Ford A/C :: Clutch Smoked - Huge Stinky Cloud Of Blue Smoke Blowing Out From Behind The Truck
Jul 12, 2013
First some background. The vehicle is a 2003 Expedition with rear AC. The 5.4L engine has been replaced with a 4BT Cummins (DD since 2010), but the AC system is not altered-- other than the compressor being mounted to a different engine. The intercooler is in front of the condenser, which hurts efficiency of the AC system, but it seems to work fine in our climate.
My AC system quit cooling one day, and the problem was a hole in one of the low-side tubes from rubbing on the turbo-to-intercooler tube. I repaired this by aluminum brazing. The system held 120 psi on nitrogen for one hour. So I pumped it down overnight to 27 inches of Hg and made an appointment with the AC shop to get it recharged. I could not get an appointment for several weeks, so I continued to drive it with no AC, thinking it should be no problem since there is no pressure in the system.
I was on a road trip when all of a sudden, there was a huge stinky cloud of blue smoke billowing out from behind the truck. I pulled over and the AC clutch and pulley was smoking hot. I shut it down and cooled it off slowly with squirts from a water bottle.
So my clutch is shot but I'm not sure what caused it to fry. Is there a typical mechanical failure where the friction material can be chewed up by the pulley-hub? Or is it possible that somehow the controller commanded the clutch to engage without pressure in the system?
I think it would be prudent to replace the compressor, since there may be some bearing or housing damage from the clutch failure, so that is in the plan. I have read that when ever the system is open, the drier should be changed too. I want to do this right rather than do it again on another day.
One concern I have is that if when the clutch was failing and it managed to turn the compressor-- could there be pieces of compressor in the tube runs that I need to clean out? Other than a visual inspection of the open tube ends, is there another test or things to look for?
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I am writing about a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban and for the last few months, have noticed that the car is losing oil. I have to put in a quart of oil about every 3 weeks. I have brought it in to the mechanics and asked them to look for a leak and they can't find anything. They have changed the oil, replaced the evap hose, but the car is still losing oil. Just did a lot of driving this last weekend and the oil went all the way down, to the point of when I started it this morning, I got a huge amount of blue smoke out the back. When I took off the cap to add oil, I noticed this mustard yellow, foamy stuff on the lid. Never saw that before.
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99 1500 2wd 5.7 burb
Out of the blue I started old red up yesterday (after charging the dead battery) and got a huge cloud of white smoke. Smells of coolant so Im thinking oh great a head gasket. The thing is, I can see no trace of coolant in oil or vice versa. I started it up with radiator cap off, while cranking I got a little fluid spit out the neck but once it started it was not gushing or bubbling at all.
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My car just turned 20k miles. I haven't abused it and rarely tach it over 4k. I needed to cross a lane in heavy traffic so I put my foot into it, it tached up to maybe 6grand, dropped a gear or so and out the tail pipe comes a huge cloud of smoke. I mean huge. Looked like it burnt a quart of oil in a second. I had just changed the oil a few days before. Mobil full syn. I know the lvl was correct because i checked it the day after i changed it.
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I have a 02' Limited V10 with 202xxx and have come across new issues recently.
Occasionally when I start up the truck it spits out blue smoke BUT its only when it fires up then it's done.
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Ok, here's the situation... (Elantra GLS - Automatic)
I was at a 4-way stop sign. No other cars were around so I accelerated. Then suddenly, I hear and see a car coming at me REALLY fast, and well, I panicked. I floored the throttle (almost literally), and I heard something popping or maybe it was a farting sound... It happened so fast that I don't remember clearly...
Then behind me was a HUGE cloud of smoke behind me. I mean really, it covered up the whole street. It was 10 PM, so I couldn't really tell what color it was, but it seemed to be white... So I turned off my car. Checked the engine, no smoke from the engine. I started it up again, and instead to revving to about 2000 rpm at start up like it always does, it only went to about 1000, and more smoke was flushed out the exhaust.
I was close to home, and with no 24-hour mechanic shop around me, I drove home. As I drove home, I had quite a bit of smoke trail behind me which scared me through out the whole 2 minutes of driving. I got home, and I checked the exhaust again, but there was no more smoke. However, a burning smell lingered around the exhaust.
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I was driving down a 2 lane road doing the speed limit and I found myself behind a car going much slower than the limit. It is one of those roads where every once in awhile the double yellow line is dotted so you can pass.
