Help! Its Smoking!

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NigeltheRover

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Hey All,

I have a 2013 LR4, V8, 71,000 miles. I've owned it a year. All the sudden the other day, I got on it in traffic, and it created a smoke cloud so bad my friend thought I blew the motor up. The engine didn't make any noise, didn't stumble, just a huge cloud.

I was able to repeat it, by hitting the gas as if I was passing someone. So I did an oil change, that looked ok, not milky at all. I swapped out the PCV valves. Tested it this morning, as I'm pulling into work, and it seemed ok.

I went out to go to lunch, and as soon as I started it up, smoke screen that went away after a few seconds, but it was still significant. Didn't smoke at all during my lunch drive.

What would cause that? I know these motors aren't known for head gasket issues. I feel like its eating oil. Any ideas would be helpful.

Coolant temp seems ok, no warning lights, no stumbling, coolant level seems normal.
 

avslash

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black smoke fuel
blue smoke oil
white smoke coolant

In my experience when a car is laying down a James Bondesque smoke screen it is usually coolant.

What color is it?
 

DaytonaRS7

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white (white-gray) is burning coolant.
first guess would be head gasket, but i wasn't aware that to be a common failure on these engines. and the lack of milky oil would also suggest otherwise.
 

xrp86

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It’s the vacuum pump, it’s sucking oil into the intake.

I also added a catch can.

I had the same problem and took 4 shops to figure it out. It feels like it accumulates then Boom!! Cloud of smoke
 

Jimmy Brooks

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xrp86 is right, I read a form just like this a couple months back about the same exact incident. No milky oil and coolant level is normal. It ended up being the vacuum pump sucking oil into the intake. I’ve only heard of this happening a couple of times on these cars but it’s common enough for it to be a suspect before the Head gaskets are.
 

DaytonaRS7

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i had to replace mine because it was leaking, not smoking.

i purchased a new part, and it was slightly revised. the screw "ears" on the new one were longer, therefor my original screws were too short. you can actually see this redeign in the photos in the link. something to keep in mind.

replacement took me all of 20 minutes actual work time. add in another 45 minutes for the run to home depot to pick u longer screws.
 

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