I broke it...... but what have i broke???

[gwammli]

Was driving home from work yesterday, had a little puff of blue out the back..... checked mirror 2 mins later and am laying down enough fog to hide the QE2.... bugger!!!
The car has been using a bit of oil of late, but the water level remains the same. Took the boost pipe off the intercooler to see if any oil came through that when running, and i get a puff on start up, but it cuts out. Still getting a grey/white smoke/steam out the back too....... so my question is have i blown the turbo or the head gasket or is it something else????

Any help will be greatfully appriciated.

The car is a 2000 plate S60 T5, completely standard. 153k on clock.

Ta!

[Porcine_Aviator]

Grey/White suggests Head gasket.
Check the header tank for mayo like substance, that's oil in the water.
This happens when the gasket splits and oil gets into the water ways, this then gets churned around and mixed up like mayonnaise, and it sticks to the header tanks filler cap.

You will also find it stuck on the bottom of the dipstick.

It could be a head off and new gasket if there's mayo.

Blue/White could be you have lost a piston ring, this is what it sounds like when you say she has been using a lot of oil lately.

This would pour Blue/White smoke out of the rear end and if that's the case then either doing a top off, or dropping the sump depends on who's doing it.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings.

But get it checked and I could be wrong.

[gwammli]

Checked the dip-stick and the oil filler cap.... nothing except oil. But when its was running there was a bit of smoke coming out of both. But now it wont run properly, hunting on tickover and the enigne management light is on..... think its gonna have to be a trip to the local dealer.... this has got expensive written all over it :(

[Porcine_Aviator]

Check your plugs to see if they are oily, does the oil on the dipstick look burnt?

This would mean that the oil is burning inside the engine.

If it's clean then it's not the rings, but I can't say 100% and I think that the best bet would be to have someone take a look.

Just noticed this was my 1000th post LOL

[JUDGENINJA]

if you've chucked so much whiteish smoke out of the exhaust that you disappear inside it, then it'll be the turbo..

Get your cylinders pressure tested anyway to verify that your engine is ok..

[volvoturboman]

Yeah I'd say turbo seals mate, it leaks oil into the exhaust which then blows alot of smoke.

[gwammli]

Thanks all for the help, its going into a garage tomorrow morning for compression checks and for them to give it a look to.... will keep you posted.

[thebadger]

I agree with the Judge.

The fact that it happened at speed suggests the turbo, if the oil return or one of the pipes has cracked/seal ring has popped, you would lose oil & get blue smoke above 3k on the revs, but still get some smoke below that just from the burning oil in the exhaust.

[phil_woods]

A similar thing happened to be when I drove an x-type jag diesel. I lost power, looked behind and could see masses of smoke. Being a complete pleb I thought oh well ill drive it home. By the time I got home I had burnt all the oil and pop went the engine!
oops
oh well it was only a jag!

[Dangerous Dave]

A problem I had was the bottom seal on the oil return pipe has split, and was spraying oil all over the back of the engine and onto the exhaust causing a huge plume of smoke to come out the back. Obviously the way to check this is to have a quick look underneath, and you'll see a oil residue on all the underbody rear of the sump down the centreline. Another way to tell is there would be smoke coming from the back of the engine from the oil sprayed onto the manifold and exhaust

[thebadger]

^
I had mine replaced in the last big overhaul.

Common fault on the later P1/early P2 2.3lt T5's.

[gwammli]

Thanks to all for help and advice. I took the car to the local garage i use, but when i started it in the morning, no smoke at all just the engine management light. They plugged it into their diagnostics and it came back with code P1238 boost sensor.... ahd that reset and the car is going fine, no probs now at all...........