JBear Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Not all the time. For example, doesn't do it at all on a cold start, and it's fine until it warms up. Then it just seems to smoke more than it should idling. If it sits say, at a stop light, when you go to take off it leaves a huge cloud behind. Tailpipes are dry. No warning lights, no engine noises, no vibrations, car seems to be running perfectly... except the smoke. It's been doing this since last Saturday so, just under a week. Dropped it off at the local dealer tonight to check it out tomorrow, but I figured I'd get some second, third, etc- opinions in advance. When we dropped it off, the service manager said "if I was a betting man, I'd say it's going to be a five letter word". I assume that word is turbo, but I wouldn't know. I do know that we bought the car six months ago with 125K on it, and a junkyard engine that had less. When they swapped the engine they put a brand new turbo on, so it has like, 4-5K on it. Oil has been changed twice in that time. If the dealer hands me a ridiculous figure (which I anticipate) I will probably take it to one of the two the specialist an hour away from me who were recommended here in the regional forums, but I figured I'd throw it out here first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob-2 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Are you consuming coolant or oil? You can pull the front and rear o2 sensors to see if you find oil. Could also inspect the TMIC to see if you have oil there. Pull the oil fill cap and look for puffs of smoke. Turbo could be the problem, ringland failure too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Not especially. Or at least, it wasn't. Haven't checked it in awhile. TMIC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted March 27, 2014 Author Share Posted March 27, 2014 Oh, never mind. Google is my friend... when I think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 So, the dealer says the turbo is bad. No huge surprise there, although the turbo is practically brand new. Anyway, they're quoting me about $1800 for a new OEM charger, the oil line, banjo fitting, a set of plugs and labor. They have no intention of putting the filter screen back in. I spent some time on the phone with Colin at ECS Performance in Windsor Locks (about an hour from home) who didn't think that was outrageous, but said too many people with these cars assume the problem is the turbo without digging any deeper. I'm a little concerned about that myself. The dealer said they barely got into it on Friday, so I'll find out more on Monday. It's possible they're going to check some other things that ECS would if I flatbed it up to them. If not, I guess she's going on a road trip for a second opinion... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Trendz Inc. Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Having same problem, im in CT. Checking today whether it is the BRAND NEW BNR16G that blew a oil seal, or my ringland. Compression test+leakdown test should tell you whether it is turbo or engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 I'm going to ask them to do a compression test tomorrow, and see where it gets me. I hope we caught whatever it is before significant damage, because the car runs like a raped ape right now. No odd noises, loads of power. It just smokes a lot. I have high hopes. What region are you in CT? I know of two other places I would much rather have taken it to, one an hour north of me (Windsor), one an hour southwest (North Branford). Unless you live right by me somewhere, there's a good chance you're close to one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Trendz Inc. Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 I do work myself, but im from Wethersfield in Hartford County. If you check my thread "BNR16G boost surge" youll see the pictures of my turbo on the 2nd page. Brand new turbo somehow blew a oil seal while i was doing a pull for the builder of the turbo haha. I made it clear, you most likely did too. I was blowing thick smoke that smelled like burning oil all the time, and never got low on oil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apexi Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 My non turbo legacy does the same thing from a stand still. I burn about 1 quart of oil every 2k-3k or so, it varies. You sure it's not just the weather? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Positive. Been driving the car almost daily since November (well, the wife has anyway). Weather has been all kinds of up and down since then, and it never did anything remotely like this. Went from "hey, look at that" to "OMG, this is embarrassing" to "I don't think I should drive this anymore" in five days. Something is definitely very wrong in there, I'm just hoping it's only the turbo. I mind putting a new hairdryer on a lot less than I mind tearing the engine down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomberlegacy Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 My non turbo legacy does the same thing from a stand still. I burn about 1 quart of oil every 2k-3k or so, it varies. You sure it's not just the weather? Not trying to be terribly off topic.. but what brand of oil are you guys using? Especially you, apexi..my 2.5i burns zero oil in 5K oil change intervals with amsoil '08 Legacy 2.5i - hybrid intake - delta 1000 - E85 - magnaflow exhaust Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apexi Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I've generally always used conventional 5w-30. I've also run pennzoil platinum and ultra, and g-oil synthetic 5w-30 when I was able to get really good deals on them. I am tempted to try something different, even though I'm currently at 147k and have a decent amount of conventional 5w-30 on hand still. It's really obnoxious to constantly have to worry about the oil level all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob-2 Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 I've generally always used conventional 5w-30. I've also run