Masses of white smoke

[bins73]

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and T6's.

This is a new to me Kombi LWB 4motion, 150PS. It had an "EGR fault" fixed last week at the same time as a new cam belt and water pump and crank case seal. Has done around 50,000 miles. Since getting it back (apart from the time I drove it home!) it has been blowing insane amounts of slightly sweet smelling white smoke out the back, particularly for the first 5-10 minutes after starting, then it reduces to much less, but still present white smoke, then the thick stuff might come back again. I assume it is the EGR cycling, but I'm no expert. No dash lights on, no obvious performance drop. Is this coolant being burnt in the exhaust system. When it's blowing it literally covers the road with zero visibility. I had one moment earlier when it had been running with no smoke when there was a sudden "phhhewww" noise, and a momentary drop in power, and the smoke started again. Usually it doesn't seem to affect the performance. Should it be being driven at all, my instinct says no!
The guys I got her from have been fantastic, and are trying to work out what is going on with it and sort it - but I'm nervous that I've just dropped a decent bit of money on a dud. It has taken me 7 years to come back to VW after a really shonky ex British Gas Caddy which was always going wrong.
I'd be grateful for any thoughts, and advice.

 

[Chippie1]

Turbo related?

 

[DaveD]

Should it be being driven at all, my instinct says no!

Welcome to the Forum!
Your instinct is correct, you'd be committing an offence and in any event it'd be posing a danger to other road users which I'm sure you don't want to do.
You say you've only recently purchased the van so I'm going to make a suggestion - don't bother trying to diagnose the problem, just return the van and ask for your money back.

 

[Howzat]

100% this

 

[Nuno]

If I can ad a bit of ideas . I had the same problem with mine .
See if you lose coolant.

You could have a leak in your AGR radiator .

 

[manfrotto]

I assume it was all OK (appart from the EGR fault code) prior to taking it to get the EGR/Cambelt/waterpump fixed?
It sounds like something that probably relating to the work they did. Hopefully just something simple. I would be calling them to get it sorted.

 

[DXX]

I’d take a wild guess that the ‘mechanic’ separated the EGR valve from the cooler for investigation / cleaning and has not replaced the gasket and seals between the two or hasn’t sealed it correctly.
Take it back for a full refund, if you really really want to keep it stop running the engine, it’s being trashed.

 

[Madpasty]

i'd guess at turbo is on the way out?

 

[Skyliner33]

I think @DXX has hit the nail on the hear. White smoke is usually coolant in the exhaust.

You don't say when you bought the van, just "it's new to me". If it is very new to you I would return it and find another. If not my guess is as it had a "new cam belt and water pump and crank case seal" fitted that is where the problem lies.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

The smell tells you all you need to know - water/antifreeze mixture will give that sweet smell. Bill the garage for a new engine.
If the "smoke" clears quite quickly it is water.

 

[bins73]

What sort of engine issues does coolant ingress cause? It was blowing white smoke like this before the EGR was done. Fault codes prior to the EGR being done were "P040100 Exhaust Gas Recirc. Plo, Insufficient Detected", "P20EE00 SCR Nox Catalyst Efficiency Below Threshold Bank 1". Those codes are cleared now (light not on any more), but the smoke remains!

 

[Sasquatch]

What exactly was "done" to the EGR?

A faulty/crystal'd up adblue injector can give these symptoms and won't necessarily throw a code.

 

[bins73]

No idea tbh! By the look of it, not much!

 

[Jollyvan]

Does your van have Ad Blue. Had exactly the same situation on a Peugeot. Ad Blue delete cured the problem.

 

[DXX]

Does your van have Ad Blue. Had exactly the same situation on a Peugeot. Ad Blue delete cured the problem.

Sounds like you had the same symptom but maybe not the exact situation. If every car with adblue had exhaust gases like that the roads would be blocked.

 

[DXX]

If you want to determine if it’s smoke or steam put a very cold metallic object (frying pan from freezer) in the ‘smoke’ and see if it condenses on the pan.

 

[Sasquatch]

Sounds like you had the same symptom but maybe not the exact situation. If every car with adblue had exhaust gases like that the roads would be blocked.

They only do it when the adblue injector fails in the open position, not under normal operation. Because the injector isn't actually mechanically or electeically faulty (they're usually stuck open due to an accumulation or crystals) it doesn't always trigger a code.

 

[Dellmassive]

sweet smelling white smoke will be coolant.

 

[oldiebut goodie]

The smell tells you all you need to know - water/antifreeze mixture will give that sweet smell. Bill the garage for a new engine.
If the "smoke" clears quite quickly it is water.

 

[jasshrie]

Hi all @bins73 -

I had this exact situation a few days ago after a short ~1.5km drive to grab some lunch from work, noticed a smell and a lot of white smoke - reversed into my normal carpark (same one from the morning drive with no smoke) and it was like a smokescreen behind the vehicle (just like the photo above). I would go as far to say that the smoke did have a sweetish but strong smell....

Panicking and thinking my recently replaced EGR seal had sprung a leak, I called my local shop and took the van straight over, another 2.5km drive.
Once there very little smoke was noticeable and I left it with them for assessment. No leaks were found but when they turned on the van to pull it in, no smoke but a glowing DPF light was on. Looks like it was attempting a regen while not hot enough or something and I picked up the van and took it out on the highway for a regen and no more smoke since.
I've found regen works best when I set the cruise control on around 108kph in D -auto mod- and drive for 15min.

Too bad there isn't a way on the MFD to display the DPF status, or is there????

That's the second time in the couple months of owning this van that the DPF has encouraged an unnecessary workshop visit.