Smoking and Turbo Seals

[dazza]

My turbo smoke has gone or rather 'hidden' after upping idle to 900rpm. I have an oil restrictor bolt as well I might use for safe measure.

[Seba]

So I just left it idling and it would indeed look to be the turbo seals. I don't see the blueish element of the smoking but it definately was blowing a grey after 9 minutes or so .. what's my next step? Mazda and pray for a good will warranty or? What's the damage to my pocket likely to be?

IF the turbo seals are gone, would this explain why the car is running richer / WOT plume?

[Jmac]

My turbo smoke has gone or rather 'hidden' after upping idle to 900rpm. I have an oil restrictor bolt as well I might use for safe measure.

Both are only temporary solutions

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[Jmac]

So I just left it idling and it would indeed look to be the turbo seals. I don't see the blueish element of the smoking but it definately was blowing a grey after 9 minutes or so .. what's my next step? Mazda and pray for a good will warranty or? What's the damage to my pocket likely to be?

IF the turbo seals are gone, would this explain why the car is running richer / WOT plume?

Take a video and speak to mazda.. Sometimes it won't happen on command so you might look silly lol. They did mine for nothing outside of warranty but had a good relationship with my dealer

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[Jmac]

sorry to burst your bubble dazza, i tried a pill, fixed it for a month or two and then it was back with a vengeance..
might save you some embarrassment time though .

someone thought my car was on fire!

[RedDjinn]

Smoking turbo seals is a good reason to go BNR

[Nirvandan]

Take a video and speak to mazda.. Sometimes it won't happen on command so you might look silly lol. They did mine for nothing outside of warranty but had a good relationship with my dealer

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What he said, worked for me as well.

- - - Updated - - -

Smoking turbo seals is a good reason to go BNR

Only if the job is not under warranty

[Seba]

The car isn't under warranty, Mazda wouldn't budge and quoted ... wait for it .. $3164 + labor. EADC. And the seals are definitely goneski's, lasted about 120 000km which is sort of ok considering I got the car pretty cheap at the time.

So my option now is the BNR, S3 at 1100 is pretty tempting but worried about the additional work that may be involved? May just play it safe with a S1. I'll probably need a Cobb AP too now won't I? :/

[dazza]

You may as well get the s3 for $200 more if you are installing yourself there won't be much difference. You will need a tune for the s3, might be able to get by with stock tune on s1 but I wouldn't. if you get s3 you need an etune on top of the Ap (say, 600 for ap plus 200 for etune) as ots maps don't cater for BT, or get a local dyno tune for 800 from hpf.

[dazza]

sorry to burst your bubble dazza, i tried a pill, fixed it for a month or two and then it was back with a vengeance..
might save you some embarrassment time though .

someone thought my car was on fire!

Hehe I might of got to it before it fried the seals all together, when I had AP I ran idle at 900 and had no smoke, that was for a few months, I haven't actually needed the oil restrictor bolt yet.

[Jmac]

Still cheaper than mazda lol

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[Slixxor]

I can confirm that I have had this issue after installing a hurricane split dump pipe. initially I was running no cat and believe me it was smokey!!!! it looked like i was ripping burnouts at every set of lights.

After assuming valve stem seals, turbo seals (turbo was freshly rebuilt by Mr Turbo on the Gold Coast, literally 0km on the turbo.) After having it reinspected buy Mr Turbo who advised the turbo was "fine" I left for a few months and avoided driving it. Engine comp from cyl 1-4: was 165,165,155,165. After much searching then finally i found a thread telling me that AM DUmp pipes and no cats stress the seals. So I fitted a 200CPSI hi-flo metallic cat. that kinda helped. reduced smoke by 20% but still plenty there. I then fitted a bnoon reducer bolt on the banjo line. that helped considerably. but wasnt quite perfect. In the end the final fix was increasing the idle to 1050rpm from 750. and shebang, she drives like a dream again!. Lesson here... Dont play with KO4's. just swap for GT30xx

[Reedy]

60 000km's and 20 odd track days and my turbo started smoking.

Mods were:
Cp-e DP and CAI
Tunehouse ECUTEK Tune (17psi)

If anyones turbo was gonna drop its guts it was always gonna be me. Would have been nice to get a bit more life out of it tho.

[Jack P]

Yesterday I experienced the smoking turbo for the first time. 115,000k's, I left it idling in the driveway for maybe just over ten minutes and it starting producing a lot of white smoke, had the whole burning plastic smell too.

I drove it around a bit more (it still feels fine) and left it idling two other times for about 5 minutes each and no smoke.

I never really sit it at idle or stopped in traffic (not much traffic in Tassie!) so is it going to be a problem? Is there a chance of damaging anything in the turbo or the engine? It got a major service (the 120,000k one) at Mazda in town about 2500k's ago, not sure what sort of oil they used.

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Car is stock (other than suspension/rmm)

[Dr. Teeth]

Jack, read the thread above. If the car has been run hard on Boost many times (ie. track days etc) then the wear will be extreme. I'm at 125k on the clock, Gen 1, and the turbo is fine. Saying that, I don't track my car and time spent in boost range is limited...

[Jack P]

Sorry which thread do you mean? The car has never been tracked to my knowledge, it is occasionally taken for a bit of a spirited drive but nothing particularly hard and not for long periods at a time. I'll let it idle after a drive tomorrow and see if it happens again.

[mech81]

@Jack P - Dr Teeth meant to read this thread that you posted in - the posts before your first post in here

[Jack P]

Ah of course, sorry! I read the whole thread before I posted (and a bunch of others on MSF) and I've found lots of info on the causes of the problem and potential fixes. The main thing I'm left wondering about is the consequences aside from the smoke, as in any other effects it might have that would be detrimental to the longevity of the engine. Also I tested it again and the smoke did reappear, but not until it had idled for almost fifteen minutes. I'm almost never going to be idling for long enough to see the smoke (probably why I haven't observed it until now) which is why I'm not really sure how concerned I should be about it...

[Jmac]

It will get worse tbh and you will have to fix regardless

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[SarcasticOne]

It will get worse tbh and you will have to fix regardless

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This ^^^
Can also cause turbo to work less efficiently...