I have a 1600 A3 that puts out clouds of exhuast vapour on start up. It is not oil smoke as i am not using any. The dealer is saying it is normal but it is embarashing when sitting at the traffic lights first thing in the morning. We are not talking a puff of smoke but enough to engulf half the car. Anyone else had this problem?
Cheers Peter

 

haha normal??!!!! What color is the smoke? White or blue? Does it smell sweet?

 

The smoke is white like you would normally expect on a cold day but the issue is the volumne. Honestly it ingulfs half the car before I reverse out of my drive.

 

I'm having the same problem with my A6 2.7T.. I would like to hear some input as well. Mine only does it once a day normally; on the first start up. I havent gotten under the hood of it to check it out as it just started recently. I've searched a lot and found that these cars have a lot of oil leakage issues.. and honestly dont even know where to start looking if I were to. I've heard turbo seals, pcv valves, and all kinds of other stuff..

 

If its white and not/blue grey .... Sounds like a possible headgasket failiure. Are you using alot of oil/coolant? .... Check the coolant tank, if oil is in there bad news!

If its grey/blue smoke.... then it could possibly be valve stem seals... oil leaking from them onto the top of the pistons over night, then burning off the oil upon start up.

HTH