Hello,

So last night I replaced my PCV valve in my 2004 VDP. Started up this morning, started driving to work, started getting very large plumes of white smoke from tailpipes. I mean REALLY large amounts of smoke... so much so, that I pulled over and turned off engine. Opened the hood, checked the coolant, saw that it was a bit low. Checked the oil, it too was a bit low. Checked the tailpipes, and the pipe on the driver's side had an oily, black liquid at the end of the exhaust pipe. Is it possible that the new PCV is bad? Would this cause the smoke?? I occasionally got small amounts of white smoke prior, but usually went away quickly.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!!

 

I have experienced this myself a couple of times.
I believe it's due to oil deposited in the PCV pipework corrugations.
I suggest that you find a piece of straight road and kick it down a couple of times.

 

Oily or carbon black. White smoke is evidence of water in the exhaust. You woke up to 55 degrees this morning. It's possible that it's condensation in the exhaust system. Did it happen in the afternoon too?

 

 

oil it is then. thanks for the added info

 

 

Azartist, Don't know if this will be of any help to you in deciding what is causing the white smoke, but when (a while ago) I had huge plumes of white smoke out of my exhausts I also had a strong smell like burning rubber? I put some of the Synthetic oil we use into a small tray and heated it and it gave off white smoke and smelled of burning rubber....

 

EsRay... definitely had a burnt rubber smell. Going to dive into it Saturday morning and see what's up. I'll post what we find out!

 

Sure. Where you indicated that it "smelled" like oil was key. If it's my car, I perform a leak down test. You need compressed air and a few other tools. You're looking for a head gasket leak. This should tell you if you have a blown head gasket.

Without know where the coolant went or the oil, there's no other efficient way to source the problem.

Again, if it's my car and assume my leak down test passed, I do a coolant test to find out where the coolant went. Not germane to your problem if it passed the leak down tests but something I'd want to solve.

Then I change my oil and do what meiron1 suggests.

I assume you have no DTC codes?

 

Here's a bit of DIY info on a leak down test.

https://mobiloil.com/en/article/car-...-leakdown-test

 

I will assume that is something my mechanic will pursue this weekend. I guess at this point I am hoping that it was a faulty PCV that I installed, as this all happened the morning after I installed new PCV the night before... rather than a blown head gasket.
I am also going to see (hopefully) where I'm losing coolant... not much gone, but enough for concern.

 

.. and have not checked for codes yet. I was having intermittent 0171 and 0174 (I believe that's what they were) prior.

 

Thanks. Please keep us apprised.

 

Start with the basics. Did you put the oil filler cap back on tight? If not, the back pressure can suck a lot of oil into the exhaust system in a very short time and it will smoke like a 2nd world war destroyer laying a smoke screen.

cjp

 

Did a compression test this morning... all is well there. The search continues...

 

A quick question... we did a compression test, and and is as it is supposed to be. Does that eliminate a blown head gasket?

 

yes it does

 

Yes most likely so long as the compression is fairly even across all cylinders.

 

Compression was consistent across all cylinders. Really stumped with this. Can't find where/how oil is being sucked. Was sure the culprit was the PCV valve, seeing as how the smoke/loss of performance didn't happen until PCV was replaced. Bought and installed 2 of them, thinking first one bought online was defective... second one from a Jag dealer. No difference. A sh*t-ton of smoke, and very poor performance. Sucking oil through and out back like crazy. Undriveable. Such a beautiful car, but man, nearing my wit's end with this.

 

There is a possibility that you are getting a very rich fuel mixture either due to a leak in the intake area, faulty O2 sensors and or dirty MAF.

The "oily" fluid in the tail pipes could be unburnt fuel mixed with oil vapor from the cylinders.

When I installed 200 Cel Catalytic converters I used front O2 sensor mini cats that moved the sensors out further from the exhaust.

When I accelerated I produced a LOT of white smoke.

When I put the O2 sensors in normally problem resolved.

So my issue was O2 sensors not reading correctly.