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Can a bad TPS cause smoke?

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Old 04-05-05, 11:06 PM
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Can a bad TPS cause smoke?

So Im out taking my roommate for a ride in the FC when I stop at a light and look in my side mirror to see smoke, not good. Light turns green and a min later the CEL comes on, stop at the next light still smoke. Light goes green and 2 mins down the road the CEL goes off. Get back to my apartment, leave it in neutral and go to the back of the car, no smoke. Know I now the previous owner said the TPS can get whacky at some points when at idle anc cause a few things to go wrong, is that my case or no?
Old 04-05-05, 11:16 PM
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what color was the smoke? white=coolant black=fuel what did it smell like sweet=coolant. What is your car setup? It may be possible that your oil control rings in the turbo are starting to give way. Try hooking up a multi meter to your TPS sensor. I cant remember the exact specs at which they should be at so it would be better to wait for a more organized and detailed response. how was the car running the time it was smoking?
Old 04-05-05, 11:20 PM
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Originally Posted by igottafc
what color was the smoke? white=coolant black=fuel what did it smell like sweet=coolant. What is your car setup? It may be possible that your oil control rings in the turbo are starting to give way. Try hooking up a multi meter to your TPS sensor. I cant remember the exact specs at which they should be at so it would be better to wait for a more organized and detailed response. how was the car running the time it was smoking?
I couldnt tell what color the smoke was because I was in the car the whole time and when I finally got out to check it wasnt doing it anymore. Mods are:

- BNR Stage II Hybrid
- Blitz DD BOV
- RB 3" Turboback
- FD Rims with Toyo Proxes
- Greddy 720cc Secondaries
- Walbro 255
- S-AFC
- ACT Street/Strip Clutch
- HKS FCD
Old 04-05-05, 11:22 PM
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The car was running fins as far as I could tell, it idled smoothly at 750-800 rpm the whole time. No weird happenings from the engine, it drove fine.
Old 04-06-05, 07:58 AM
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Old 04-06-05, 10:11 AM
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No, I would say a TPS problem isn't going to cause any smoke. One reason you see the smoke is that there is no converter on the car. The converter has a tendency to eliminate some of the smoke unless there is a great amount. If there is smoke, remember, it's coming from somewhere. If I remember correctly the car had a new turbo installed which should eliminate that unless an overabundance of oil being supplied.
Check the fault codes:
http://www.1300cc.com/howto/how2/codes.html
At least you'll be able to correct this.
Old 04-06-05, 03:18 PM
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Alright, it smoked some more again, not much, it was kind of hard to tell with the wind. Either way it seems to be white but again its hard to tell with the wind. It was idling fine and no CEL came on. Could it be normal just because of no cat being on the car?

EDIT: see post below

Last edited by Mindspin311; 04-06-05 at 03:39 PM.
Old 04-06-05, 03:39 PM
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Alright I pulled the codes and this is what I got:

11 - Intake Air Thermosensor
13 - Pressure Sensor
15 - Oxygen Sensor
17 - Feedback System
18 - Throttle Sensor (narrow range)

The car did smoke a little again today, it was hard to tell what color it really was because of the wind but it seemed to be white and had a hint of the sweet smell which would relate to coolant like someone said earlier. Would any of those CEL codes cause smoke?
Old 04-06-05, 03:56 PM
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Well, I can't see that they would cause the car to smoke. Thermosensor fault 68 degrees, pressure sensor 29.9, oxygen sensor & feedback system cancelled, and tps is fixed at full open. This is from the FSM.
I'd get the codes fixed then worry about the rest. Have you taken a compression test on the engine before, or since you've purchased the car?
Old 04-06-05, 04:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Mindspin311
Alright I pulled the codes and this is what I got:

11 - Intake Air Thermosensor
13 - Pressure Sensor
15 - Oxygen Sensor
17 - Feedback System
18 - Throttle Sensor (narrow range)

The car did smoke a little again today, it was hard to tell what color it really was because of the wind but it seemed to be white and had a hint of the sweet smell which would relate to coolant like someone said earlier. Would any of those CEL codes cause smoke?
Justin, most of those codes are old ones. Disconnect the battery for a bit, then wait for one to come on again and it'll give you the one.
Old 04-06-05, 04:48 PM
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Thinking about it more, the O2 sensor wouldn't be thrown off by the exhaust would it? I know #13 was from a while back and that was fixed, so i'm guessing the ones under it were new. Maybe the O2 sensor that came with the new exhaust was being messed up? The only thing it smoked when I had it was a slight bit of oil on really cold starts when it was like sub-20deg, and i'm guessing that was off the turbo, and that left once it was warm. Never smoked any other color AFAIK and I had been driving it around all the time previous to selling the car, and it wasn't really running under any changed conditions so I don't know why that would start. I guess troubleshooting will come friday when we get the car cleaned up and all sorted out for the injector install over the weekend.
Old 04-06-05, 05:59 PM
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Ok the smoke is only at idle, it was smoking a decent amount of white when I first started it up and it was still idling at ~1200rpm. Once I got to driving it went away and I didnt see any smoke when I got back to my aparentment and got out to look at it.
Old 04-06-05, 06:28 PM
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Originally Posted by Mindspin311
Ok the smoke is only at idle, it was smoking a decent amount of white when I first started it up and it was still idling at ~1200rpm. Once I got to driving it went away and I didnt see any smoke when I got back to my aparentment and got out to look at it.

mine kinda did that too, however it only smoked during shifts or hard acceleration and before warmup


it was a coolant seal issue, you might wanna do the bubble test that people do to diagnose coolant seals

and yes .. reset your ECU and then check codes again ... should give you something more specific to look at
Old 04-06-05, 06:43 PM
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OK reset the ECU and drove it again. When I first turned it on, no smoke. Drove 3 seconds down the street to pick up a friend and while waiting for him it started to smoke, he says its oil. Drove off and it smoked at one of the 3 stoplights I hit then back at his house when I dropped him off. No CEL yet, idles fine, oil pressure seems fine. I dont get it.
Old 04-06-05, 07:34 PM
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Maybe one of those oil reducer lines from BNR is needed? I remember reading someone having an oil burning issue on a BNR before and he sent him something like that. Hondahater maybe.
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