Hi everyone.
I had posted for suggestions on how to suck some oil out because of overfilling.
My car smokes blue at startup and I thought it would be because of the bit more oil than what should be there that I put in when I changed it about 1 week ago.
Here's my story.
The car has been perfectly fine until about 2/3 weeks ago.
On cold startup it would smoke a bit white, no coolant smell, coolant level is fine, no dropping and what not, the smoke would start about 30 seconds to a minute after startup and would continue for a couple of minutes and then disappear under any other circumstances.
Around 2/3 weeks ago I notices at startup that the smoke was (or seemed to be) a bit on the blue side rather than white. I thought it might be the lighting conditions or my paranoia, so I just continued to monitor it.
Things didn't change at all until last week, when I had the oil change.
I put in AMSoil 10W30 synth in(I cannot tell you exactly what oil was in prior to this, but the previous owner told me he only put in Castrol GTX in the car for the entire time he owned it).
From the first start, I noticed that the car smoked a bit more and this seemed to actually be worse the next 2/3 times I drove the car (I only drive my FD a couple of times a week).
Today, after asking for suggestions on how to take the oil out (I thought the bit more would be the problem), I checked the level and it is below the max tick, which means that some of it has already gone out of the tail pipe; the smoking at startup was just the same as the last time, when there was a bit more oil in the car.
The smoke seems to disappear as the car warms up; when the stock temp gauge reaches about 3/4 up towards the normal position, the smoke is gone. I drove around today to see if it would smoke while driving, but I didn't notice anything. I stopped in my driveway and got out of the car to see if there was any smoke at idle at the end of my run and it looked like it was clear, I could not see any smoke at all.
I thought it would be oil overfill, but now I am thinking there is something wrong with the turbos.
I would like to know if you could give me a list of things to check and possibly a way to diagnose the problem (a step-by-step sort of thing).
For your information, here's the description of the car:
a bit less than 60K miles;
as far as I know, engine and turbos are original, but I wasn't able to get confirmation either way;
the car is completely stock with the exception of the DP and it has a vacuum hose job (at least I think, since somebody here told me that the original hoses are plastic and the ones in my car are all rubber).
I have been extremely diligent with the car (warmup, cooldown) and I haven't really pushed it that much, I probably got on the second turbo briefly no more than 6 times since I've had it (end of February, beginning of March), I have started it religiously every 10 days, I had it warm up completely, I drove it around any time it was possible during the time I didn't use it (I live in Canada, mid April would be it). Driving at 3k in fifth, the oil pressure shows right at 4 on the stock gauge. As far as I can tell, I didn't see any changes in the way oil pressure acts on this gauge from before to after changing the oil.
Any help would be great. I am very upset as it sounds like the turbos (at least one) are shot and that means money and more money, and I thought I would have done turbo and engine at the same time a bit down the road (I won't put more than 3K miles a year on this car).

 

Bumping help?

 

I would guess you turbos are leaking oil....but. PM me

 

How many miles on the motor, if the guy told you he was running brand x oil and wasn't having any problems why would you go 180 degrees and put in synthetic, ever heard the saying if it ain't broke don't F it up., how many miles on your turbo's...would it be possible the seals are bad (any reason to suspect them being bad ?)

 

I agree, I would have never gone synthetic this late in the game. Seal swell is entirely different with synthetic, and using straight synthetic oil without isolating the oil metering system from it is most likely the cause. The best thing to do if you want to continue running synthetic is to consider going premix and to eliminate the oil metering pump. Your other alternative is to switch back to regular oil and change your oil every 2000 kms.

 

OK.
I didn't think this would be such a problem. Also, all I know about the previous owner is what he told me, but he's not a car guy, he would just bring it to be serviced, at least it is what he told me.

To answer your other questions, I wrote the mileage on the first post. Less than 60K miles on both, as worst case scenario, which means that I assume this engine and its turbos have never been rebuilt before. The car does have less than 60K miles and it looks like it as well, all the way around, underside, engine bay, interior, you name it, it is great, only "downside", it has been repainted, but the job is better than most.
When you say seals, do you mean apex seals, or seals within the turbos assebly?
The car drives fine, I don't really feel any problems with it. I cannot honestly say that it is any weaker than it has ever been since I have owned it.
Like I said before, I believe there was a tiny bit of blue smoke in the exhaust prior to changing the oil, then it has gone crazy.

Could there be any other causes?

The only other thing I have done to the car was to remove the UIM to change the air thermosensor and I replaced one of the coolant hoses attached to the UIM that was leaking. I have never run out of coolant or gone low on coolant as I have cheked levels every time I used the car (which is why I realized there was a little leak somewhere in the system.
The engine startsup perfectly, it idles regularly, smoothly, oil pressure is as I described, 4 @ 3K (on stock gauge, it is what it was showing before), while cruising on the highway at about 125/130 Kms/Hr (if I am not mistaking) in fifth gear.

 

For the amount of miles on your motor a bit of blue smoke isn't a big surprise. By seals I meant turbo (that's what you were talking about) not Apex. Without getting into the dino/synthetic debate if dino oil is all the motor has seen I wouldn't have changed to the synthetic until after the rebuild (if and when it comes) it's possible the synthetic is cleaning up some of the deposits built up over the years and may be contributing to the smoke your seeing. You may want to push the car a bit and see if it gets worse after the run, during the run, or doesn't change at all. I run a 20w50 and run just over 60psi at 3k in 5th gear (about 80 mph) not sure what the 4 represents unless it's bar. which would be about 60 and not too bad for synthetic.

 

Thank you for your help.
It seems that it is burning it, as the level has gone down since I replaced the oil.
Now, would that mean I need a turbo rebuild or some other intervention on the turbos?
Does this mean -as I read around here- that it's better to just buy a good condition used set and replace as rebuilds don't necessarily work?

 

I've had experiences where a change of oil type can hugely affect the amount of oil burned, either a lot more or a lot less consumption. Try going back to a thicker (at least 10W30) mineral oil before you go off the deep end and do major repair work. I'd be willing to bet it helps.

Synthetics, because of their different viscosity characteristics, can produce a large leak or consumption where mineral oil won't.

 

From what I've read, your best bet is to look for a set of turbos that were taken off of a car only because the owner decided to go single. If they were pulled from a blown motor, the fins may be damaged from the apex seal. You're flipping a coin when you buy used, but I hear the rebuilds are hit-or-miss as well.

 

Just an FYI, the oil level is probably going to go down no matter if you have bad seals in your turbos or not. Not only do FD's leak at different places throughout the car, most notably the oilpan, but they inject oil into the combustion chamber as well. A bit of a drop in oil level after a while is not uncommon.