Lately its been getting very very cold here. I've got landscapers doing our drive way so I'm unable to put my FD in the garage. I decided to let it sit for the weekend. It rained as well.

Ok so heres the situation. When I tried to start the car, the idle was very lumpy and the shifter and the whole car was shaking irradically. I decided to shut off immediatley. I waited about for a couple of seconds and tried to turn the car on again. This time it barely reaced 1k rpm and the idle was struggling and died.

I knew this had to do with the cold weather in some form. Finally I tried the car about a minute later and the idle was hesistant for a couple of seconds and was normal afterwards. But I popped the hood and got some white smoke coming from the turbo section, most of it looked like it was coming around the front turbo/ y-pipe area. It went away after a while.

Also I was getting mad amounts of white smoke on the start up. But since it was sitting out all weekend in cold weather I expected a lot of condensation and it eventually went away.

Now, my question is has this happened to anyone where the cold weather effected your start up on your FD like mine. Also can anyone give tell me why there was smoke coming from the turbos? Thanks.

 

Yep the smoke seems normal upon very cold start ups, buuuuuut the smoke from the turbos don't seem very normal... perhaps a gasket leak?

-Dan

 

If its a gasket leak, can you give me a ballpark estimate on parts and labor to fix?

Also, does that shakey/stalled start up seem normal? Whats the prognosis on that?

 

It could be a gasket, but wouldn't that cause a exhaust leak sound under the hood? But that is what it sounds like, either a hole somewhere or a blown gasket. The cost is going to be very pricey as a lot of shops are going to want to ppull the engine to get to the turbos even though you can get to them while still in engine bay. Usually around $400 for engine pull then the cost of other labor and parts, gaskets not going to be a whole lot of money. I just had another thought too, if it's coming from y-pipe area then you may just have a boost leak somewhere, hole in rubber hose/coupler from y-pipe. But I could be wrong about this and your car could be fine..........o well, just my .02!

 

Parts and labor? Damn the man just ******* do it yourself!

And how cold could it really be getting in San Diego? Maybe 55-60?

LOL...I just checked weather.com...looks like you guys had an overnight low of 46 last week. And you said it was very, very cold...hahaha

 

I got to put my FD in the garage last night. Turned it on and no problems. Weird ****, I tell ya.

 

Any shop who tells you that the engine needs to be pulled to get to the turbos is full of it. Once the intake, air pump, and all the peripheral hoses are removed, the turbos are *fairly* easy to remove. Well, hope you don't have a bad back. There are no rubber hoses/lines that contain oil in that region .. so I doubt it's a pinhole of any sort.

SoCal, I would check the turbo oil and coolant inlet and outline lines, just to make sure everything is okay. Could be a leaky gasket on one of the inlet/outlet lines. If you have a leak, there should be some residue caked around there. This white smoke ... was it thick, cloudy smoke or transparent, steam-like smoke? Thick, cloudy = oil or coolant; steam-like = water/condensation. Hopefully, it was just the cold weather freaking you out.

 

redrotorR1, you're making me feel better, it did rain when my FD was sitting out on the weekend. Also, the white smoke was nothing at all thick, more thin like silky. I hope it was water, I'll check the connections later on as well. Thanks.

 

you may want to check your turbo coolant hoses...there are two of 'em...they have a tendency to burst and blow coolant all over the interstate.

ask me how I know!