1.4 TSI Condensation and white smoke

[Bergseten]

Hi,

May 2018 EDIT: So, turns out it I was wrong about the car having high oil consumption. I've only had to fill it up twice in 6 months, and I'm told thats normal with 1.4 TSI engines.

I still have another question tho. I'm hoping someone would be able to check this video out, and tell me if it sounds normal for a 1.4 TSI 122hp engine. It sounds like this about 50% of times i start it up. Sounds to me that there is "water" in the exhaust and thats why the exhaust is so "deep"? As you can hear its quiet and nice at the end of the video. 50% its quiet when i start it. Even on cold start.

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Found a similar video. Not mine.
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Old Post:
Bought my 1.4 TSI 122hp about a month ago. I've noticed that the oil consumption is quite high. About 0,1l last week. Using Mobil1 ESP Formula 5w-30.
Also, a lot of white/light gray smoke is coming from the exhaust. Even when the engine is warm and the temperature outside is 10+. It's not thick, white smoke, but more like thin white smoke that disappears quite fast and doesn't really smell much at all. The engine sounds fine and runs well. I'm still worried tho, because i can definitely see that the Rocco is letting out more exhaust smoke than other cars. Normal oil temperature at 89-91 degrees celsius when warm. Not using any water coolant. Last owner didn't experience this high oil consumption. Filled about 0,5l before the summer.

The car has been driven 50 000 km. 2011 mod.

Engine? Turbo? Any known issues like this?

Thanks in advance.

[Cuprabob]

If the car was burning oil, the exhaust smoke would be a blue colour.

[moulin12]

For what it's worth - and it might not be a lot - my 1.4 did exactly the same, something I only noticed a while after having purchased it as 2 year old used. At the end of the 3rd year when it went for its MOT it failed on its emissions due to a faulty lambda sensor. Alternatively, is there any chance this could be a tell tale sign of dodgy injectors, as it's a 2011 model?

[Bergseten]

Turns out it doesnt use too much oil. Thank you for your answers anyway!

I still have another question tho. I'm hoping someone would be able to check this video out, and tell me if it sounds normal for a 1.4 TSI 122hp engine. It sounds like this about 50% of times i start it up. Sounds to me that there is "water" in the exhaust and thats why the exhaust is so "deep"? As you can hear its quiet and nice at the end of the video. 50% its quiet when i start it. Even on cold start.

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Found a similar video. Not mine.
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[Cuprabob]

There will be condensation in the exhaust that gets burnt off on a cold start. The change of exhaust note could be down to the Secondary Air Injection (SAI) system operating, assuming the 1.4 has it. It operates on cold start under certain conditions to heat up the cats quickly. If it doesn't have SAI, then the ECU could be changing fuelling to heat up the cats as quickly as possible, hence the different sound.

[blower]

As Cuprabob says - the noise change is the ECU doing Cat pre-heating for about 30 seconds.....it will do this if the engine (coolant temp) is between 20c and ~30c on startup, and if the car hasn't been started for a short while.
You will therefore tend to find it happens a lot in summer months in the morning when you first start the car (where outside temp is in that range) or when you have driven the car, then parked it and it has had a chance to cool down to that range - it will then do this cat preheat whereby it overfuels, resulting in a somewhat lumpy idle and a burbly exhaust sound.

It's perfectly normal for this engine - although also perfectly pointless, i believe it's been done deliberately as part of the emissions test cycle only - as it just so happens that temperature range it does it in is bang on what the emissions test lab setup ambient temperature range is spec'd to be.
To be of any use ya would think it would do it at lower temps, but nope - just that temperature range, and again coolant temp (not external ambient temp - although when a car has been sat for some time the two do correlate)

[Bergseten]

Thank you so much, blower and Cuprabob. I've been scratching my head ever since i bought the car 6 months ago, worrying it was a problem. But those answers explains a lot.

I still felt the car let out more white smoke than other cars during winter times. Even when the temperatures were above 10c. And especially when I reverse. Do you have any experience with this?

[João Pereira]

Update mate? Have the same exact problem