i was just about to post a similar question, but after doing a search found that its a very common problem with having smoke on startup for a few moments. I dont drive my car everyday and its got no pre-cat. I think winter has alot to do with noticing the problem.

It sounds to me that its fine as long it doesn't continue after the car has warmed up, correct???

 

Correct^

 

well, it's been warm the last couple days (65*F or so) and the car has barely been smoking when i start it, much like in this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=F_BJs6w2vws&feature=related

when it's colder outside (20-40*) it smokes quite a bit more, and for like 10 minutes straight. i can even see it while driving.

 

yeah mate, as i said i got the same when winter came around. Its freezing here and there seems to be alot of condensation.

 

My car does that sometimes.

Upon startup after a couple of days since i dont use it everyday, i get a cloud of a light blue tint of smoke that lasts for about 3 seconds, then the cloud disappears. IM sure its nothing major but this normally does this towards the end of the oil change period. Its already 3 months 1 week right now. But then sometimes it doesnt smoke anything. Idk. My turbos are original 71k miles.

I dont understand how though because i hardly drive the car, can the oil be that diluted?

 

Thats the same tint color of smoke i get for the initial 3 seconds of startup. It never stays like that afterwards.

 

mine does that for like 5 minutes.

it smokes about twice as much and for about twice as long when it's cold outside.

i am about to ditch my stock twins and upgrade to a t04e, but i'm wondering if this smoke could actually be coming from the engine?

 

I would.

I dont wanna jinx myself but i cant wait til my turbos take a ****. Then i can upgrade to a single or perhaps some BNR's.

 

you would what?

 

Ditch your twins.

 

i was thinking about disconnecting my oil feed from the turbos and re-route it to the filler neck so i can start the car and see if the turbo oil seals are actually causing the smoke... retarded idea?

 

that pic is after running for a couple minutes.
it gets worse the colder it is outside on the cold starts.

 

That looks blue enough to be oil smoke but I don't think your turbos would be smoking that much at idle. You probably have a problem other than your turbos. Turbo's would be a big plume of big smoke starting either at around 2000rpm or over 4500rpm depending on which one was toast/leaking.

The smoke probably looks worse than it is if you're taking these pictures on a cold day. See if you can get it inside a warm warehouse or heated garage and check out how bad the smoke is. The colder the air around the car is the more smoke you'll get though, ruining your experiment.

To be honest though, it's most likely just regular winter exhaust. I have a work van for commuting and when I start it up in the mornings (Around 32f these days) there is so much exhaust fog/smoke it blocks the rear windscreen. And a lot of other cars, even new ones, do the same thing. I wouldn't worry too much unless it smells like coolant or strong burning oil.

 

ok then what else could it be? i can go for a quick drive when the car is still cold and let vacuum pull the engine down from redline and get zero smoke. that rules out the oil control rings in the engine, and that's about the only other thing that could cause the smoke...

that's pretty much totally incorrect.