bmw x3 diesel blue smoke

bmw x3 diesel blue smoke

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TIV400

Original Poster:

67 posts

231 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
Looking for some advice

My X3 2.0d started blowing blue smoke lots of it and continuously. Drives OK so just wondering what it may be, do I continue driving and is there a simple fix?

Cheers

BritishRacinGrin

25,205 posts

167 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
Blue smoke is burning engine oil. You need to find out where the oil is getting into your combustion cylinders- it can be all kinds of things, from a crankcase breather due to a breather valve fault or plain old overfilling, right up to the engine or turbo being worn out.

What oil does the engine have in it, and does it have the right amount?

Has the car been serviced recently, or topped up?

TIV400

Original Poster:

67 posts

231 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
It is due for a service (car has 118,00 on the clock), oil is not overfull and (as far as I am aware)it has Castrol fully synthetic oil in it

BritishRacinGrin

25,205 posts

167 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
...so as a result of wear and tear or a component failure, you have engine oil getting into your combustion chambers. It's going to need investigation / fixing. If it's continuously burning oil then all of the excess soot won't do your plumbing any good, or the EGR, DPF, Catalytic converter etc.
I don't know this model well enough to know if there are any known faults but my expecatation would be that this is either a crankcase pressure/breather valve issue or a turbo seal failure.

TIV400

Original Poster:

67 posts

231 months

Wednesday 19th March 2014
quotequote all
Breather valve replaced but still creating more smoke than Fred Dibner

BritishRacinGrin

25,205 posts

167 months

Thursday 20th March 2014
quotequote all
What was it done? Did the mechanic have a theory on the oil burning or do any further investigation? I'm afraid it is sounding like turbo to me. If possible you could whip the inlet hose off the turbo to enable you to check the turbo shaft for any play, that'd be worn bearings which invariably results in oil getting past the seals.
Of course it could also be being caused by engine wear but this is less likely at that sort of mileage unless the engine has been badly neglected.