So I'm on the highway at 80mph and put the foot down to find some rich black smoke and a lot of trouble getting much past 80. This seems to be happening whenever the turbos are used hard and have had time to heat up. Anyone have any ideas on what the prob might me? It drives fine all other times until you really want the power

Thx
D

 

black smoke???? it shold be more whitish if its the turbos.

 

No kiddin' There's definately a problem somewhere - under normal driving it behaves but after a good 10 minutes iof thrashing around there's a noticable difference in the performance - especially further up the rev counter - and this rich black smoke from the back.

 

well im gonna say that a white is water.... a purplish/bluish white is oil... and the grey/black is more fuel.. I think your running rich...or burning fuel somewhere..not good.

 

That makes sense that it could be running rich - I just found out that the car has been chipped - the dealer says the black smoke is an 'inherent quality' of the chip (still need to find out which chip_ Is he pulling my leg with this? and, it does it really explain the horrible performace I get when it begins doing it?

 

WTF??? An inherent quality meaning the chip should cause black smoke to spew and limit your performance over 80 mph?? What an idiot. Find yourself a new mechanic ASAP.

 

totally agree ^^^ there is no way its inherent with the chip..bad programming possibly but is not SUPPOSED to come with a chip. Open up the ecu box and see if there is soemthign on the ecu taht says who is the tuner. I would try to get a vag on it and get with someone wth some intimate knowledge on logging.

 

Black smoke? Yeah that's rediculous. How long have you had the car and when did it start happening?

 

Just picked it up last week. First 5 days it was going great, then started with the black smoke nonsense - called the dealer where bought, he tried to tell me the chip causes that - he couldnn't give me straight answer on the power surging/spluttering. These guys are supposed to be European car specialists, they only sell/service Audi/Bmw/Merc/ etc - bunch of jokers I think [>:]

 

Definately sounds like too much fuel. Possible bad mass air meter? I've never seen one go personally on an S4, but I know they are a common problem. It could cause the jerking/stuttering and the rich air fuel mixture. I'd worry about driving it like that could foul out O2 sensors and Convertors.