oh dear - smoke :-(

[mrloaf]

hey folks bit of a worrying problem, yesterday when i was checking oil levels etc i started the car before replacing the dipstick which in turnspraye oil all over the exhaust which started to smoke when the temp got up..(temp gauge still at lowest level though)

immediately switched off and checked and reasonable amount of oil was dripping under the car. topped up oil level and replaced dipstick and started the motor to let her get to temp to burn remaining oil away......20 minutes later still smoke signs

let the car cool for an hour and went about water hosing and excess oil i could see around the bay, after starting the car again went fine for 15 minutes then small traces of smoke started to appear then gradually got worse, also noticed there is atill oil dripping underneath the engine although not anywhere near as bad as before...

oh dear i thought!

any body able to shed any light on this by any chance?

[CosmosblueMR2]

To be honest mate water is not going to wash off oil now is it

sounds like it's just reacting to teh heat of the engine/manifold/exhaust (sounds like you covered it good and proper if it's still dripping down under the car )

jack it up, get some degreaser on it and clean it all off ?
or just burn it all off (go for a drive at night )

(if you are sure it's just the residual excess oil on hot components that is causing this smoke)

I guess you won;t be doing that again in a hurry

[Blokey]

...bit of a thought... Would you expect an engine that's breathing normally to spray oil out of the dipstick pipe when it turns over and fires up?

I started mine up a couple of times without putting the dipstick back (after an oil change - drain the oil, pull the dipstick out to help it drain, refill with X litres and forget to put it back - almost every time) and it didn't spray oil out.

It may be worth while checking the oil level on the dipstick to be sure you're not losing oil and that the smoke really is just from the spare oil that sprayed out.

It usually sticks to the engine and then drips on to the exhaust when it's warm so it can easily hang around for quite a while.

B.

[steve b]

...bit of a thought... Would you expect an engine that's breathing normally to spray oil out of the dipstick pipe when it turns over and fires up?

B.

absolutely not, usually the sort of thing that happens to turbos with hole in pistons or shagged rings, come on boost blow the dipstick out. An N/A definately should spray oil out the dipstick hole.

[mrloaf]

hmmm yeah my first thoughts were that i'd just let it turn over to burn the remaining oil off and took the car for 2 'spirited' runs (car was driving as normal and no warning lights/changes in temp guage etc) to aid this but after the guts of an hour and a half i thought it would be all gone by then,

also the smoke isnt steady, instead its clear......trickles of smoke......clear etc. i've left it up to a mechanic to have a look, dont want to take any chances

oh yeah one other thing, just after this happened i got a steady stream of smoke coming from the drivers tailpipe and very weak trail from the passengers side, which made me think...... this eventually calmed down so only a faint trail can be seen...

any ideas folks or anyone else had similar problems?! had disaster theorys running through my head last night that the internals were playing up, really really really hope this aint the case cause £££ is tight enough ffs!

[SwissHeavy]

Yeah my dipstick and it's holder fell off when I was in motion on a dual carriageway! Smoke everywhere billowing out of the engine lid! I was kecking it until I pulled over and realised what it was Turned out to be quite expensive to fix though!

Josh