Hey Guys...
My cars been having a few troubles lately, and im already having a set of turbos rebuilt, but today when I turned on the car cold, just at idle with the hood up, the turbos were emitting a healthy dose of white smoke. Now, besides the fact that I may not be able to drive the car because of a transmission issue, is the car safe to drive about 20 min on the highway with the shape these turbos are in? Engine only has 15k on it and I'd like it to last a bit longer.
Thanks

 

DO NOT DRIVE!!!!!

White smoke is indication of possible coolant leak. If you drive with a coolant leak on the turbos you may cause a fire. Coolant can ignite at a certian temp. Fix the coolant leak BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE!!!!!!

 

Agreed.

 

could also be an exhaust leak. was on mine. check your coolant level and get under the car to check and tighten up the dp bolts.

if its coolant be careful. it can cause a fire.

 

I have this same problem on my FD I noticed this morning. For the past few weeks ive noticed a weird smell in the interior cabin, and I decided to turn on the car and let it idle cold with the hood up.

After a while I saw some white smoke coming from the turbo area, not thick, but a good amount of white smoke. Once the car warmed up, no smoke at all. I always check my coolant every week and including this morning, and the coolant has not gone down at all, I havent had to add any coolant in about 9 months and I drive a lot. What could this be?

 

WHERE THE F**K you been man.... pm me and ill have a look at the car later this week!

 

coolant can catch on fire? what are you guys smoking in this section...

pressure test the cooling system to find out where the coolant is going(if it is coolant), most of the bigger cheesy auto parts stores rent the pressure testers. could just be some oil burning off on the gaskets also, which is generally due to worn irons. any fluid in the exhaust will find gaps in the exhaust gaskets and burn off there when you start the car cold, unless it is an external leak which unfortunately is unlikely because the soft coolant lines aren't above the exhaust.

 

coolant?

 

Ethelyne glycol is a petrochemical product, and can autoignite at about 750 F.

Chances are low that a 50/50 mix would ignite, but it is possible dripping onto exhaust components.

 

sounds like a bad myth busters episode...

been working on cars for 22 years and i have never seen coolant catch on fire, ever.

 

Smoke? Ha. I would be worried something was wrong if it WASN'T smoking lol

 

**** luck if he still has the same problem 7 years later.

 

Ha. Got em.

 

remember hes had bunches of problems with the car... hardly drives it! besides the fact that he comes down to southFL once in a while where the car is at

 

I have smoke coming from my Turbo as well
Definitely smells like oil.
Happened while i was doing the dragon
Time for a rebuild

 

I really am totally stumped as to what it was that one day that I saw white smoke from my turbos, because I havent noticed my coolant level going down (although keeping a very close eye on that) and my oil level does go down ocassionally, but it only goes down like once every 2 or 3 weeks that ill need to add a 1/4 of a quart of oil. I know part of that is because of the oil metering pump and the design of the engine, and the other part is due to a little oil leaking im sure. the amount of oil leaking I have is so small that it burns up before it ever hits the ground and I never have oil spots on my driveway ever ( 2 1/2 years so far since my friend and I did the oil pan leak repair )

So ya but this is def not the end of this story, something is going on with my car, I just dont know what it is right now, but I will post back here when I have new news

 

This happened to me shortly after I got the car...turned out to be the start of a blown coolant seal. One time I started it up and it began smoking from the turbo area, but never did it again. Shortly after that, cold starts resulted in white smoke from the tailpipe, and hot starts were a bitch...


Oh, and coolant can start a fire? REALLY?! C'mon guys, I thought it was common knowledge that COOLANT DOESN'T BURN...

 

yep, the beginning symptoms are intermittent but doing a cooling system pressure test will almost definitely tell you if the engine is leaking water internally.

 

This is what I fear as well As of right now I added coolant one time and that was last week sometime, and my coolant level has not gone down yet and ive driven then car every single day. Occasionally during cold starts, it'll start up, and have absolutely no power at all, and ill have to revv the engine about 10 times to regain power and normal idle. hot starts are really not a problem, but again I think it'll take at least a month if not more for me to be sure whats going on if these are beginning signs of coolant seal failure.

Over the past few months, I have already started saving for a second car, and I would like to be able to at least make that happen so if things turn out to be really bad, I'll at least have another car to drive around until i figure out what im gonna do with the FD.