the first signs that your turbo could be going is the little bit of smoking .... pull the intercooler off and take a peak in the ThrottleBody side if there are traces of oil there I would say that its safe to assume that the oil seal in the turbo is shot.
If there is nothing there ... and I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I'm told that CYL#3 is the first to blow any seals ... CYL#3 is next to the turbo
Let us know what you come out with ... I'm curious to know
What is CYL#3? And if there is alittle oil in the throttle body, is that bad and can it be fixed? And if that can be fixed is it something that I could do? I took the intercooler of once and there was alittle oil there I believe.
It can be fixed, yes. Depends what we define as a "little" oil. lol. But my 04 WRX has done that twice. both on about 90 degree days and while idling for awhile, sitting in traffic.
Well, to be completely honest it just kinda stopped one day. Sometimes if it is a hot day and i'm idling, ill rev my engine a bit to get some air pushed through the turbo to keep it cooler. Since i've been doing that i havent had a problem. But i would still get it checked out.
Yea like mine stopped now, but I dont want something bad to happen to anything. Do you think I should just bring it to the dealer? Like is there suppose to be alittle oil there or is there suppose to be not at all? Bambo wrote above wrote that it could be something with the turbo.
Yeah, he is righ tin saying the first sign that your turbo is gonna die is smoking. It is ok if there is a small amount of oil there. It wont hurt anything. But you could check it to see more and more oil keeps getting in there over time. If you wanted to take it anywhere, i would say take it to the dealer u bought it off of. Is your car still under warranty?
Yea its still covered. Do you think it could possibly just be a bad gasket,, because when i got my aftermarket downpipe, it didnt come with a new gasket for between the turbo and the downpipe. So im hoping this is the problem and not the turbo. Did you get yours checked? Because it is not currently doing it now for me.
i never got mine checked becasue it happened almost 5 months apart. And yeah your problem is most likely a gasket, if your down pipe didnt come with new gaskets then i would say that is the problem. The dealer will probably have spare gaskets laying around.
well first off "CYL#3" is the number 3 cylinder in the motor. As for a fix ... most times when this starts happening it means that your turbo is on its way out ... easy fix ... get a new turbo and upgrade. you could probably get you turbo rebuilt but I cant see that being the most cost efficient fix(ie for the price/power you're probably better to upgrade).
"if there is alittle oil in the throttle body, is that bad and can it be fixed?"
Reason: When the oil seals in the turbo start to go, the turbo force feeds oil back through the intake system(ie through the intercooler) the reason I ask if it is on the throttle body side will give a possible indicator as to how long this has been going on for.
My guess is that you really only noticing this on cold starts and at idle(ie going through a drive thru)
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(Car is stock as far as the engine goes, 79k mi)
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