I was driving home last night from work and as I pulled off the freeway and onto a side street I noticed some white smoke behind me. Because the temperature was hovering around 0 degrees I initially thought it was just normal exhaust butit was obvious after a few seconds that wasn't the issue as the volume was far greater than "normal" exhaust....and I started to smell it.

I actually thought my car was on fire it was pushing out so much smoke and even the cabin started filling up to the point it was hazy. I immediately pulled over into the nearest parking lot and shut it down. Upon inspecting the exhaust there is a oily residue around both exhaust tips and there was an dark oily substance that dripped a few drops onto the snow.

Needless to say....I was not impressed. My intial thought is that I blew a turbo, but honestly it is hard to say at this point. The car didn't make any funny noises but honestlydue to the cold the heater wasrunning pretty good thus I probably wouldn't have heard it even if it did. I thought it ran a little rough at low idlebut when I accelerated and pulled into the parking lot it didn't seem there was any performance issue so at this point I'm unsure what it was.I didn't want to risk anything so Icalled a tow truck and had the car towed to my local shop and they are looking at it now.

Any thoughts?

 

I've searched the forums and this is what I suspect:

Turbo and/or camshaft seals.
PCV valve, vacuum pump, and connector hose
Suction pump (jet valve) - not sure if this is the same as the vacuum pump or not?

Most likely will need to replace one or more of the above parts and ensure all the oil is drained from both intercoolers.

From what it sounds like, this is a fairly common issue with cold weather, but it is possible it is something far worse and could result in several grand worth of repairs. I'm hoping that isn't the case, but until my mechanic calls with the news I just don't know.

Assuming it isn't the turbos or something major, my question is to you experts out there....is this only an issue with the 2.7T? I have to be honest here....I am regretting my decision to opt for the2.7T because right now I'm worried about turbo failure. If this little problem is cheap to resolve I might not press my luck and start shopping for a V8. I live in South Dakota so obviously winter is going to be an issue for me and as much as I love the Audi I just can't have a car that I have to worry about every time the temp drops to single digits.

Of course if this issue is common with any A6 (or any Audi for that matter) I might have to consider some other options. I'm just not feeling very good about this right now.

 

Just a small update - the shop called me late yesterday and said there was some type of vent hose that was clogged and it forced oil into the exhaust. She has the part and they are working on it this morning (the part runs about $120). Once they get that replaced they are going to see if there is anything else that needs to be fixed or if it is just that one part.

I'm crossing my fingers here.....if I can keep this total bill under $500 I will be very happy.


Any certified techs out there care to chime in?

 

well i thought itd be turbo seals but i suppose im wrong ifyour shop has found the problem ... there is another post on this forum (pretty lengthy) find it becuase it coulda saved you a post and has tons of info ... all about turbos seals blowing in the extreme cold

 

Well I saw that, but wasn't sure if it was the same issue. Hard to say now though....I'm waiting to hear back from them to see what else they have learned.

How expensive is it to replace turbo seals (assuming both turbos)? Would it be a bad idea to do this anyway as a preventative measure as well as replacing the PCV valve?

 

For those that may be suffering from a similar issue, this is what the end result was.

The shop found the crankcase ventilation system was frozen which forced oil past the turbo seals and into the exhaust. As a result they replaced the PCV valve, secondary air pump, and several connecting hoses. I saw the old parts and it is a spiderweb of hoses, clamps, and valves.

They also discovered remnants of a mouse nest deep down in the intake. I have no idea how long it has been there and for all I know it has been there as long as I have owned the vehicle, but if I was a betting man I would guess it has been there quite a while because they stated the pulled five or six handfuls of material out which suggests the car must have been sitting idle for a while for a mouse to make such a comfy home there, and the longest it has ever sat since I've owned it was a couple of days in my garage (and I have never seen any mice in my garage). I'm curious if this will improve performance as clearly I wasn't getting as much air into the vehicle as possible. Time will tell on this one.

In any case the final tally was about $680 with all parts and labor. Not super cheap I suppose, but it could have been much worse. They told me I might see some residual smoke until it is burned from the exhaust and last night I took it out long enough to get everything warmed up to see what would occur, and I never did see any more smoke. I did smell just a hint of it in some stop and go traffic, but I suspect that will be the case for the next week or two as the residue gets cooked off from inside of the exhaust.

They also told me to keep an eye on things just to see if the turbo seals were comprimised and to see if I have any issues withthe O2 sensors. They suspect the O2 sensors might be fouled due to the oil because there were some codes when they checked, but after replacing the parts and testing everything all is normal, so it might clear on its own. I don't know how expensive O2 sensors are, but I might just replace them as a preventative measure.