VERY smoky GTi 8v

[alanapone]

Hi their peeps.

Been having a problem with the missus car. It an 8v and it smokes like a trooper!

It seems to be running okay, No chasing revs or lumpy idle, it just seems to plough out extraordinary amounts of grey smoke!

at idle it doesn't seem too bad, it will sit ticking over quite happily. When you put some revs on I can turn it into a military smokescreen generator VERY easily!

Checked a few bits the main one being from the stickies in here. The two relays feel warm after it's been running for a bit. The plugs are quite black and one was smelling of fuel.

I don't know any of it's history as it was bought off eBay CHEAP and came with the latest MOT cert and not much else.

Any idea's please?

[dubpirate]

not got too much oil has it

my m8 just did his and his was smoking badly

he didnt drain the oil for long enough and put the book 4L in for his 1.6

i checked the oil and it had way too much in (well over max)

drained about a pint glass out and it stopped right away

[alanapone]

I'll check tomorrow

To add... It was running fine for a bit then has suddenly gone like this.

I did put some STP injector cleaner in with the tank of fuel it has in it (it was a free sample!) I don't suppose anyone has had any bad experiences with it??

[sharki786]

Could be a number of things. The relays your on about are for the cutting out issure. Worse case could be the piston rings need replacing or the stem valve seals need replacing as a cousine of mine had a simular issuse but only giving it the beans. (Grey/brown smoke)

[alanapone]

Well, I've ordered a ODB2 lead off ebay and "found" a copy of VAGcom. Hopefully the lead will be here next week and I can plug in and see if any fault codes are coming up.

If that shows nothing then I think it'll be time to whip the head off and have a closer look inside!

That's all I can think of at the moment! 

[alanapone]

Can't get this copy of VAGCOM to recognise the car SO, as of tomorrow, i'm going to make a start on getting the head off it to see whats going on.

[alanapone]

Well, looked into this a bit more to find some people had issues similar to this and changed the water temp sensor. this then sorted the issue.

Done this tonight but no... still VERY smoky runs a lot smoother now though

Thinking I'm going to be left with no choice but to pull the cylinder head off and see what's going on!

Might just see if I can find another head first, get that refurbed with new stem seals, pressure tested and a new head set then just do a swap rather than take this one off, check it then fix it then rebuild it.

[twotwofour]

Surely it would be easier to put another engine in it? They can be had for £100

[alanapone]

True!

Had a barney with the missus about this now so it's going to the local garage. I give up, i've tried all sorts!

Theres a garage up the road, I'll nip it in to them and see what they say. At least that way I know exactly what the problem is and I can make a decision as to what to do then.

[Wayne]

Grey smoke is mixture / not running right, oil being burnt is blue.