burning oil/blue smoke

[92dakota]

2012 1.4T LTZ HB

was caught in a torrential downpour other day to the point actually had to pull off the road it was so bad, fast forward today went to take car out its blowing blue smoke when started and pretty bad, but goes away within 10 seconds, no codes, no lights, no nothing car was perfect and no issues before the storm..
It runs/idles and still drives like it did before.. no smoke otherwise unless it sits for a while (turned off) and on start up longer it sits worst it is .. nothing while driving or sitting in traffic that I can see, but hard to tell with limo tint ..haha

car has 93000km's (under 58k miles) on it and is a city commuter so never pushed hard no performance mods, much stock..


am I looking at the turbo seals prolly going out? or am I looking at worst if it did get water in from the storm? if that's even possible..

any help is appreciated before I bring it in as only shop that will touch this right now is the dealer around here and most shops here don't get into that type of stuff..

 

[Espysonic]

Alright, is there oil spots on the rear of the vehicle? Also, take a piece of white paper and hold it up to the exhaust. Have someone rev it right after started, is there oil?


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[92dakota]

oil on ground hard to tell seeing s the vehicle sits with rear elevated but as for the paper il check when I get off work today and get back to you later tonite ..

 

[Espysonic]

oil on ground hard to tell seeing s the vehicle sits with rear elevated but as for the paper il check when I get off work today and get back to you later tonite ..

Oil under near exhaust or oil from engine bay?


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[92dakota]

from what i can see quickly looking at it quickly this morning can't see anything on ground but tailpipe felt oily , I will get better look later today , but like i said this just started and i left it be so has not been run much ..

at work i checked were it was parked(my spot) no one parks here and i did find a patch of fairly fresh looking oil that would have been to the rear of the car on the slope(at work faces uphill, home faces slightly down) .. note tho in 6 months it used almost no oil and no signs of leaks at oil change (may 25th) or otherwise in my parking spot ..

giving as much info as i can atm...

 

[Blue Moon Sonic]

Another case of the dreaded PCV valve in the intake manifold gone missing from the sounds of things. This alone can cause a host of issues that you would be experiencing and not always will a code be apparent I've come to realize. You may have a bunch of pending codes and the car compensating for them. You probably won't get any codes to light up the dash until the pressure relief disc in the the valve cover finally bites the dust. I've had this same thing happen before. No codes, Car ran fine, but was constantly blowing blue/oily smoke out the tail pipe.

Read this thread and check these area's listed in the threads. Rule out any and all possibilities.

1.4 Ecotec PCV issues explained

The fix is simple and cheap fortunately. I've already done it to 2 vehicles myself and have had no issues. I have at least 15k on the V1 PCV kit with the blue sonic with no issues and I have a V2 kit on the the magenta one.

 

[92dakota]

nice thread il have to read it carefully when i got a few, and i have no pending codes to speak of yet thats first thing i checked when i seen the smoke (snap on solus)

i am off tomorrow so il print all that out and give it a good look over..

thanks for that link ..

 

[Blue Moon Sonic]

It's no biggie. I had this exact same issue with my 12 LTZ hatch with the same circumstances where no codes ever were thrown, but burning oil. the only difference was that I was tuned with just an intake and a catback. About in the same mileage range too. between 45k-60k miles.

 

[92dakota]

looking down inside the intake i see the pink Don't look that bad for dirt either as clearly see the pink and the holes around it .. (i know doesn't mean a thing) aswell as the vacuum release on valve cover isn't hissing, I am Going to mod the intake anyway, cause its gonna be the inevitable if not already on its way , anything else I should look at while i got the car away form the wife and apart?

 

[skurtov]

PCV. BluemoonSonic's got you.

 

[Blue Moon Sonic]

I would probably bypass the bypass valve solenoid. That way boost isn't just being bled off when going WoT and the car will behave like a turbocharged car. You could also port the intake manifold and it would also make the car pull harder till the ECM cut at 6200. Tuning will give you the most out of this mod and will be required when you upgrade the WGA and the coil pack to LS7 coils. Those two are also common known weak points along with the diverter valve.

