ok, i just drove my car for the first time in a while, it feels like the car is dying. when i got back home after a 2 min drive my car was smoking, and the exhaust is red hot from the exhaust leaving the turbo all the way down to the Y pipe. the smoke smells kinda like superglue. are one of my cats clogged up and stopping up my air flow so much that the engine is dying?

 

Probably a melted cat.

 

Clogged cat's tend to smell like rotten eggs or sulfer. What color smoke?

 

Well he said the exhaust was beat red from turbo to the Y pipe. There has to be something blocking the pipe to make it like that at idle. I dont think you can even run lean enough to make the pipes glow to after the main cat. It cant hurt to take it off and see if the car runs better.

 

Never said it wasn't the cat, I was just saying what they usually smell like, more than likely is. Rip em off and run open manifold and you'll be all happy once you're deaf

 

it didn't smell like a rotten egg, my mom's maxima smells like that sometimes, i know she needs a new cat, the smoke was white. i think the pipes got hot and burned up something causing the smoke, the turbo wasn't even red, but the pipe after it was red and i could see red right where the pipe splits to the mufflers.

 

my friend has a shop just up the road, i'm going to see if he can trailor it up there and then i'll cutt off the exhaust, i'm afraid to drive it with the oil and powersteering leak, i don't want to catch the dang car on fire.

 

You'd have to be running extremely lean to get it to heat up that far back without a clogged cat! Rip the cat off and stick in a race pipe and see what it does.

 

another thing it was doing at idle was making a puffing noise every couple of seconds. How loud is detonation? is it something that rocks your car or could it be subtle?

 

Extremely unlikely you're detonating at idle.

 

yea mines puts during idle and smokes rather alot when its cold i donno what it is.

 

I also noticed that there is this white powder in the tips of the mufflers, this has just appeared since the last time i drove it. That isn't from the turbo is it?

 

my car is doing the same thing and i was told it's the turbo

 

It's usually 1 of 3 things. 1) omp is stuck full open 2) turbo is blowing oil 3) bad oil seals (if you're burning oil that is)

 

hmm unbolt your exhuast and see what happens running. just pay close attention could be cats. but sounds like there is something else possible

 

i think gutting your cats makes things alot easyer!!!

 

I suppose disconnecting the power to the OMP and starting it up for a couple minutes would rule out OMP being stuck, no?

IE. no smoke = probably OMP
still smoke = probably not OMP

 

Well, since it's a series 4, there's no power, just the metal linkage rod that could be stuck, though rather unlikely.

 

Well, for an S5 it would generate an error code, go into limp mode, but it still should not smoke (if the case were the OMP being stuck wide open) - right?


Or does is still magically run when power is pulled from it?

In any event, mine has issues

 

Well, when it's stuck, it's just that, wether the power is removed or applied it's stuck in that one position. It usually won't cause so much smoke that you can't see through it, but it can cause a fair bit of smoke.