Very Excesssive Smoke
 

My XC90 is a 2012 model with 212k kilometres on it. Yesterday and today I started from cold, no trouble. About 200 yds down the road it started smoking and I mean smoking! Peasouper describes it! I stopped and could see nothing amiss but a strong smell of burning oil from the back. There were no other problems, performance was normal, no strange noises. I carried on driving and after about 2 miles all returned to normal and remained like that for the rest of the days. My feeling is that it is a seal in the turbo that has gone but can anyone offer any explanation? The earliest my dealer can have the car in is the 17 August.

What colour was the smoke?

Black smoke - excess fuel being injected, usual cause is a boost leak from the intake pipework, often split hose or split/damaged intercooler.

White smoke - excess fuel being leaked into a single cylinder by leaking injector or turbocharge oil seal failed leaking engine oil into the exhaust tract

Blue smoke - turbocharger oil seal leaking on the intake side meaning engine oil being burned in the combustion chambers (can turn to white if large quantities) *

The latter (*) is potentially dangerous as it can lead to "diesel runaway" which often results in a destroyed engine...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine_runaway

Thanks for the advice, it's white smoke so seems as though it could be a turbo seal. Booked in for the 17th with dealer.

Car now been examined by Volvo main agent in Perigeux (France). They say it needs a new turbo plus DPF plus cat converter. Estimate 7k euros. Am I being ripped off? Problem is, the car is undrivable so I can't take it anywhere else. What I don't understand is that the car, when it was going and emitting lots of smoke for a while, had no shortage of power so can it be a turbo failure? I still believe its an oil seal failure but what can I do about it? Is it worth asking Volvo for a goodwill payment or a discount on the parts? Can I get a second opinion from a Volvo rep?

A Volvo dealer will always restore the car to factory spec and replace whatever parts are necessary to ensure that there are no further complications or damage remaining. If your car is under warranty or a company car - you'd love that. On a private car where you have to fund the cost - not so much.

It's unlikely that the DPF and CAT will be permanently damaged but you might have a smokey car for the first few miles as it burns the residual oil deposits off. You could ask them just to replace the turbo charger but they may refuse or decline any warranty for the work.

Now you have a confirmed diagnosis, you could take it to a independent garage and get the turbo charger replaced with a reconditioned one. Be careful when buying another as I *think* that turbo was only fitted to XC90 MY2012-2015 - i.e. the 200BHP incarnation of the single turbo D5.

You can take it wherever you want. Get it trailered away. The dealers are mad and should be avoided were possible unless you have money to burn.
Find a reliable mechanic you can trust. Fit a reconditioned turbo as stated above. If it doesn't clear I'd get the dpf deleted and remapped.
I'd like to think £1000 should sort it.
Keep the £6000 and look after yourself.

Now spoken to my UK Volvo dealer (who I trust!!). They said that there is a known problem with the DPF allowing back pressure to blow the turbo seals. Has anyone any experience of this?

I'm sceptical of that.... not sure what the normal oil pressure of a D5 is but I would expect minimum of circa 40 psi... i.e. nearly x3 that of atmospheric pressure?

Late update on this posting. I had the car repaired - new turbo, cat and dpf plus other bits. 7000€!! It should be borne in mind that I live in rural France so trying to find a good independent is impossible so it was main dealer or nothing. Anyway, the repair was completed last September. Up until a few days ago all was ok but now the problem has returned. Lots of white smoke for a few miles and then nothing. I've tried "booting" it on the motorway - no smoke whatever. Also, nothing if I go downhill with no throttle and then accelerate hard.
I've held a white cloth over the exhaust and there are no oil spots from the exhaust gases. The "smoke" doesn't smell of burnt oil and I wonder if it's water vapour. On this point, the car does lose water (about a litre every 400kms) but the level does drop overnight. There are no obvious leaks either underneath or from the heater matrix inside. I wonder whether, somehow, water is leaking into the turbo and when the engine is first started the water vapourises. Is this possible? Wouldn't this have been cured with the new turbo?
Any comments greatfully received, the earliest the dealer can see the car is the 8 February.

Rubbish. Turbos are designed to with stand incredible pressures and temperatures for very long periods. If back pressure was that bad you'd have long since noticed the boost cutting prematirely and cropping ypur performance.

Any DPF issue is almost certainly caused by the turbo problem, not the other way around.

The turbos on these are water cooled, so that might be related to your problem but the potential causes are too numerous to stab a guess.

Are the dealers over there like those over here, on that they give a lifetime warranty on genuine parts that they fit? If so that might be of some comfort to your wallet if you continue to have problems down the line.

Best of luck, let us know how you get on,