S60 2004 T5 throwing a lot of white smoke from the exhaust

overnight · Post by **overnight** » 05 Nov 2009, 23:28

Hi, I'm new to this forum and thought you guys could help me determining the cause of a trouble I'm having with my car.

It's a S60 2004 T5 Turbo Automatic

The exhaust throws a LOT of white smoke when idle, I've browsed through the forum to see if I could find an answer but I'm not really that experienced when it comes to cars.

The problem started 3 days ago, a bit of white smoke was coming from my exhaust, but it got worse the same day, the car has never showed an error code besides the regular maintenance for the 55k miles (abt 90,000 kilometers) warning, so as I am kinda short on cash right now, I decided to do a 'basic' maintenance today on a decent place (not the volvo dealer) (spark plugs, oil filter, oil change) to see if it solved the problem, however it did not solved it.

Also, as a note, the first day it started throwing white smoke, a bit of 'black dust' came out of the exhaust one time, after the basic servicing, it hasn't happened again.

The car only throws white smoke when I'm not accelerating it, on the D gear and braking, the rpm's are about 600-700 which I think it's not normal, however the car is not suffering from loss of power when accelerating, or stutters when idle, I tested the engine with the pedal to the floor and responds great, but white smoke keeps coming out when I'm not hitting the gas.

I checked a few topics on the white smoke thing, but couldn't get anywhere, the car is not leaking oil from below or around the engine (I just looked superficially, thought).

To my knowledge, the car has never overheated, I always keep an eye on the temp gauge, but from time to time (around every month and a half or so) the engine coolant level goes down to 1/2 or 3/4 and I have to refill it, but it has never been drained below 1/2, I check it regularly since I bought it (I've owned it about from 1 year and 4 months) this is the first time this kind of thing happens to the car.

So, today, after the mechanic did the basic stuff to the car he told me that one of the new spark plugs had a bit of oil in it, and explained to me that it was probably due to a internal problem in the engine and that it was going to be expensive to repair (he pointed out that it was because of overheating, which I know, never happened), I don't really trust this guy.

So finally I decided to come here looking for a second opinion from you guys, at least to see if I can narrow whats causing the white smoke to other causes, as I'm short on cash and I definitely don't want to get scammed right now. Any opinions from you would be greatly appreciated if I missed anything to check in the car please let me know as this is the only car I own and I'm really concerned, I will take it to the volvo dealer tomorrow anyway for a diagnose but I'd rather hear any opinions from you first as my local dealer is not exactly reliable.

Sorry for the wall of text, heh, and thanks for your time.

genwheeler · Post by **genwheeler** » 06 Nov 2009, 10:49

The thing that would concern me is the loss of coolant. Does the exhaust have a kind of sweet smell to it? There are some other possibilities like a bad pcv valve or condensation in the fuel/exhaust system, Has it been real cold where you live?

overnight · Post by **overnight** » 06 Nov 2009, 12:53

Hmm, sweet..? I think not, it is more like a slight burnt oil or coolant smell, the weather is not cold at all, the coolant loss has been always there, but the white smoke problem is the first time it happens, but as I stated I always kept the coolant levels above 1/2, and never got a hot temp on my gauge. Thanks for your reply

overnight · Post by **overnight** » 07 Nov 2009, 02:42

Oh, I forgot, just one day before this problem happened, the driver and passenger axle was checked, and the passenger side axle was rebuilt, are there any oil/coolant lines near the passenger side axle, that could have been damaged or anything while my car was getting fixed? Sorry I forgot to mention it at this point but I'm just not that experienced into cars and I'm desperate about this, the volvo dealer was really busy and they scheduled to check my car until tuesday, if you have any opinions please let me know.

cranehunter · Post by **cranehunter** » 10 Nov 2009, 20:40

In my experience white smoke almost always means coolant is getting into the combustion system. Most of the time bad news. Are you having to add coolant? If you are it is going somewhere. The culprit could very well be a bad head gasket to a cracked or warped head. I just bought a volvo that had a bad head gasket, the original owner did not take care of the problem resulting in a siezed up engine.

overnight · Post by **overnight** » 11 Nov 2009, 01:51

Yeah, I've been reading a few posts on the forum that mentioned the same, however I've checked the coolant levels in the past days and it looks like it has loss none or just a bit. I find this quite odd because it was blowing a LOT of smoke when the problem started and the coolant level was the same, it just didn't make any sense, it should have drained a noticeable amount of coolant, I suppose.

Now it's just blowing smoke from time to time, (not always, like before), like when I start it in the morning or a 2-3 minutes red light.

