Hi guys,
I have bought my first voyager today,picked it up from Birmingham and drove it back to Cardiff. After about 60 miles,my partner said that the car started to smoke (as she was following). I pulled over,checked the oil and water and it seemed fine,the guy I bought it from told me that the turbo had been changed about 2 months ago and the car has fsh (every 10k) and was last serviced Aug 2011 approx 6k ago. I thought it may have been maybe oil left in the exhaust from the failure of the last turbo,it had a new mot and passed the emission test.
After leaving it for 10mins,I decided to drive it back the remainder of the journey,very gently and not revving above 2000rpm,my partner said there was no smoke until I got to the m4 and gave it a little bit more throttle and the ole returned. It was a private sale,so I can't do anything other than try to resolve the issue.
Any advice would be very greatly received
Thanks
John

 

What mileage has it done?

You need to establish what type of smoke it is. What colour is it? It could be oil or diesel smoke or even water. Try revving it when stationary to get an idea of what it is.

I hate to say it, but it could be the head gasket.

 

mine was head ccracked/porus smoke was deffo white
could be stemseals like brooke23 said how many miles?
is the oil level too high?

 

Thanks for the replies guys.
The mileage is 108k,I Changed the air filter yesterday morning and added a bottle of stop smoke,it seems to have stopped the smoking. I ran it for 100miles,then left it running for over 2 hours,just revving it to 4500rpm every 15mins and the only thing I got out was black soot leaving a little patch on the floor. I spoke to my mechanic and the previous keeper,who told me the turbo was changed approx 2 months and 500 miles ago,the mechanic said it may just be excess oil in the exhaust from the failed turbo. The baffles in the centre box were rattling,so I have ordered a new exhaust. The smoke smelt like burnt oil and was a pale blue,but the heaters work fine,it's not lost any oil or water in the last 2 days,I topped them to the max markers,so I guess the next few days will tell.
Thank you again so much for your help,I will keep posting
Kind regards
John

 

As you only got the smoke when you were cruising at high motorway speeds, then that kind of supports the oil in the exhaust theory. The section of exhaust under the car would likely not get hot enough to burn oil unless you were driving at high speed or towing.

But you say the car has done 500 miles since the turbo was changed. So I'd expect any oil in the exhaust to be gone by now, but it's plausable that oil may remain if those 500 miles were city driving or lots of short trips. (the VM diesels in voyagers take ages to warm up in the winter, as i'm sure you have found out by now!)

Definately keep an eye on oil and water levels and see what happens.

Oh, and welcome to Voyager ownership!

 

Thanks so much for your advice.
My mrs has been driving the car today and has just come home,so I will give it 5mins and pop to check the levels. The previous owner did only school runs etc in the car so fingers crossed there is nothing wrong. But again,I will keep posting
Thanks again
John

 

Just checked the oil and water,the oil is still on the max and the coolant is still in the same place,also the coolant is a nice pink colour with no signs of any creaming. I took the oil filler cap off and again no mayo. It is driving ok,no cold start issues and the heaters blow hot.

It's booked in to a gearbox specialist next week to have the oil changed in the gearbox, I have been told these can be a bit problematic. Anything else you guys can advise to look out for?

Thanks in advance
John

 

Don't have the latest spec gearbox oil put in, I believe it destroys the bearings. I have always used Mopar ATF 4+ gearbox oil - in theory it's for the auto box, but it's been recommended on here by others and my manual box is now very smooth to use (apart from selecting a gear when first starting when very cold) and gearchanges are fingertip light at 120k miles. Change the oil every year or 12,000 miles and you'll reap the rewards.

 

Thanks for that,it's going in to an auto gearbox specialist (even though it's a manual) as they have looked after my previous cars and are very knowledgable.
Cheers
John

 

Just to keep up to date,I had the exhaust changed today as the baffles were rattling on tick over,gave it a good run down the M4 in 4th gear and it didn't seem to smoke (except for a bit of diesel brown/black dust when revved really hard). I have now noticed a faint whistling/screeching noise at approx 2500rpm but seems to disappear at 3000rpm??
Any ideas??
Thanks again
John