Smoking Classic Impreza Turbo (1999)

[Yanto]

Guys

Bit of advice please !

I have a leggy (120K miles) classic 1999 Impreza Sportwagen Turbo (UK Car, no mods and tidy looking). A couple of weeks back, temp ran very high, started smoking, pulled over and RAC turned up 3 hrs later. Seemed the rad was shot - water visibly leaking.

Dropped at a local garage, new rad fitted and on collection, the temp was fine but after travelling c.10 miles, I stopped off for fuel. Started to see steam/smoke coming from the front grill. Called garage, who said it could be a mix of excess paint from new rad burning off and/or any collected water in engine bay from previous rad leak. It cooled down and made way home (off turbo). On arrival at home, no smoke.

Week later (today), went to drive it again. Fine driving along for 20 mins off turbo, but gave it approx 2-3 mins of spirited driving on turbo and when draw up to traffic lights, smoking starts again (though temp is fine).

Is this a sign of the turbo on the way out ? Alternatively other suggestions welcome. There are no other maladies (grinding, clunking etc)...just the smoke from front grill. Heard stories or blue smoke on start up when turbo due to expire but didnt seem to be any evidence of this either. Sure, there are fumes but these stop after a while and I put this down to a cold engine on a cold day.

Cheers for ideas / assistance.

[DocJock]

My first check would be the radiator hoses for splits and the new rad for leaks (assuming the 'smoke' is in fact water).

[MrFlibbles]

How hot did it run and for how long? enough to do head gasket damage or warp the head?

Thinking back to my MR2 Turbo days after I'd picked it up from getting the head gasket replaced I noticed it was blowing whiffs of smoke out of the engine bay on boost, just before it started overheating again. Turns out the head was warped.

[Yanto]

MrFlibbles said:

How hot did it run and for how long? enough to do head gasket damage or warp the head?

Thinking back to my MR2 Turbo days after I'd picked it up from getting the head gasket replaced I noticed it was blowing whiffs of smoke out of the engine bay on boost, just before it started overheating again. Turns out the head was warped.

Thanks guys. When it originally ran hot, it only did so for a matter of seconds (10 ish) afterwhich I was able to pull over - though it never hit the red zone. Since the new rad was fitted, no problem with overheating, put steam/smoke after driving on boost persists. Due an MOT in Jan anyway, but would be useful to give garage some pointers.

Ta

ETA - it doesnt blow whiffs of smoke. When car has drive momentum, there is no visible steam / smoke (due to air being forced into front end of car) Only when static does the steam / smoke commence (A bit like a kettle which has just come off boil)

Edited by Yanto on Sunday 14th December 17:22

[BIG DUNC]

Check for any oil leaks.
Mine ( same model, similar milage, a year older ) started smoking from the grill when the power steering cooling pipe started leaking. The fluid was dripping onto something hot then smoking off.

Edited to add, they would have had to remove this pipe when they changed the rad.

Edited by BIG DUNC on Sunday 14th December 18:12

[chippy17]

is it smoke or steam or both?

[Yanto]

chippy17 said:

is it smoke or steam or both?

I pretty sure it is steam - it is very similar to watching a kettle steaming about 30 secs after it has boiled (if that makes sense !), though it is tricky to tell as because mileage is leggy, the engine block is quite oily - so there is an odour. It certainly is not coloured smoke.

[chippy17]

Yanto said:

chippy17 said:

is it smoke or steam or both?

I pretty sure it is steam - it is very similar to watching a kettle steaming about 30 secs after it has boiled (if that makes sense !), though it is tricky to tell as because mileage is leggy, the engine block is quite oily - so there is an odour. It certainly is not coloured smoke.

I am no expert but probably better to be steam and as has been said must be radiator related, I know I am stating the bleeding obvious but smoke will hang around so you should be able to tell, can you see any oil leaks as you should not have any, my 99 Impreza is on 95K not a leak in sight (famous last words) and uses no oil at all, is yours using oil?

[oakdale]

I had the radiator go on my Impreza turbo, after I replaced the rad it did just this for quite a while.
Due to the flat four configuration of the engine, the lost coolant remains in little puddles on top of the engine for quite a while.
I'd keep a check on the coolant level for a while, but I bet it's just boiling off the spilt coolant.