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2014 LOTS of smoke and oil dripping from exhaust pipe!

922 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  jayoldschool
Very cold here today, -30C. Remote started my ELR, went outside 5 min later, and the parking lot looked like it was foggy. Someone had a door open and said they thought my car was on fire! Went around the back, there was oil dripping from the tailpipe and a puddle of oil (and a big stain) on the snow. Started the car with the hood up, ICE engaged, and the smoke show started immediately.

Checked oil, down to the tip. I had checked it one week ago, it was full. Haven't noticed any smoke or oil this week. Got it into the school auto shop bay, and immediately shut it off. Pulled the engine cover to see if I could see the PCV (nope). Took the oil cap off, there were actual chunks of ice in there! I'm HOPING that condensation freezing has caused the PCV to stick and it pulling oil right into the exhaust. I'm leaving it in the warm shop tonight to thaw out. I'll go over tomorrow and see if I can drive it to burn off the oil. I did top it up.

The ERDTT has been running normally lately. I haven't used HOLD at all, my commute is short. I'm sure that the short ERDTT has contributed to the condensation in the engine not burning off.

It did set the MIL: P0AC4 and P15F6. Nothing that gives me any info pertinent to the issue.

The plan for tomorrow: start it up in the warm shop on battery, get it outside, put it in HOLD, drive around the block and check the oil level. If ok, go for a five min drive on the highway on HOLD, then check oil again. Keep repeating, with longer duration until smoke stops from burning the oil out of the exhaust. Keep the scanner on it to monitor MIL request.

I'm open to ideas. I've searched the other "oil billowing smoke" threads and nothing matches these symptoms.
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Back home safe and sound... with the car! I did one lap around the block on hold mode, it was a James Bond smoke show. Crazy. Back in shop, it hadn't dropped the oil level at all. Ok, time for the highway. Took it out, up to around 75MPH, smoke was pretty much gone by the time I got one exit down. Kept driving it around for another half hour. Had the Snap On scanner monitoring all the time, no MIL requests at all. Back to shop, check oil one last time. No drop.

Swapped out the Snap On for the bluetooth OBD2 dongle, connected MyVoltHold app to force ENGINE ON. This gets the engine hotter, on hold in cold weather, it still turns off, and only got to 82C on my driving. With the app, it stays on, and I got it right up to 99C before the thermostat opened.

This winter, I had decided to just let the car do its thing and ERDTT whenever requested. Obviously, my 12km drive to work is not long enough for ERDTT to boil off moisture, especially with the extreme cold that we have had. So, I'll use the MyVoltHold to run the engine all the way there once a week if it's cold.

What a relief. I'll change the oil this week, for sure.
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Ottawa. It's been a mild January, temps mostly just below freezing. We normally have a good cold snap of -15C to -25C. Friday's -30C morning was not unexpected, but it was the coldest day in a year. It's rising to -4C tomorrow.
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