I would also do a compression test in each of the cylinders to make sure that there isn't something else going on. When you burn oil, You have the potential to destroy the pistons/rings, foul sensors, spark plugs and the cat becomes poisoned as as a result. There is also the fact that it will also take out the WGA on the turbo as well and even the turbo itself if left unchecked for too long.

If you need here's another PCV thread which explains everything about our PCV system instead of just highlighting the common issue from the link posted earlier.

How our PCV works

 

[Pirate Luke]

looking down inside the intake i see the pink Don't look that bad for dirt either as clearly see the pink and the holes around it .. (i know doesn't mean a thing) aswell as the vacuum release on valve cover isn't hissing, I am Going to mod the intake anyway, cause its gonna be the inevitable if not already on its way , anything else I should look at while i got the car away form the wife and apart?

If I read that correctly the OP is saying it's NOT the check valve in the intake manifold, and the valve cover ISN'T hissing. To burn enough oil to be that obvious it would have to be gone I would imagine. I'd check the check valve at the turbo and do the aforementioned compression test.

 

[Blue Moon Sonic]

Even if the check valve is still there and visible, It's most likely stuck open and unable to close correctly. This is basically the same as it not being there at all and would still cause oil to be burnt. Another note to mention is that It takes a surprising amount of time before the relief disc in the valve cover fails after either check valve for the PCV system fail. My second valve cover prior to the PCV fix lasted roughly 15k before the relief disc failed.

 

[Pirate Luke]

I'm fully aware of that, I even made an entire thread about keeping it clean. I'm just mentioning the OP said it wasn't missing, and it didn't even look dirty, and he could see the holes. Call me crazy but I'm going to say this isn't his issue.

 

[Blue Moon Sonic]

I will definitely agree on that one, and it's more than likely the check valve at the turbo inlet like you suggested before. Though, It doesn't hurt to just do the PCV mod as a preventive measure since the check valve will eventually fail.

 

[Pirate Luke]

Totally agree. Hopefully it's one or the other just for convenience of repair. Keep us posted 92dakota.

 

[92dakota]

sure will keep posted, going to have to wait till Monday/Tuesday to dig into it unfortunately we got rain today , made it kinda hard to try and look at it outside(no shop)

as for further damage, when it started up and I seen the smoke for first time, much shut it down and left it, only restarted to check for that hissing.. (had blue smoke but not as bad as first time) otherwise has not been run so should be minimal..

only thing I did notice tho is the line you remove to see the intake valve(the pink) was pretty wet with oil but then the rain showed up..argh..

i'l do more reading on the above mentioned bypass and such, right now tho this car intown(99.5%) driving it barely gets better MPG then my hella bigger 3.6L and heavier Grand Caravan as in 26~mpg sonic to 24.5~mpg with the van driving the same route..

regardless its going to be apart and I got the damn thing away, do what I can as preventative now rather then inevitable , the last time I worke don a turbo was my 85 dodge Omni glh.... it was well ... a lot different LOL

 

[92dakota]

as for the check valve on the turbo ... if that has failed can it be repaired? or does that require the turbo to be replaced? , i'l have a bit of time to tinker after work with a compression test and check that turbo.. so, i will get that out of the way .

learning alot about this car from these forums..

Thanks for everything so far tho guys..... been awesome help since shop labour is ridiculous here...

 

[Tormach]

as for the check valve on the turbo ... if that has failed can it be repaired? or does that require the turbo to be replaced? , i'l have a bit of time to tinker after work with a compression test and check that turbo.. so, i will get that out of the way .

learning alot about this car from these forums..

Thanks for everything so far tho guys..... been awesome help since shop labour is ridiculous here...

The check valve at the turbo is on the end of the pcv hose that you disconnected from the manifold.

If you blow in through the end at the manifold it will flow straight through. If you blow through the end that connects to the turbo it should close.

Included pic of the hose, second pic is the check valve, third is the connection to the manifold.

You can buy the pcv hose separate, think it like 40-50.

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[92dakota]

oh god some good news, its part of the hose..

thanks