White smoke coming from turbo area!

[Patrick]

Hello everyone on my 05 STI the last couple times I have driven it I notice some white smoke comming from the turbo area and it has a strange smell I don't know if it's oil or something else. Has anyone else had this happen and what should I check first. It's the original turbo with 107,000 miles. Could the turbo be on its way out? Please help!

 

[Meyagi]

probably a coolant leak onto the hot exhaust

 

[Matt]

Yep coolant or oil would be my guess.

 

[scoobiesforlife]

my buddys 05 wrx has the same problem right now, he doesn't know too much about cars, so im heading down there tuesday to help him try to find a problem, and also replace the thermostat on it, he told me on the phone that when him and his dad replaced the radiator, they put water in the system, then didnt drain all the water out of the system, so the coolant/water ratio was not 50/50...and with the cold nights, hes thinking that the thermostat froze enough to cause an intermitten sticking problem.

he said about 30 min every morning until the full car is completely heated and warmed up, itll smoke a little when hes stopped.

after tuesday maybe and hopefully ill have more insight on what his was and possibly help you out to solve your problem.

 

[scoobiesforlife]

what happened with my buddys car, is the thermostat was stuck halfway from him and his dad changing the radiator. the water he used to mix with the coolant wasnt "demineralized" and also full of iron, so it killed the thermostat, we also replaced the radiator cap that is near the turbo.

after everything was said and done, we let the "sob" run for a god 10-15 min, burped the bubbles out of the system, and as far as i know, hes had no problems with it.

 

[drvsdwz]

That's good. If it was oil, the smoke would have a blue hue to it. White just means coolant or water. Hopefully you have no more problems!

 

[Nigel Prodrive]

if the smoke is white and smells sweet like candy, it's coolant. oil smoke is greyish and just smells like burnt oil.

 

[EllaE]

Pat when did you get an STi!!!!???? I am so excited Elycia converted you from that Mazda :X. I'm a little late responding to this, but I had a turbo-area smoke problem, too, this winter. It really only happened when I was boosting more than usual. In my case, which hopefully isn't/wasn't the case with yours, I had a few oil leaks, and it was burning off where it was dripping, so I had the entire engine resealed and that solved the problem. Replacement turbos aren't that much, especially if you keep a stock turbo.