Blue Smoke and Smell of Oil and Petrol

[graemewelch]

Ohh yes they do! I've seen plenty of Turbos let go and a few of them have been on the motorway. Last time I seen one was on a Vauxhall Zafira. On the M25 about 100m in front of me doing about 70. All of a sudden....plumes of white smoke billowed across the motorway and bought the whole M25 to a stop. In this case it was a complete Turbo failure, not only that, it started drinking engine oil and the engine run away. Bloke didn't know what to do, whilst he frantically got all his family out the car and on the hard shoulder, I slipped onto the Hard shoulder and parked behind him then jumped in and stalled it in 3rd gear. Bloke thought it was on fire cos there was that much smoke.

Ive seen this happen a lot. Very common on diesel engines.

[JamesT5]

When they go on a diesel it's not uncommon for the engine to go in to a runaway mode and it will rev until the engine blows up. Thankfully on a Petrol this doesn't happen because the mechanics of how the engine works.

[JamesT5]

No news from the garage yet, it will be looked at as soon as possible but I spoke to them this morning.

[graemewelch]

James if enough oil gets oil in the cylinder itll combust like a diesel and run on its own oil. Dont be gulable by thinking it wont. It dose happen

[AndysR]

James if enough oil gets oil in the cylinder itll combust like a diesel and run on its own oil. Dont be gulable by thinking it wont. It dose happen

The good thing about that, from a petrol engines point of view, is the compression ratio isn't high enough on a petrol for it to run on like a diesel would, that's the difference between compression combustion and ignition combustion.

[graemewelch]

The good thing about that, from a petrol engines point of view, is the compression ratio isn't high enough on a petrol for it to run on like a diesel would, that's the difference between compression combustion and ignition combustion.

its not as common for it to happen but if theres enough oil in the cylinder itll raise the compression enough for it to combust. it dosnt take as much oil as youd think. it happened on a mates car years ago. cant remember what it was now.

[M-R-P]

Had a Turbo instantly go a Berlingo 1.6 hdi, but they are comman for it lol

But how many 16t units on volvos just let go like that?

[claymore]

But how many 16t units on volvos just let go like that?

How many have been run for months with the wrong oil?

[JamesT5]

The garage have informed me that it's either the turbo or the engine. Well hello? I could have told them that! I've authorised them to do a strip down and investigation to rule out one or the other for sure, about 4 hours labour in total but at least it will put the pin on the map for sure.

I'll hopefully have some sort of diagnosis tomorrow.

[JamesT5]

How many have been run for months with the wrong oil?

I really don't think the oil has made that much difference but I will ask the specialist for their opinion.

[JamesT5]

By the way, on a footnote I will say that I'm sooooo missing the T5 right now, the Hyundai i20 I've got from Enterprise is a 14 plate car with 4000K miles on the clock but I'd rather have my 13 year old T5 back. It's not until you have to make do without it that you appreciate how nice it is as a car. Withdrawal symptoms the last few days have been horrible.....

[Harvey]

Just hope it's the turbo and not the engine ,hope it's not to painful on the wallet.

[graemewelch]

A compression test and undo 3 bolts on the down will tell you most of whats needed to diagnose. My money is on the engine being gone. Whilst i watched the cranking vid my first thoughts were low compression. It just seemed to be cranking a little to fast.

[stribo]

The fact it's got a misfire as well as the smoke would lead me to the engine, the turbo on the cabbie's gone, but it runs normally at idle, just blows out loads of smoke. Hope everything's covered James, and you'll get the engine replaced by the very nice man, but to be honest, I can't see them stumping up for a new engine. It might be time to let the old girl go, she's had a long life, and done well, even with your misguided attempts to keep her going, maybe it's time to lay her to rest.

[960kg]

I'm open to options.

I had the same with the engine sounding as though no compression when my battery failed on my `98 T4!......it had flooded because these modern sensor reliant engines need so much electric my low battery would not fire it up so it flooded.

The reason you smell fuel is because the engine will not start and so has flooded maybe because of a spark malfunction or the turbo is blasting some oil under pressure into the inlet side.

The reason the engine turns over quickish and sounds weak or no sign of compression is because the fuel flooding has washed the bores of oil and therefore has resulted in No compression!.....or not even enough for it to fire....

After your enjoyable last run the overheated turbo may of finally fried solid any mineral oil in its supply pipe as it was fried in the pipes when you used that particular oil.......the fast run may of dislodged the fried oil but before it did also fried the oil seals within the turbo badly hence the heavy smoke and a misfire sound as it should only burn petrol!...... and not a supply of thick oil and petrol.

So to me looks like turbo and a lot of oil also in the intercooler!


Just my "I`m open to options" offer.

[JamesT5]

I've spoken to Bridgend Volvo Specialists (BVS) this afternoon and they're a really knowledgeable bunch, the guy I spoke to has 20 years experience in Volvo Main Dealer or Volvo Specialist environments and he told me this...

He told me that my car actually seems quicker and more powerful than a stock standard T5 (honestly, for real now!), out of all of the cars he's driven from this era he was seriously considering whether my car had been mapped to which I replied ,"not to my knowledge". He said it pulls better and seems more powerful than it should and was surprised when I told him it hadn't been remapped or "chipped" as he put it.

The Turbo has been removed and split in to two parts for inspection, he said that there is an oil seal worn inside but not enough to cause the level of smoke seen from the tail pipe, there is "some wear" to the shaft in the turbo but nothing too drastic that would cause the oil burning problem. This seal in the turbo will be replaced (might as well it's in bits on a workshop bench).

He continued by stating that there is a smell of petrol in the oil which means that petrol is finding its way down from the injectors, down the cylinder and in to the oil and that it could be related to the piston rings, this sort of issue he has seen very infrequently and when he has it's usually on cars that have been mapped! Tomorrow an inspection camera will be placed in the engine and an internal inspection will be carried out to determine what issue there is within the engine itself, after that he'll be able to give me a much better idea of the problem but it sounds like some piston slap has been occurring. Either way this will be a big bill.

I'll update you all tomorrow when I have more news.

[Harvey]

They haven't done a compression test yet ?.

[graemewelch]

Sounds like they are running the bill up to me. A compression test on day one would confirmed its rings. The aa for sure wont pay out if its rings as its wear and tear or most likly the result of somthing you dont want to hear or listen to. I wouldnt expect the rings to let go over night.

[graemewelch]

They haven't done a compression test yet ?.

Beat me to it. Course they havnt. Its only 30 mins labour for a compression test. Prob 5 hrs labour for whats theyve done do far. So over 300 quid to be told we dont have a clue but we screwed the knackers off your car.

[1112lewis]

Just hope they are not fobbing you off james, I have had a couple of cars with similar issues and the first thing they told me they did was a compression test, would hate to think they are stripping the car down for the sake of it.