Major Exhaust smoke

[Klausc]

Turbos, especially the light pressure type you have, are driven the same as anyother car. The only consideration is oil, 10W30 for your location is fine, and synthetic. Synthetic retains its properties better in high heat situations and runs cleaner. You should change synthetic every 5,000 miles or so, or, once a year at least. Do not use jiffy Lube! Their filters are terrible and the oil changers are high school kids who could care less about stripping the threads. Use a real mechanics shop, that way they get to know you and your car.

[Dolly]

Unfortunatley I have already taken to Jiffy Lube. I normally do the oil change myself, however I was in a rush to leave out of town. The odd thing is my engine problems started happening after I took it in Nov. I am not blaming them considering the VW guy said that it is common (if it is gaskets or a valve leak) for this to happen with the amount of miles I have on it.
Thank you and NO MORE JIFFY LUBE.

[Ozark Lee]

Before you go yanking the head off of the car you need to do a couple of other tests. If the head gasket has indeed blown the compression wouldn't be right. A dye test and a leakdown test will tell you for sure if it is indeed the head gasket.

Since we have established that you have a turbo I'm leaning towards the oil seals in the turbo leaking oil into the exhaust. Does the smoke happen more at a cold start or after the car heats up?

...Lee

[Dolly]

After it heads up. it actually seems to get worse after I drove it last. So i pulled over and have driven it about 10 miles since then. I've started it and like I said it seems to idle fine and there is no ils leaks under the hood or large amounts of oil anywhere.

[Ozark Lee]

If it smokes more after it heats up then I would be looking at the seals on the turbo for sure. It takes time to heat the exhaust up to the point where it will start to make it smoke. If you have oil in the cylinders it will smoke instantly upon startup and oil leaking into the cylinders from a bad head gasket would fall into the latter category.

The other bad news may come later depending on how much oil got dumped into the catalytic converter.

...Lee

[diyer97]

Last feb 2010 I bought a Toyota Previa SC van with 205K miles and it ran fine although somewhat sluggish, low MPG, about 220 miles per tank I thought its old and 4 cylinders what more do i expect?; no leaking or burning oil /no coolant leaking either. Then
one day about a month ago it started spewing white smoke out the pipe, I got concerned so I drove it to three different muffler shops to have it checked. The first two muffler guys told me they couldn't tell what wrong because no smoke coming out when the van was at their shops. The third shop's muffler guy told me the same but he suggested that I have it checked by a mechanic so i drove it to the fourth shop. once there the mechanic checked the coolant reservoir noticing coolant at minimum level he filled it up to max and told me to start the car still no smoke coming out so he told me just watch the coolant level and temp gauge. He told me he suspected the van may have a blown head gasket ; further tests needed to confirm it and it would cost me from 2k -3k to fix it properly .I drove it home for about a mile from the shop and parked it. An hour later I went out and noticed coolant on the ground I couldn't tell from where it was leaking but the coolant wetted the flex pipe. I said to myself..SH*t...big trouble came sooner than I expected. I let the van sit there for 2 weeks wondering what to do : spending
close to 3 grands fixing the old van maybe worth 1,500 and the result is not guaranteed or sell it for whatever people offer. During those 2 weeks I searched info about blown head gasket and found some interesting claims about fixing the problem with silicate stuffs and after so much readings and settled on Bar's Leak Head Gasket Fix ($29.99 sell at Autozone) which the manufacturer claims antifreeze compatible. No coolant flushing is needed.I was still skeptical that it would work but told myself what the heck..just try it it costs only 30 bucks. To myself and my wife's surprise after about 20 minutes idling the white smoke lessens and lessens and then at amount that you can say is very negligible for a 15 years old car. I stopped the
engine and let it cool. The next day I started the car there was a little bit of black smoke coming out but I noticed the car
seemed to have more power because it picked speed much faster than before.
Fast forward now, about 3 weeks passed the van got about 270 miles for the same tank/ same octane gasoline, more power and I have driven close to 500 miles and so far so good. Some would say its a temporary fix but I'm happy and my wife thinks i'm a hero.
Thanks for reading!! too long but I thought I'd provide every details that may have made this fix an interesting one.

[Dolly]

So here is the outcome. I blew a head gasket and my turbo went out. Go figure. i was able to ge them both fixed for $2000 and it was a sound investment considering i plan on driving my wagon for years and years to come. I have a 5 year old who's gonna need a car some day . Thanks for everyones's input and insights.