480 TURBO - SMOKING AT IDLE ONLY !!

[grahal]

Hi there

My 1989 480 Turbo has only done a genuine 70,000 miles and has a full Volvo Service History but when it is idling it blows blue smelly smoke out of the exhaust. It does not use / burn oil - barely put any in during last 6,000 miles. I am sure it is crankcase breather pipes and / or `breather valves` which are blocked or non functional. Trouble is there are so many pipes and the Haynes Manual is no help in locating the breather system. Please could someone talk / mail me (or send a pic?) so that I can locate respective bits of the breather system which may need cleaning out etc?

Thank so Much

Graham

[ChrisB]

Worth checking the breathers. Main one is from the front of the engine, big black thing sticking out below the throttle, then a pipe leading from that to the air pipe before the turbo.

Sadly idle smoke that clears on driving is usually turbo seals on their way out. 70-90K miles is generally the normal lifetime of the turbo. Reconditioning cost me £180 I think it was. That turbo did about 5K miles till the car was written off and is going spare if you're intersted (got the whole engine).

[Peter Milnes]

When we changed the bottom half of a Ford 6 cylinder diesel from a coach, we forgot to change the turbo. At idle everything was fine but as soon as we drove away it laid down a smoke screen better than a WWII battleship!! That was because the turbo bearings had been knackered by crap from the bores when the engine overheated and seized due to a cracked cylinder liner. So unfortunately it isnot always the turbo bearings that are responsible for a smokey idle. I would have gone for the PCV system myself although that becomes evident when the car is driven more than being at idle. The most likely reason for a smokey idle is that the sump is overfull with oil.

All the best, Peter

[tim960]

Hi I had the same problem on my GPZ750 Turbo (Motorcycle) and it was down to the seals on the turbo bearings, I guess this was a miniture turbo in comparison to a coach engine, but boy could it pump out the smoke,

sorry, Tim.