2016 T smoking on startup?

Rick, good thing you added the video, that smoke is HEAVY WHITE SMOKE and does not look right at all. It is not water vapour.

Heavy white smoke usually indicates burnt coolant and the usual way coolant gets in a combustion chamber is if the coolant is leaking through a blown head gasket, a crack in the head or the block. Not sure what to make of the overfilled oil - should not happen with an AD garage. Over-filled oil can result in the crank shaft slapping the excess oil, create foaming of the oil which can cause pressure increase in the crankcase. It can blow the shaft seal.

DO NOT RUN THE ENGINE until your dealer flatbeds the car to their garage! Definitely avoid applying throttle.

 

...given that your engine is turbocharged, the coolant may also be introduced into the combustion chamber from a coolant leak in the turbochargers. While this may mean an easier fix, it can also cause overheating and failure of the turbos.

 

Hi Rick

So to confirm, your OVER-filled on oil? Ugh. Well, that's the source of your smoke.

(and I'm the guy who says "just use the Ferrari dealer for oil changes, at least they know how to properly fill the oil!)

I've seen quite a few current gen F-cars with overfilled oil...its like pulling the pin on a smoke grenade.

The overfill inevitably results in oil getting upstream (via breathers), where it shouldn't be, and then it's burned off. IIRC the corrective action is removing the oil (duh) but also a solid cleaning of the intakes, and hopefully the MAF's and throttle bodies were not mucked up.

Chances are low you have a coolant-meets-oil or anything structural, you'd have plenty of other symptoms if it was that far gone.

Hopefully your dealer will clean this up for you (pun intended).

 

Burnt oil in the exhaust generally causes a BLUE SMOKE which has a "less billowy quality" to it. Of course, Rick can also see if there is an oil smell to the smoke. Coolant smoke will smell very different.

One of the other reasons why I think it is coolant smoke is because Rick said "...a couple months ago once in a while it would smoke quite a bit on cold start. Today it began smoking heavily after every start...". The problem seems to be going from once in a while to every time, so it's definitely getting worse, not better. If it were just excess oil being gradually burnt off, the smoke problem should not be getting better, not worse... on every start.

Here's a screenscrape from a YouTube video that documented a blown turbo that introduced coolant to the combustion chambers of this Saab. While I'm not saying it's 100% due to coolant, I do advise on being very cautious and not driving the car until the garage checks it out. I would not drive it to the dealer - the car is under warranty so the warranty should take the hit.

As for overfilling with oil, I am not sure what happens with Fcars that have a dry sump (which takes a lot of oil and has a separate reservoir anyway) but I am not aware of any differences in an Fcar with a wet sump. With wet sumps you will get slapping from the shaft journals hitting the excess oil in the pan, foam and increased pressure in the crankcase that can mean big trouble.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Coolant smells sweet. Engine oil, well...

 

I agree, optimally don't drive until checked, but I'll bet you $5 (US or CDN) it's oil overfill getting upstream

Not sure what coolant you use, or perhaps your nose is tuned differently, but coolant smell to me is much more acrid than oil, less than gearbox (I punted a deer last week and got a radiator full of hot coolant smell....)

Happy New Year

Rick - if you had MAG do the service and you're overfull on oil, they'd best be quick to get it fixed

 

I'm still broke from buying Christmas presents... would you take Canadian Tire money?

...and good luck with your 2016 tax return! ;#D

 

Rick, I hope it's just (a) turbo issue as it's probably much easier to rectify. Be sure to instruct your dealer to save the defective part(s) for you and hopefully gain some insight with the mechanics on how the failure(s) occurred.

You are lucky to have a nice V12 as a "spare Ferrari".

 

I would guess there's some oil overflow, it's not uncommon for turbocharged cars. It's under warranty anyways. However, if it's in the case that I'm guessing, it won't go away in the future even they replace parts. It's the design. It will need oil catch can or something like that to get it fixed. Not biggie but annoying.

Well, we are all guessing here, hope they get it fix for you.

 

I would ensure that this car is attented to by approved ferrari dealers of ferrari themselves because you have an issue. Cars of this caliber need to be cared for, oiled regularly and constantly run. Make sure the car is ok first, then look after it with a bit more car, because im sure everone on this site, and yourself, would be devastated to see another ferrari die.

 

defective parts under warranty are not supplied to customers. The Manufactuer wants them back

 

Given the inconvenience imposed on Rick, I'm sure the factory would understand. Each day of driving lost on a Cali is something like $300 foregone by the owner... plus the wasted insurance. I'm not kidding.

At any rate, we just want to examine the part with the mechanics to understand how the failure occurred. The factory is welcome to do their own post mortem afterwards.

 

When you checked the oil does it look milky in color? If so and the fact that it's overfilled you're probably looking at a head gasket.

 

Turbo boost was likely very low or negligible when you previously started the engine, saw the smoke and drove at low throttle. So if the problem is indeed from the turbo, that would explain why the exhaust didn't smoke again when the car was driven onto the transporter.

Regarding oil overfill, problems that may result would depend on the design of the engine. It happened to my old Dakota pickup one time. It wasn't the dealer but a Canadian Tire service shop who "always filled pickup trucks with the same amount of oil". They put in 6 instead of 4 quarts of oil. It resulted in loss of power when I applied throttle. I had to limp home. After a bit of digging I checked the dipstick, to my horror.

 

My guess is turbo seal or something leaking in the turbo frames, I have seen this a few times on Cali T's. Also, when did you check the oil in the car - after it was running for a bit and warmed up or before cold start?

 

Ya... it does't work that way. There is no factory understanding for you to keep the parts.

The warranty is to fix the car when the car is broken not for you to collect parts.

The factory wants parts back for either cores or to study the reason for the fault or failure.

When you pay for the part you get to keep the old one... If you don't pay for the part... they give you a working replacement.

Assigning value to the loss of use has no merit to them either. I understand it... but a manufacture doesn't care.

 

I guess you didn't really read what I wrote.

People who buy multiple Fcars aren't interested in collecting broken mundane car parts.

The idea is to have the opportunity to see for yourself what caused the problem ...because it can happen again and you want to see if you can glean any extra insight from the experience that might help you prevent it or at least spot the problem earlier.

In my prior working life, people paid me a lot of money to see more than what their own experts could see and I always did. There are some very capable people on this forum and I think many of them would feel the same way.

As for "...Assigning value to the loss of use has no merit to them...", it only works if they believe their customers are stupid and have no self-respect. If customers don't feel respected by the dealer or the factory they simply buy cars from their competitor next time. It's not about the money; it's about being respected and it's a 2-way street.

 

If the oil overfill was just 1 quart (compared to 13.7 qts capacity) then it wasn't too bad. Clean intake manifolds indicate no blow-by oil accumulation from the oil vapour recirculation system, sump pressure probably OK. Clean intercoolers imply the intake side of the turbo is good, as you suspected.

Since the exhaust side of the turbo is exposed to the nasties, perhaps the coolant circuit has developed a leak on the that side without contaminating the oil. Coolant level should be affected.