Took it to the volvo dealer yesterday, and they returned it to me because it had a sports exhaust and they were not able to guarantee their work (even thought I've had it for the last 8 months and they actually performed a maintenance service with the same sports exhaust, it's just ridiculous).

Now I'm in a bad situation as the Volvo dealer wont check my car and I don't really want to offer my car as a test subject in some unexperienced/untrustful place, and still, I don't know the cause of the smoke.

I'm maybe a little too positive, but the problem started just one day after my passenger side CV axle was fixed, but I ignore wether there are any oil/coolant lines near there that could have been damaged/connected incorrectly ..

By the way, did you bought a used engine? I've read in other posts that the head gasket problem price to fix was around $800 to $1k. It's almost the same price for a used engine..(around 1,300 dlls).

cranehunter · Post by **cranehunter** » 11 Nov 2009, 07:53

Yes I bought a used engine.

You may have an intermittent head gasket leak. If that is the case it will only get worse with time.

The reason I say intermittent is that when you turn off the car you will have hot spots in your engine, that is normal. Due to these hot spots and your coolant is no longer circulating your coolant pressure and temperature will rise for a short period of time. It is during this time that the leak will open up and allow coolant into the combustion chamber.

On larger leaks when you let off the accelerator you release the amount of pressure against the leak. This then allows the coolant into the combustion chamber. When you step back on the accelerator you get that nice white puff of smoke.

On more severe leaks you will smell the coolant in the exhaust. It has a sweet smell.

There are, some very good stop leak products on the market. Like bars leak head gasket repair. I have used it on other engines with good results.

What I do not know though is it a good choice for the volvo turbo engines.

The engine that I just replaced appeared to have some type of additive in the coolant, it made a mess of the water passageways. Partially closing many of them. The water cooling line to the turbo was almost completely blocked off. After seeing that I would do my homework before I tried any type of sealant on the volvo engine. Good luck

overnight · Post by **overnight** » 14 Nov 2009, 05:36

Okay, today I checked the oil levels after driving the car for a few days and turns out the problem is not related to the coolant, as the levels are the same. Checked the oil levels and they were considerably low, around 80% after driving it for about a week (filled it to the normal levels one week ago, around 20% of the oil was burnt during that period), so after all the car is burning oil, not coolant as I first thought, the smoke color was kind of hard to determine but it's obvious its burning oil and blowing it off through the exhaust.

Also, each night, after parking my car, I noticed the car leaks a bit of oil in the floor the next morning, about 30 cm away from the wheel on the passenger side, from below, no sign of leaks in the upper section of the engine..

Anyone has a clue? It's definitely not burnt coolant, it's oil, so I guess this is a more serious problem than the coolant leak issue you had in mind at the start, is this right? or is there a possibility that the issue isn't that serious and could be fixed without emptying my pockets?

I know the issue can be a lot of things and cannot be narrowed to something with the scarce details I'm typing, I'm just trying to get a glimpse of how serious and costly this could get, and I really appreciate the time you take to reply.

(this is kinda off topic) but if someone is willing to try and help me maybe we can help each other, I got a vast knowledge of most things that involve computers, like networks, hardware, OSX/Linux/Windows, graphic design, and a few others, so if anyone can lend me a hand I would be glad to help you out on any issues you're having with anything related to computers.
(If this is against the rules of the forum, any mods please edit this post)

Thanks.

Japedo · Post by **Japedo** » 14 Nov 2009, 06:55

Hello there! You should take a look at your intercooler. If it's like my 850 cooler there is a small pin size hole in the bottom of the intercooler to the passenger side, like you describe the location of your leak.
If the PCV system is clogged it can cause oil to back up into the cooler and leak out of that pin hole, like the engineers designed it to do.
The back up of oil pressure also causes some to get burnt off in your exhaust, causing your smoking issue.
I had identicle stmptoms to your 3 years ago and a pcv system cleaning and new flame trap solved the problem.
So my advice is to check the bottom of your cooler , locate the pin hole and see if that is the source of the oil leak.
Best of luck
Curtis

overnight · Post by **overnight** » 16 Nov 2009, 12:21

Okay thank you all for your help japedo, cranehunter and genwheeler I'll try to find some reliable mechanic to check the possible causes you mentioned, it's better than just leaving the car for diagnose and giving the impression that I know nothing about cars and possibly get scammed, at least I know a probable cause of the problem, I'll take it to a decent place and have the PCV thing checked, if this doesn't solves the problem, I'll proceed to check the coolant leak issue, which, judging by the symptoms and your advice it's unlikely to be the problem, but it won't hurt to check it anyway.

My offer still stands, if anyone needs help with anything related to computers, I would be glad to help you, you're doing me a big favour with your advice here. Do not hesitate to PM or post a reply if you need assistance in any way.

Thanks.