Peter Heigho

heeelp, I own an 89 s4, (5 speed manual) with 70k miles, I have had the car for the last 7 years and is always serviced when due, (last was around 1000 miles ago) with new water pump and belts. A few weeks ago, after pushing the car for around 10 minutes at a (sort off) high speed followed by around 10 mins of slow town speeds, stopped the for about 30 mins, when restarting a massive amount of light grey smoke billowed out for the first 5 or 6 seconds then cleared, oil pressure and other indicators where fine. After a gentle run home (at more normal speeds) no further smoke noticed until yesterday, whilst entering a motorway (and a little upstart pushing his luck in an Aud A3, he lost) I red lined in first and second, just as I changed upto 3rd,,, again clouds and clouds of grey smoke came pouring out, I dropped the speed back to 60mph ish, smoke again cleared after about 20 seconds, but when trying to accelerate, the smoke would re appear, after 3 or 4 minutes, gently increasing speed to about 80mph, no further smoke was evident. Any ideas please

4drgl

Blue smoke is oil, white is coolant, greyish black is unburnt fuel.

Sounds like you're getting a sticking injector if the vehicle does it does it after sitting while hot.

As for wot ? Dont know on you're car. Some if the other guys will know. Maybe just a distributor adjustment.

Mrmerlin

pull the vacuum lines off the dampers and the FPR , smell for fuel if you smell fuel then the part is leaking and it should be replaced,

are you loosing coolant?
has the HCV ever been replaced?
if not replaced it along with the short hose

Rob Edwards

Did the oil get changed 1000 miles ago? How high on the dipstick is (was) the oil level?

Tom. M

Sucking oil into the intake during spirited driving....take a look in the boot below the MAF..to see if oil is pooling... Should consider removing the oil path to the intake if this ends up being the issue..

auzivision

My guess, based on the limited info and not knowing exact color & smell of smoke, is as others have mentioned... probably oil getting into the intake which isn't uncommon.

Massive smoke billowing at idle after restart makes me think oil, especially if smoke didn't dissipate quickly.

Rich fuel exhaust has a distinct pungent smell and will make the rear bumper dirty. It's often black and vapory looking... distorts images.

Antifreeze smoke is more like steam or fog with a sweet smell to it.

Oil is puffy billowy smoke somewhat like a pile of burning leaves.

The crank case vent offers (a normal) path to the intake. However, only air/not oil is 'supposed' to make it way, but there isn't much stopping oil from finding it's way. I like Tom's idea of removing and temporarily plugging this path.

Really first need to decipher what type of smoke you are troubleshooting.

Peter Heigho

Gents, thank you so much for your help,,
The smoke is very similar visually and smelling like, wheel spinning tyre smoke (not that I do that often). Following the comments I have checked the coolant, it hasn’t dropped, but having dipped the oil (engine cold) it’s about an inch and a ½ over the max mark. Under normal driving conditions; no smoke is evident on hot/cold start or normal running, it seems to only happen after or during “spirited driving” (I do like this comment, the next time my wife says I’m being a hooligan I can say “no spirited honey”. I will do an oil change and re fill to correct level over the weekend and see if this helps/fixes the issue, again thank you all for your comments and I will advise the outcome, Pete

PHIL928

Wow!

killav

If the oil is indeed that over-full, don't drive it anymore. Drain all of that and start over. Re-fill with aprox. 8 quarts of fresh oil and change the filter. Report back after driving a little while.

Mrmerlin

wowa how do you get that much oil into your car?
wouldnt you have checked the oil first before asking why its making smoke?

Peter Heigho

(bit sheepish) I know, the car only does around 3000 miles per year, it goes in for a full service early every winter (irrelevant on millage), I didn’t think to check,,, but let’s hope this is the problem,,,

auzivision

99.9% sure correct oil level will fix your smoking issue; although, might require a bit more spirited driving to totally clean out the system and restore normal operation.

Hopefully that will suck any residual oil out of the throttle body (if that's point of oil entry versus say rings). Also, getting the cats nice and hot is good for baking off contaminants.

I’m pretty sure you’re not the first person this has happened to... LOL, getting called a hooligan by the rev limiter that is

Bill Ball

Must have put in 10+ qts! Usually 8 to 8.5 is the right amount.

I had a Mercedes 6.9 sedan a while back. Great car. 6.9 liter V8 with 13 qt oil capacity. It was dry sump with a big tank holding the oil. Took it in for an oil change. The technician completely screwed up the oil change by only draining the sump. Put 13 qts in the tank, started the car and blew all the seals. Leaks everywhere. The dealer ate that one. Probably $5000 in repairs.

Had a similar problem with a mid-70s VW camper. Only 4 qt oil capacity, but somehow the shop put about 5.5 qt in. Blew a bunch of seals again.

BUT yours was not a HUGE % overfill, and the oil pressure relief valve is right next to the pump, so I'm expecting you will be OK after correction.

Mrmerlin

After draining some of the oil out ,
I would pull the air cleaner off and then remove the MAF,
inspect the intake after you pull the throttle cable to open the throttle plate,
dont run the car till you do this,
the intake could be filled with oil, no need to suck more oil through the intake /engine