pennzoil platinum and ultra, and g-oil synthetic 5w-30 when I was able to get really good deals on them. I am tempted to try something different, even though I'm currently at 147k and have a decent amount of conventional 5w-30 on hand still. It's really obnoxious to constantly have to worry about the oil level all the time. Just top it up with every gas fill up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 So, update: picked it up tonight. It took a little longer than they anticipated, because there was some $115 "boot" under the TMIC that had a hole in it and they had to order it. They assured me that this would help smooth out the idle as well, which is something I'd complained about when I first got the car and they assured me it was normal. They found a few other vacuum leaks in there as well, and assured me that fixing those would also help the idle. I'd like to reiterate that we brought it in because it was smoking a lot, not because of any driveability issues. It ran just fine, pulled nice and smooth, held a decent idle and got decent MPG. It just started smoking like a diesel. So we pick it up tonight (after closing, unfortunately) and holy crap does it run like a raped ape now! Turbo screams when you stand on it, runs way stronger than it ever has since we've owned it. THAT SAID, it doesn't idle for crap anymore. It stalled on her four times on the way home. It idled way, way better before all this stuff got "fixed". Guess I'm not quite through with this experience yet... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Trendz Inc. Posted April 4, 2014 Share Posted April 4, 2014 Is it still smoking? If it is make sure your not losing too much oil. My issue ended up being the piston seal ring ceased in the turbo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted April 4, 2014 Author Share Posted April 4, 2014 Nope, I think they were right about what was causing the crazy smoke because that's back to normal. I also have the old turbo, which I will probably give to a turbo shop and see what it would cost to rebuild, just for S&G's. Really, everything seems better than I remember, except that it's idling like it's about to give us the big F.U. It didn't idle all that bad before, just rough enough that you could see the steering wheel jiggle a little sitting at stop lights and stuff. It's a stick, so it isn't a torque converter thing... it's just a Subaru boxer engine, not a Honda Civic, so I don't expect to balance a stack of champagne glasses on it. But now it just plain doesn't want to stay running unless you're on the throttle, and that's significantly worse than it what we'd come to think of as "normal" before the whole smokescapade started. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomberlegacy Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 You might try and unplug the battery for a bit then reconnect and start it up. Let it relearn to idle properly. If the shop didn't do that after they fixed the leaks, it could just need a reset to learn the leak free intake '08 Legacy 2.5i - hybrid intake - delta 1000 - E85 - magnaflow exhaust Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 Hm... good point. Worth a shot anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 Getting worse. On the way to the emissions testing station this morning, the engine light came on and cruise light started flashing. So much for getting it through emissions on time. Dumped it off at the dealer again. I'm a little pissed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob-2 Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Getting worse. On the way to the emissions testing station this morning, the engine light came on and cruise light started flashing. So much for getting it through emissions on time. Dumped it off at the dealer again. I'm a little pissed. Find a local shop. Dealer will be spendy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 I'm hoping not, as my view of this situation is that the current state is the dealer's fault. I gave them a car that ran perfectly fine, and $2K later they gave be back a car that can barely stay running. Whatever happened in the interim period, they need to rectify. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob-2 Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 Well good luck. Sounds like fried rings from the junk yard motor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted April 5, 2014 Author Share Posted April 5, 2014 Well, it isn't smoking any more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteMonster06 Posted April 6, 2014 Share Posted April 6, 2014 How many miles are on it? Could be a head gasket. Also I just replaced my turbo that had this exact same smoking issue, down to the cold start warm up and idle. I replaced it with a BNR 16G and it is fantastic. Got the turbo, oil line, fmic, ebcs, and a dw fuel pump for about $1800 paid $660 for turbo and ebcs installation and a pro tune by Dave (cryo) with a smoke test to see if anything leaked. So all in all I paid about $2,460 for everything. Now my guess is the dealership may have either by accident or on purpose messed up one of the vacuum lines, may have been simply popped out of place. Check those. That usually constitutes a check engine light, funny idle, dying, and weird boost. Either way, zip tie or clamp those things anyway. And, don't take it to a dealer...like ever, unless you still have a warranty through them.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBear Posted April 6, 2014 Author Share Posted April 6, 2014 It has about 130K on it, the engine allegedly has less. I don't think it's a head gasket, it just plain runs too good (other than the crappy idle) and there's no fluids leaking anywhere or any smoke at all from the exhaust anymore that would suggest they're being burned. Yeah, it's warranty. They found a bunch of vacuum leaks while doing the job, and I very much suspect that something either didn't get hooked back up or didn't stay hooked up. Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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