White smoke?

[JamesV1]

Sat and had my RTD read my cars file. Afterwards i went to start the car and it sounded like a pretty rough start with a ton of smoke from the exhaust. First time its done this. Anyone have anything similar?

 

[CoHPhasor]

What kind of white smoke?
That is to say, did it smell like coolant, or FUEL?

If fuel got dumped into the cylinder, a coil pack didnt fire, the ECU went too rich, etc, thatd give the result.
(When Fuel gets tossed right into the exhaust it will be white)

 

[JamesV1]

What kind of white smoke?
That is to say, did it smell like coolant, or FUEL?

If fuel got dumped into the cylinder, a coil pack didnt fire, the ECU went too rich, etc, thatd give the result.
(When Fuel gets tossed right into the exhaust it will be white)

It didnt seem to have a distinct smell, all fluid levels look alright. Is it possible that the ignition cycling caused it to dump? Ive ran it pretty hard these last 2 days and nothing seems off.

What about turbo issues?

 

[CoHPhasor]

It didnt seem to have a distinct smell, all fluid levels look alright. Is it possible that the ignition cycling caused it to dump? Ive ran it pretty hard these last 2 days and nothing seems off.

What about turbo issues?

.... Is the vehicle still putting out white smoke?
YES:
Not from the ignition cycling

No:
It was likely from the ingition cycling. You must have signaled an injector to dump some fuel into the cylinder while not combusting and it was exhaled on an exhaust stroke

Turbos don't usually cause white smoke. If coolant leaked in and the impeller grabbed it, it would like launch it into the TB and keep causing white smoke, BUT it would notably smell like coolant anyway.
If it was oil, it wouldn't be white smoke, it would be at least slightly blue.
White smoke = coolant or fuel, If you can't smell it, you might have to get really close.

 

[JamesV1]

So its not currently smoking and has not since that incident.

I think the download file mustve signaled it, with as much as it screws with the computer it could just be a one off thing

Im gonna have a good look at the underside

 

[CoHPhasor]

I'm glad to hear it has not persisted.

 

[Sport Mode]

I had a similar issue with my 2022 Explorer ST after it hit about 20K miles. White smoke started to billow out of both exhausts on cold engine starts. I took it to Ford and they discovered oil soaked blades and pooling oil inside exhaust turbine housing. They had to replace both left and right turbo chargers, gaskets, o-rings and filters. It was all covered under warranty. I’ve put about 10K more miles on this vehicle since this repair and all has been fine.

 

[CoHPhasor]

^ And it was white? Well that is just very interesting...

 

[Sport Mode]

Yep, white smoke and a lot of it from both exhausts. It would only happen on cold starts in the morning and last for about 15-30 seconds. When the engine was hot, it would not happen on restarts.

 

[CoHPhasor]

That sounds like some pandemic-era QC issue if ever I heard one. Glad they replaced it.
Just in case someone finds this years from now and out of warranty - if you're not upgrading turbos, and it's finally available, replacing the old CHRA with new should save you a mint. (IF your snails are good)

 

[Cwolf747]

Did you smoke every cpld start or intermittently? Sometimes it's lots of smoke,smells like oil, and the smoke hangs around. Other times it's clearly just condensation, with the occasional faint fuel smell. Of course this never happens when it's at the dealer. Smh.

 

[CoHPhasor]

^ Your problem is that it only happens on cold start. There in your own pictures some form of smoke happens 2 days in a row.
Take it to the dealer, drop it off overnight, be there for initial startup in the morning.

I wish you the best of luck with that.

 

[Sport Mode]

Did you smoke every cpld start or intermittently? Sometimes it's lots of smoke,smells like oil, and the smoke hangs around. Other times it's clearly just condensation, with the occasional faint fuel smell. Of course this never happens when it's at the dealer. Smh.

Did you smoke every cpld start or intermittently? Sometimes it's lots of smoke,smells like oil, and the smoke hangs around. Other times it's clearly just condensation, with the occasional faint fuel smell. Of course this never happens when it's at the dealer. Smh.

