hi everyone, just wanted a bit of advice, just bought an A3 1.6 petrol 2001
theres and air pump on the front of the engine under the cover that doesnt seem to be working. will this be why i have excessive smoke out the back end??? ive been told it should run and sound quite loud...

 

How many miles/km? If there is smoke coming from the tailpipe and it's using oil it means that the piston rings in the engine are worn and oil is getting into the combustion chamber of the engine. The oil is being burned with the gasoline, and that's the smoke you see. You see this on very old engines and/or engines which haven't been properly maintained.

The engine will probably continue to run for a long time this way, as long as you keep adding oil and changing the existing oil at regular intervals. The only way to permanently resolve the problem is to rebuild the engine.