I finally got to the point where I could pass as there was no oncoming traffic, so I turned left to pass the guy, floored it, the tranny started to kick down into passing gear and then the car sputtered, didn't accelerate and blew out a huge white cloud from the exhaust and the cel light flashed on and off. The cloud was something like you would see in a James Bond film to get rid of cars following you. All of the cars behind me had to stop or slow up because you couldn't see. I didn't realize that until I looked in the rear view mirror. I thought the car just sputtered, I didn't even realize about the cloud until I looked back.
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Got a weird issue with my 2014.5 with 10k on it today, V6/2GRFE. On Wednesday I checked oil, it was at full drove it to Virginia to pick up a car and I followed it back 150 miles home, looked fine. Sat Thursday, let a family member drive it to work Friday, was fine. Saturday I drove it about 40 miles, was fine. Sunday I moved it around the driveway, was fine.
Today I started it and got a huge cloud of gray smoke out the back. Smoke continued while idling. Shut it off, got a family member to look at it (and make a video of it for future record). Basically on startup it lets out of a big puff of smoke (worse than my old V8 truck with leaky stem seals), then smokes lightly as it idles. Revved the engine and another puff came out, and the smoking did not stop. At this point I called up my dealer and wound up having it towed in as after about 3-5 minutes of running it was still smoking, as I'm under the impression burning synthetic oil is very bad for the emissions control system. Before leaving I let it cool back off, checked the oil and found it about halfway to 2/3rds between full and add on level ground. I did not let it warm all the way up to see what would happen over concern for damage.
Car is sitting at the dealer now, the manager said he'd try to see if they could get to it tomorrow (do have an appointment for Thursday); probably feel bad after the paint fiasco with the last one. Engine ran fine, seemed to be getting good fuel economy this tank, no CELS. I get that 1qt/1000 miles from break down/very minor burning is normal, but not this much smoke and nearly half a quart in 300 probably is not.
I'm also preparing for this to be difficult to pin down as first hand experience tells me oil burning can be a pain sometimes to troubleshoot, but my 91 Camry with 225k on it doesn't smoke like this, and typically valve stem seal seepage (which would be unacceptable though not serious) goes away quickly and presents much later in engine life. Not cold at all and had an oil burning smell to it for sure, but anyone have any normal expectations for what it could be? My 2012 2GR had 34k on it with zero oil use, burning or issues. If they say nothing my plan is to show them a video, and see what they say.
Pretty frustrated as I was liking this car more than my 2012; felt like it ran a little better, got a little better gas mileage, and road/drove a bit nicer too (probably the newer tires). Also had run into zero issues, whereas in the same span of ownership my 2012 already had one paint repair, a recall, and a brake light switch. Just had an oil change in June too at the dealer, verified the level was fine when I got it back, no leaks either.
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My VW Golf TDI 2000 has 236,000 miles on it. The other day my husband jumped on the accelerator to merge onto the freeway, and it let out a huge black cloud of smoke. Wow, we thought. Weird. Impressive. Uh oh. Then we realized it was making HUGE diesel engine noises, which just got louder by the next day. Windows down, you can't hear yourself think. It also won't accelerate past 50 mph. We've spent so much money and time fixing this car. Would love to know what might be wrong this time. Just moved, no trusted mechanics who we can call. Might we have to donate it to public radio and just be done with it? Or something my husband can repair with the manual?
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I am only at 141,000 miles and I'm seeing blue smoke while I idle! It started as a small puff of blue smoke when cold starting up...now it is much more consistent. I am also getting a diag trouble code of P0674 (glow plug in cylinder 4) can that be the cause? I'm nervous since I didn't watch my tech put oil in the truck at the last oil change...I think he put four gallons in instead of 15 quarts...is that a prob?
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01 7.3 247k.
Yesterday went to get on the freeway I looked back and saw a cloud of what looked like blue smoke. I'm in northern Utah and it's cold but the truck runs fine, I haven't noticed any change in performance. Turbo still builds boost. I pulled the fuel filter cap last night to check fuel color and it was clean.
I do have the CCV mod done. I also pulled to IC Pipe off the turbo and there was a little oil in there but not much, should there be any at all with the CCV mod? Where to start.
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I have a 2003 ford escape V6 and i have notice when i start it' after setting overnight i notice some blue smoke for a little while then it's stop What could be causing this.
