my coupe 20v turbo badly smokes on a cold start but when warmed up nothing at all even when you put your foot down when warm, only on a cold start any ideas ie turbo or steam seals

had mot 2 weeks ago and went tru a cat test as if it was a new car the tester said

sounds like turbo seals to me buddy

As Dave says :yeahthat:Sounds very much like turbo. i had the very same problem and got worse and worse so my advice is get it sorted asap.

Hi there,

Did you find out what the problem was?? i've had a lot of work done on mine and now i'm suffering from the same problem and i'm close to breaking point :bang:

when this problem first started last year it went into the garage and needed a new turbo and they found a crack in the head on the centre piston so i also replaced that. i had cambelt done head gasket kit new valve stem seals and the oil cooler as the pipes were in a bad way withthe good old corrosion! finally got the car back. she was running like a dream. for the first coupe of days still a little smoky but to be expected i guess burning off the oil from in the exhaust. was told to do 500 miles and take it back to garage. booked it back in when getting close a couple of weeks later and can you belive it 509miles and the bottom end gave up on me big time turns out centre piston bearings etc.

I've now just got the car back again after putting in another engine with 78k and a good history. (but now i'm not to sure) we've used my turbo, my oil cooler and pretty much everything just swapped the bear engines over. she is running lovely and great to drive its just for the first 5 mins in the morning every morning (and when she has been left to cool down for over 8hours really.) she is smoking white smoke. pretty bad but nowhere near like it was at the begining when i first had the turbo go.

I've only had her back for 3 days now and thinking it could be from where the replacement engine has been off the car and on a pallet for a while and the valve stem seals could need softening up with some treatment or dose it look like more money for me and putting my other head on??

well thats the story so far

Have you had a look inside the induction pipes? If they have a lot of oil in them, that points towards turbo failure. However, almost all turbo cars will have some oil in the induction pipes, but only a little. Generally smoke on a cold startup is caused by valve stem seals. Often when a turbo fails it will blow smoke constantly. This is not always the case, as if the seals in the turbo are leaking, oil could seep into either the compressor or turbine housings.

It may be worth letting the car sit overnight, then the following morning remove an induction hose before starting it up. That way the engine will not suck in air from the turbo, if it doesn't smoke when you do that, the turbo is the cause. If it does still smoke, it's probably valve stem seals, but it could be oil leaking from the turbo's bearing housing into the turbine (exhaust) side.

Was the turbo inspected when the engine was swapped? I had to change the turbo on a Chrysler a while ago after it failed, the induction hoses were covered in wet oil, but this car smoked constantly when running.