Occasional White Smoke...

[Miko226]

After i had my Active Downpipes installed Occasionally white smoke will dump out my exhaust shortly after starting up and while warming up sometimes then goes away once engine is at operating temps... Should i be worried? is the Turbo going? Gasket? Could this be because the rest of my exhaust is still stock and carbons building up in the other cats, res, muffler?

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by Miko226

After i had my Active Downpipes installed Occasionally white smoke will dump out my exhaust shortly after starting up and while warming up sometimes then goes away once engine is at operating temps... Should i be worried? is the Turbo going? Gasket? Could this be because the rest of my exhaust is still stock and carbons building up in the other cats, res, muffler?

Check out E90post, there is a sister thread that will give you some insight. Long story short, if you go full catless there is going to be some smoke, I've never seen a fully catless car with literally zero smoke at any point. However, depending on how much smoke you're talking about, you could have turbo seals that are on the way out. The actual turbos can still make/hold boost, but the smoke will be there to stay, and will probably get worse with time. Does it have a distinct smell? If it smells a bit sweet it could be coolant (not good). My car puffs light grey smoke when I come to a stop about 40% of the time, sometimes it does it, sometimes there's nothing that I can see. It never smokes for more than a few seconds, so if i'm at a light for a full minute it's not pouring out smoke the entire time. When the car is warm it seems to smoke less. My turbos looked to be in good shape 2 weeks ago when I had the downpipes off, so i'm operating under the assumption that my seals are still OK. There doesn't seem to be a full consensus on smoking with FBO, which is why I wonder if there is anyone out there who is FBO with zero smoke. As in, none at any point.

[Miko226]

Thanks that's exactly when mine smokes and it's only for a few seconds as well seemed to be normal to me

[ChrisCote]

My bet is a bit of oil is slipping past your seals.

I used to drive a Mazdaspeed which are notorious for this issue. a large % of the k04 turbo seals would go out around 40k miles causing the infamous idle smoke. Engine cold or warm after a min or two of idle at one point mine would pour white smoke out. (eventually fixed with better oil and upgraded oil restrictor bolt) just fyi

i wouldn't worry about it, like Pats said FBO on any car smokes

[1speedbike]

Does it smell? If it smells sweet and is very white it might be coolant. If it's darker greyish white it may be oil.

If there's only a little bit of smoke it's really nothing to worry about; just try to monitor oil levels the best you can (yea, it sucks not having a real dipstick). You might be losing just a bit of oil.

My last idea is that it's condensation (water) building up a little in the exhaust overnight, and then burning off into steam once you start up the car. You mentioned it happens on startup, so I assume it gets just barely cool enough overnight in palm beach county for some dew to form, and then you start up the car to go to work and as the exhaust heats up enough to evaporate all of the water you start seeing the smoke tapering off..

I get white smoke once in a while shortly after startup once in a while... pretty rarely, maybe randomly once every few weeks. I don't really think anything of it, I just assume a little bit of gas or oil made it past the engine without combusting and just vaporized up in the exhaust somewhere. Either that or the water idea.

If the smoke isn't billowing out, though, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[NickyC]

I get greyish smoke every now and then when I come to a full stop. It only lasts for a split second, but it's a heavy burning oil smell. It started doing this as soon as I went with a straight through exhaust, to the day. Since it only happens when I come to a stop, I just attribute it to unspent fuel or whatever cooking off as I stop. It happens pretty rarely though, maybe once a day, sometimes less. I'm not concerned about it at all, catless cars just smoke/smell more.

[Miko226]

Originally Posted by NickyC

I get greyish smoke every now and then when I come to a full stop. It only lasts for a split second, but it's a heavy burning oil smell. It started doing this as soon as I went with a straight through exhaust, to the day. Since it only happens when I come to a stop, I just attribute it to unspent fuel or whatever cooking off as I stop. It happens pretty rarely though, maybe once a day, sometimes less. I'm not concerned about it at all, catless cars just smoke/smell more.

Yeah this about the same as me it is very rare when it happens and started when i cut the first set of cats out seemed normal to see some when removing them especially on turbo cars

[NihonX]

It's just condensation. If you have secondary cats, you shouldn't see the smoke.
If you have a full straight pipe exhaust, you'll be puffing smoke like mad.
It's still going to have a burnt smell to it because it is coming from the engine after all.

[1911A145]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

I've never seen a fully catless car with literally zero smoke at any point. There doesn't seem to be a full consensus on smoking with FBO, which is why I wonder if there is anyone out there who is FBO with zero smoke. As in, none at any point.

My car is FBO, and I have never had a single smoking exhaust, at idle or otherwise. Neither were any of my other cars I've boosted.

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by 1911A145

My car is FBO, and I have never had a single smoking exhaust, at idle or otherwise. Neither were any of my other cars I've boosted.

Thanks for the response, that's interesting. Does your car have any cats at all? From what I can tell you're in a minority (FBO guys with zero smoke at any point), then again most of us could well be driving around on crappy seals

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by 1911A145

My car is FBO, and I have never had a single smoking exhaust, at idle or otherwise. Neither were any of my other cars I've boosted.

Have you had someone drive behind you to verify that?

The amount of smoke and time it smokes is ever so small. Unless you have someone driving behind you - you would not know your car is smoking.

[1911A145]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

Thanks for the response, that's interesting. Does your car have any cats at all? From what I can tell you're in a minority (FBO guys with zero smoke at any point), then again most of us could well be driving around on crappy seals

no cats at all.

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Have you had someone drive behind you to verify that?

The amount of smoke and time it smokes is ever so small. Unless you have someone driving behind you - you would not know your car is smoking.

of course...