Yep, every cold start. It was definitely white smoke, not condensation. Replacing both turbos fixed the problem.

 

[JamesV1]

I had a similar issue with my 2022 Explorer ST after it hit about 20K miles. White smoke started to billow out of both exhausts on cold engine starts. I took it to Ford and they discovered oil soaked blades and pooling oil inside exhaust turbine housing. They had to replace both left and right turbo chargers, gaskets, o-rings and filters. It was all covered under warranty. I’ve put about 10K more miles on this vehicle since this repair and all has been fine.

Yeah mine was just one time and more of a puff and gone.

I did notice I have a oil thin layer of oil and pooling on some spots under the hood (Sturt brace and air box) But I believe that may just be from the blow off valve

 

[CoHPhasor]

Yeah mine was just one time and more of a puff and gone.

I did notice I have a oil thin layer of oil and pooling on some spots under the hood (Sturt brace and air box) But I believe that may just be from the blow off valve

If it's from the BOV, that's not good.
The only moving part/source for oil would be the turbos.... so for some reason your turbos would be letting out a decent amount of oil...

 

[JamesV1]

If it's from the BOV, that's not good.
The only moving part/source for oil would be the turbos.... so for some reason your turbos would be letting out a decent amount of oil...

Looks like I'm taking off the skid plate tomorrow. Any good places to get a view? I know the passenger side is tucked away good

 

[JamesV1]

Tried for a decent pic of the oil, you can see the outside of the box is wet and looks like some standing oil

 

[advacomp]

Tried for a decent pic of the oil, you can see the outside of the box is wet and looks like some standing oil

Did you ever get anywhere with this? Noticed my strut brace has a thin layer of oil on both sides too

 

[Yort3000]

I had this happen as well a year ago. My ST spent a month at the dealership for them to say “Ford considers this normal”. I took it in saying it’s probably the oil leakage in the turbo and all they did was take the exhaust off and fire it up every now and then to observe the belching exhaust. Never went any further than where they unbolted the exhaust plus they scoped the cylinders. All this digging they claimed they did turned up nothing. I kept on them to find the solution and their last ditch effort was to find a reason to call it “normal”. They had two other STs that were doing the same thing, so they took a video, sent it to me and called ford to get the “normal” diagnosis and told me to pick up my vehicle. On the way out I asked them to change the oil and reset the computer just in case the computer learned something that was causing this and it stopped! Now again 9 months later it has started smoking only halfway through an oil change interval and it sounds a little rougher than usual at start. My oil did drop just over half a quart halfway through my oil change interval. I go every 5000km (3100 miles). Not sure if that’s related or dealer under-filled my oil. I have been following these forums and there does not seem to be a concrete reason for this cold start belching of exhaust. It seems common but not common enough to be considered “normal” at all or the symptom to be considered “normal”. Strange there isn’t a TSB for it.

 

[WaferTech]

I had this happen as well a year ago. My ST spent a month at the dealership for them to say “Ford considers this normal”. I took it in saying it’s probably the oil leakage in the turbo and all they did was take the exhaust off and fire it up every now and then to observe the belching exhaust. Never went any further than where they unbolted the exhaust plus they scoped the cylinders. All this digging they claimed they did turned up nothing. I kept on them to find the solution and their last ditch effort was to find a reason to call it “normal”. They had two other STs that were doing the same thing, so they took a video, sent it to me and called ford to get the “normal” diagnosis and told me to pick up my vehicle. On the way out I asked them to change the oil and reset the computer just in case the computer learned something that was causing this and it stopped! Now again 9 months later it has started smoking only halfway through an oil change interval and it sounds a little rougher than usual at start. My oil did drop just over half a quart halfway through my oil change interval. I go every 5000km (3100 miles). Not sure if that’s related or dealer under-filled my oil. I have been following these forums and there does not seem to be a concrete reason for this cold start belching of exhaust. It seems common but not common enough to be considered “normal” at all or the symptom to be considered “normal”. Strange there isn’t a TSB for it.

What type of oil do you use?