Did an oil change (halfords 10w40) and flush on my 1.8 mk1 a few weeks ago. I added wynns lifter treatment and all seemed well until the following morning when the car kicked out lots of blue/ grey smoke on start up. This cleared after a few mins and the car drove well. This behaviour continued all week with varying amounts of smoke. The following weekend I dropped the oil and replaced it with with out adding the lifter treatment, the car still smokes on morning and after work start ups. I have added wynns stop smoke which didn’t help but as the weather has got warmer there is less smoke! The engine feels a bit lumpy and noisy on start up and hesitant on accelerating but fine once warmed up. Any ideas?
Hi, well the symptoms are leaking (worn or hardened) valve stem seals; the oil around the valves leaks in during standing.
It may be just an unlucky co-incidence with the oil change or possibly the new oil and additive detergents have shifted some carbon which was sealing them. Check the links below and you’ll see the lifter treatment is designed to shift deposits which can cause sticky (hence noisy) lifters,
Another Wynns treatment might just help; the engine stop leak aims to soften old hard seals and hence restore sealing and specifically mentions valve stem seals,
Grey can be fuelly and white seriously rich. Combined with a little bit of previously Un noticed oil smoke it can look bad.
If the car runs rough and all you have done is change the oil then you need to solve the rough running. If it’s running rough you will be noticing smoke during these periods that is a promise.
Yes it may be the valve stem oil seals but no point running snake oil through the engine until.youve solved the more obvious problem and see where you’re at then.
And then if it’s still smoking if actually put my money on the oil control rings. They are the more likely candidate to fail after a flush than the valve stem oil seal.
I changed the plugs at the same time as doing the oil change. I have noticed less smoking as the weather has got warmer and this morning no smoke at all. Could something be causing it to over fuel on cold days and not when it’s warmer?
Little update, bit cooler this morning and lots of smoke! All gone in about a quarter of a mile.
If it is oil smoke on startup, this has been debated before.
Usual culprit is ineffective oil rings. IIRC valve stem seals are too high up to allow enough oil to pass to cause this problem.
Rough running, as skuzzle says, indicated another, totally separate issue. If this has all occurred since you have serviced the engine, seems to much of a coincidence to not have been caused by something you have done or changed. Hope you find an easy solution.
Reading this with interest, (Honest), because my 1.8 Mk2 has been doing this until February, (Definitely oil smoke, tell by the smell). The only thing that changed is that I switched to Shell V-power for a month to clean her out. She’s not smoked on start up since, MPG has increased by an extra 8 - 10 mpg and is smoother running. Have since switched back to regular unleaded, (Still Shell though). The question is, could the fuel actually be responsible for stopping the smoking?
This sounds reasonable - maybe the engine treatment has caused plug fouling. Black smoke is what we used to get in the old days of manual chokes, and over-choking, these days it’s diesels that produce it when you put your foot down. On a modern car you would notice quite a change in your fuel consumption. Lighter blue-white smoke you get from burning oil, if it’s steam you could have an interesting problem!
Ah, well it’s not Sahara dust anyway Looks like oil smoke, does it smell oily? If it’s water vapour the tailpipe will often be wet/dripping, and if it’s fuel vapour you’d smell it or be getting backfires. Oil would probably cause a bit of spluttering whilst it cleared, it fouls the plugs and lowers the octane rating. Valves stem seals, or rings as Nick said. Did you try the seal conditioner?
It kinda just smells rich. It does drip a drop of water out of the exhaust after a few minutes at idle. Going to check everything over again at the weekend and put some 20w50 in. Did a compression test and got 200,200,190,200.
Hi, 20W50 is a bit heavy really, I wouldn’t use it but it’s your call.
It will smell at bit rich at start up but it would be a coincidence if that were the problem as you only changed the oil. You’d see water going down if it was using water, but a bit of water vapour from condensation/combustion, yes, for sure most cars do it.
You can check for rings by getting it hot then on a quicker road such as dual carriageway with islands snap the throttle shut as you approach for 100 yards then check the rear mirror or have someone follow as you open up again looking for blue smoke. (On the over-run pressure drops in the cylinders and oil is drawn up worn bores or rings. You open up and get a cloud of blue smoke, and in older cars, a pinking rattle due to the lower octane rating but newer cars may manage that with knock sensors.)
Did you try the seal conditioner? Many folk my age will remember the modern detergent oils and synthetics causing oil leaks by dissolving carbon which was sealing old engines. A key ingredient of oil for older engines nowadays is seal conditioner, just found the Mobil data sheet here and they wouldn’t add it if it didn’t work. It won’t fix torn and split seals or worn rings but it can help in some cases, http://www.mobil.com/USA-English/Lubes/PDS/GLXXENINDMOMobil_Super_High_Mileage.aspx
It’s got wynns stop smoke in now, thats supposed to soften seals but it’s just getting worse. The oil I have is for older engines with the same sort of additives as the Mobil with the sound of it. If nothing works I’m going to have to park it up and take the bus!
Looks like oil smoke, does it smell oily? If it’s water vapour the tailpipe will often be wet/dripping, and if it’s fuel vapour you’d smell it or be getting backfires. Oil would probably cause a bit of spluttering whilst it cleared, it fouls the plugs and lowers the octane rating. Valves stem seals, or rings as Nick said. Did you try the seal conditioner?