So lately I've been getting lots of smoke after the car's warmed up from the engine. It only happens when the car is warmed, not when its cold. The smoke smells like burnt oil, so I'm pretty sure there is an oil leak somewhere. The smoke comes from underneath the air pump/intake tubing, so I'm guessing theres a leak of oil some where near the turbo/Y-pipe. I'm going to replace the O2 sensor soon, and since I'm pretty sure I'll have to take out some of the parts near the oil leak, I might as well try to fix it. Does any one have any ideas where the smoke might be from, and what might cause it? Will some one please point me to the right direction? Thanks in advanced.

 

How many miles do you have on the car? I am doing an engine replacement on mine after 112K miles. Found a swelled up coolant hose that goes to the turbos that was leaking. It was spraying coolant down on the exhaust manifold & doing the same thing as yours. Looked like something was on fire in the engine bay after the car got hot. I hear that is a common problem after lots of miles on the `7s.

 

OP, be carefull if you can physically see smoke coming off the turbo area. It can actually catch fire. If you have oil burning off I would check the oil feed lines and verify oil is dripping down the center section and burning off. Also make sure it isnt your coupler on your ypipe leaking and letting oil burn off.

Speeder165, what part of TN are you in? Let me know if you need any help or need any parts.

 

what oil are you using? Is there an excessive ammount of oil in your intake tract?

i ask these questions because i was having exactly the same symptoms about a month ago. Smoke was comming from the same place. For me i had been taking my car to mazda for oil changes (bad idea) i figured they could at least do that right. Turns out they had been using 5w-20 so oil started leaking from my turbo seals i suspect and to the intake more so that normal. i just hope that there hasent been too much damage done. All i did was change my oil to 20w-50 and the leak has COMPLETELY stoped.

 

Well, I do my own oil changes, and use 10w30 (its too cold here in canada to use 20w50.. =\) I dont think theres any oil in the intake track (I took off the pipe that goes out of the IC and into the throttle body and there was no oil in there. I've been under the car several times, and all the times I've noticed oil on the right side of the bottom. (probably dripped from where the leak is) The car has about 85k kilometres on it.

I dont think it's coolant, because it doesnt smell sweet or anything. It just smells like oil. I also premix, but the smoke doesnt really smell like gas.

Can some you tell me exactly where to look? Pictures would be fantastic. Thanks.

 

It could be the rubber coupling (similar to a no-hub plumbing connector) above the turbos for the duct going to the intercooler. Due to age and heat, the coupling can start leaking. There is normally a little oil in the output of the turbo. The leak in the coupling can let oil drip on the hot turbos, causing a puff of smoke.
This rubber coupling is hard to see, but there's a similar coupling on the duct near the alternator.

 

How would I get to these parts? Should I just remove all the hoses going into the airbox, and then will I be able to access them better?

 

Right. Just remove the big air hose for access to the clamps for the coupling. Then remove the intercooler duct. If rubber is hard and the coupling is deformed, you've probably found the cause of the smoke. When you order a new coupling, you may want to order a couple of new clamps too. One of my clamps was stuck to the coupling by melted rubber.

 

was the smoke on the right side accompanied by smoke in the exhaust?

 

No, my exhaust doesn't smoke at all after the car's warmed up. The smoke in the engine only appears after the engine has warmed and been on for a bit. (I guess for the turbo to heat up and then burn the oil...)

 

mine started my oil leaked some where. so i stopped to fill it again, i filled it and immediately a whole mess of smoke came pouring out of the exhaust when i revved it. i also spilled some oil when i filled it.

so i assumed the smoke under the hood was some of the spilled oil. now though there is oil up on the rad core support on the turbo side. and some on the UIM. the two oil spots happened today i can see where the oil came from, but it is definitely not the stuff i spilled.

also i had a small bit of flames that i got out (i believe) before any damage.

any ideas what could have lead to this combo of problems?

 

My biggest concern is definately fire. Motor oil doesn't burn till 240 degrees Celsius I believe, and I'm pretty sure the engine temps aren't that hot? But I'm just scared that IF a fire starts, all that rubber tubing and everything is gonna burn and i'll have a big mess. I'm going to change my O2 sensor soon, so I'll probably taking out my intake hoses and stuff to get to there. When I do I'll probably have more info and possibly pics..

 

Yes, fires cause a very big mess. In fact they can spiral out of control before they can be extinguished and melt the hood off of the car. Preturbo temps are often in the 1500F range, plenty of heat for ignition.

Check your turbo oil return and inlet lines for leaks. That's what I'd start with. Also make sure that oil isn't being pushed into the intake tract and leaking out through one of the intake connections.

 

Would you mind posting some pictures of where these things are? That would be really helpful. Thanks.

 

Also, I would like to add that the inside of the car smells like burnt oil/gas some times when I turn on the fan, but not AC, and air flow from outside instead of circulation. There is no smell when i put on AC or circulation.

 

any pics from some one that has had this happen before?

 

Pics of an engine fire?

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...gine+fire+pics

 

i meant pics of this

 

Pull off the intake piping, it should be fairly easy to spot if there is an oil or water leak.

 

ive got all of the intake piping off, and the air pump as well. i still cant find exactly where the smoke is coming from. it looks like its coming from under the heat shield that is on the turbos. but i think the heat shield is acting like a pipe an just channeling the smoke. i think its coming from even further back some where under the brake cylinder. are there any oil lines back there that could be leaking?

and there seems to be excessive oil spraying out of the front turbo (keep in mind i have the front 1/2 of the y pipe off and can see into the turbo). i have heard this is normal before letting run a while.

 

any help

 

is there really no one that knows what the hell is back there?

 

I'm gonna change my O2 sensor soon (as soon as it comes in) so in about a week or so I will look in that area and figure out where MY problem is. I'll probably have some pics up then. School is almost over and I'm a little busy studying/going to the beach...