Bluish white smoke coming out of exhaust, what gives? - Honda Prelude Forum

LVSBB6 · 07-22-2005, 10:28 AM

This is not really a Prelude-related issue, but I trust you guys maybe able to give me some help. Recently I have purchased a used JDM Nissan SIL-80 with CA18DET motor from Japan, the car passed full inspection and passed emission test readings. The only performance mod to the car is Apexi Dunk exhaust, and the car has 160,000km on the odometer.

For the pass few days, I started to noticed that the car smokes a lot during idle after warmed up. It would happen when I came to a stoplight, put the shifter at idle for about 5 secounds, then the bluish-white smoke gradually comes out from the exhaust. There is absolutely no smoke during driving, the car runs smooth and strong. It only happens after I stop the car and the engine running at idle.

Driving it would seem fine.. come to a stop and it'd start smoking a little.. then a LOT.. start driving and it cleared up.. next stop it'd do the same thing.

Had the mechanic check on my car yesterday, he confirms the car is burning oil out from the exhaust. We did a compression test and it was consistant all across. He did an oil change for me and claims the old oil was really dirty, hoping the oil change may do some improvement. Today as I was driving with the new oil, the smoke still blows out from the exhaust at idle.

Im expecting the worse scenario that engine flush wouldnt do it, what would be the next step to find out the problem?

Some ppl on the nissan board have suggested that turbo seal is giving up, so when the turbo is spooling down at idle, some oil would began to seep a LITTLE oil. The oil burning wasn't a lot, and I didn't notice my oil going down but that's because the turbo atomized the oil so it burned "efficiently" in the motor and I got a lot of smoke at idle because of it.
If it was a LOT of oil then I would lose power, I may not even have as much smoke since the large blobs won't all burn, the atomized droplets burn easier so a small amount LOOKS big.

Need some good advice guys: is this the time to rebuild the turbo? upgrade to a new bigger turbo? or engine swap?

Here's a picture of my ride:

typeshprelude98 · 07-22-2005, 12:45 PM

my brother's wrx did something similar to that(not the sti but the wrx he had before that)
it was a seal in the turbo and it was under warranty but from what the dealer said is that they rebuilt the turbo and it was good to go...
btw that is one hella nice looking car...!!

LVSBB6 · 07-22-2005, 12:52 PM

^thanks for the quick response, that helps narrowing down to the problem and I may able to start looking around for a new turbo. Anyone else has similar experience?

Paluce · 07-22-2005, 02:50 PM

yep,,, the turbo seals are gone. rebuild it, or get a new one. If the center section gets too hot or just too old, the oil can cake up and cause excessive wear on the seals causing a leak path. The car is safe to drive still.