I started the car yesterday and a puff of oil smoke came out and terrible racket was echoing inside the car behind me. Sounded a like lots of misfires. The engine was smoothly idling and drove just fine. So I drove it until it finally stopped making it's jet car sound. Everything was normal but the noise. I'm guessing some valve related to the turbos stuck open. Any thoughts?

Chris

 

Probably not the turbos. The turbos aren't making boost at idle.

More likely the "jet car" sound was the secondary air injection pump.

The smoke is probably just normal. These engines can smoke upon a cold start once in a while.

Next cold start you can have someone else start the car while you are at the engine -- watch that engine compartment fan in the lid with my car it comes on any time the engine is running -- and note where the secondary air injection pump is and be ready to give a listen to determine if the noise is coming from the pump.

If it is shut off the engine and if you can disconnect the secondary air injection pump from the wiring harness and see if upon a subsequent restart the noise is gone.

( The secondary air injection pump probably is a fused circuit but the fuse might disable some other electrical circuit that is critical to the engine starting/running so you have to look into this before you try the fuse thing.)

Then reconnect the wiring and see if the noise appears again.

Added: I can't find a fuse that is associated with the secondary air injection pump. There is probably a relay but my references here at the office don't show this (if it even exists).

 

agree, it can't be the turbos making "noise" if the car runs fine after startup etc.

OP. try to post a vid w audio. then we can play the guessing game.

often times, if the car has been parked at an angle, it drains the oil and the "racket" you heard could well be the momentary "oil starved" timing chains rattling until oil is pressurized, after oil has full drained after sitting and pre "oil pressure".. my clue is the "puff of smoke" and the noise that's what ya get when you park at an angle. otherwise i NEVER see smoke, but in hi ambient temps, the oil drains and a "screech" can be heard at startup, for the aforementioned reasons.

see if it happens again or was a one off event? ( and i believe you're "new to the car"? ) so, again, post a clip if you want more conjecture lol

 

Thanks for the replies. I've owned the car for a couple years but have only driven a few thousand miles so far. Straight boring LEO infested roads killed the fun more than I thought it would.

I'm kinda torn and hope to never hear that again. It was pretty strange. I've been working on cars my whole life and never heard anything like it. But then again how will we figure it out? It IS we now.

I drove the car a good 5-10 minutes with it sounding like a really bad loud misfire with no apparent affect on the performance of the engine. No CEL either. Bright sunny day, probably 65 degrees. I had already driven to work, so not the first start of the day.

In playing with the Durametric, I believe I can turn the secondary pump on and off? I could always try that as well. I think.

Can't possibly be related, but I also installed a used Markski exhaust over the weekend. The car is definitely louder now in the cabin, but otherwise I can't see this as anything but coincidental.

Chris

 

If I let mine sit for a while all the oil will drain from the valvetrain and on startup its loud for 3-5 seconds until the oil reaches the valvetrain again. That combined with a cold startup can make for some noise.

 

if it happens again? try to post an audio clip. many of us have heard many sounds over the years. typing about sounds is like dancing about architecture

 

Nothing to report. Still no CEL or strange sound.
On another note, I really like my hr street coilovers. The eibach springs I took off were slowly jarring the teeth out of my head on every little tiny bump. I think the dash was on the way to falling in my lap.

 

if you dont drive the car frequently ( now that you explained its been with you awhile? ) it won't be uncommon for it to often reward you with little stuff that doesn't act "as it should" for no reason other than "non use"! but sounds and peculiarities that are native to car will often seem foreign lol.

my advice? drive it more often

if puffs of smoke occur frequently and you aren't parked ( again ) on an incline? mention this again. GL and enjoy it! ( more lol )

i drive ( two cars ) with the MO30 and h&r setup and it's lowered and harsher for sure, i have NO complaints. but then i try to avoid speed bumps

 

Secondary air pump squeel possibly.