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I may have an issue with my engine. My car is beginning to blow some blue smoke when I romp on it. It doesn't break up at all, there isn't any loss of power. It's just blowing some smoke and I noticed a light oil build up on my exhaust tips. I don't think I need to be hugely concerned yet, but I am bringing it to the dealership tomorrow just to make sure.
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I have a 07 6.0 powerstroke, I had 2 bad injectors so I replaced all of them with reman's. I had a problem with them coming loose. the first time this happened it hydrolocked the motor, number 8 cylinder. so I pulled all the injectors and replaced all the seals and washers and torqued them down a little more than spec like 27 lbs. it runs great and starts great even at 25 degrees but I noticed this morning that when starting it up after it sits (cold) it blows blueish smoke until late it warms up and I accelerate. is this normal? should I check fuel filters? oil in fuel?
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My turbo started to have oil on the top of it. I don't know where it's coming from at all, it started to blow blue smoke but not all the time. You can also smell the oil burning off.. someone said maybe the pcv system but not sure. Still new to the vw world only owned the car for about 4 months. Trying to add pics but it's not working.. Will keep trying
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My santa fe 125k on it engine start to blow little blue smoke when start up ...
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I was towing a 16' Carmate Box trailer (empty), in tow/Haul mode, through the mountains on the PA turnpike. On an uphill section, 70 mph, suddenly blue smoke was pouring out of the back of the truck. I immediately slowed to about 50mph and pulled over at the next opportunity, about a mile. The bottom of the trans pan was coated with fluid, mostly on left side and the exhaust crossover pipe was smoking. Gauges were all normal. Ambient temp was 90F.
I drove another 40 miles, mostly about 60 mph. No problems. When I started climbing in elevation, and hit 70mph again, the smoke started again. I pulled over again and crawled under to fine the crossover pipe in flames. I grabbed a rag and beat out the flames. Fluid was red. Gauges were normal again. Once I disconnected the trailer, I can find no leaks. Snugged pan bolts. I cannot duplicated the problem without the load and speed.
Background: 2005 Crewcab, 5.4, 5R110 trans, 3.73. 416,000 miles, I have towed about 50K miles of that. Trans always ran great. Never replaced.
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I was considering getting a keyless start to preclude the considerable stinky smoke that occurs upon start up in the winter mornings. But it does this in the summer mornings too? How do you know if a keyless start would prevent this from happening?
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6.0. 115,000 miles. Everything stock, except bully dog intake filter.
I replaced the FICM recently, with one that I bought from the guy who makes those cool You Tube videos, Diesel Tech Ron. I also replaced the EGR valve. I also replaced the intercooler boots on the hot side. I cleaned the intercooler pipes. I cleaned the intake filter as well. I'm still blowing out black smoke, if I floor it when I need to pass someone.
Follow up question: I bought those boots from Riff Raff Diesel and I bought new clamps, too. I'm not sure if I installed correctly. It's already blown one off (it blew the top of the intercooler pipe off, by the turbo, but the boot stays on the turbo) and I put it back on and tightened it all the way down, and I've had to re-adjust 2 times, now, since it acts like it still wants to slip off. Do I simply have the other ones misaligned???
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Smoked headlights on a magnetic grey 11-16 superduty. Looking for a pic. I saw a blue flame f150 today at the car wash with smoked headlights. He had someone smoke the factory head lights and tail lights, not smoked aftermarkets, and they looked great. I found out where he got them.
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My 04 PS was blowin white smoke constantly while running. I just towed a uHaul from Connecticut to Virginia Beach and had some coolant issues on the drive down (I was out of coolant on 95 in PA, added coolant and it made the rest of the drive no problem). I got here to Virginia and it was low on coolant again. I added coolant to it, and now I have some other issues. I had what looked like oil comin out the stacks onto the bed, so I pulled the turbo thinking it was seals. But the turbo was just rebuilt prior to me buying it with a wicked wheel in it. It still had stock EGR and it has 202K on it.
Checked and found EGR valve was wet. Ordered an EGR delete kit, and just finished installing it. Now with everything put back together, the truck doesn't want to start. It cranks but doesn't fire. I pulled the codes from my tuner and I got: P0403, P0405, P0683, and P2623. I know P0403 and P0405 are related to EGR but the others I'm at a loss on. The EGR delete kit I bought included the blank to remove the valve but what do I do with the plug that used to plug into it? Any way forward to get the truck back up and runnin again? This is my daily driver and not lookin to break the bank to get it goin again but I really need her to be reliable.
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