White smoke when breather bipe connected.

[royster]

I recently bought a 2001 1.8t a4. I have been noticing a smell of petrol in the cabin some times so I took a deeper look in the engine compartment and found that the breather pipe on the back of the engine had been disconnected. On spotting this I decided to reconnect the pipe but on doing so I have white smoke from the rear exhaust when idling and revving the car seems to make it worst although after a while it does seem to calm down. I have also noticed that when the breather pipe is connected I am getting an oil leak somewhere on the left of the engine above the catalytic converter. Not sure if it is coming from the rocker cover gasket and running down the metal guide on the left?

I have been told by the garage that my car is breathing heavily.

A friend thinks that the smoke may be just condensation in the system which needs a good clear out because the pipe has been disconnected for so long. He advised me to drive it a while but I can not do so because this causes the oil leak which smells because the oil is dropping on the cat. Whats strange that revving the car heavily on the spot with the pipe connected does not cause the oil leak nowhere near so much, the odd drop. Hope this makes sense.

I could really do with some help guys as I would like to be more in the know when I take it back to the trader this week.

Thanks

 

[ronny]

I recently bought a 2001 1.8t a4. I have been noticing a smell of petrol in the cabin some times so I took a deeper look in the engine compartment and found that the breather pipe on the back of the engine had been disconnected. On spotting this I decided to reconnect the pipe but on doing so I have white smoke from the rear exhaust when idling and revving the car seems to make it worst although after a while it does seem to calm down. I have also noticed that when the breather pipe is connected I am getting an oil leak somewhere on the left of the engine above the catalytic converter. Not sure if it is coming from the rocker cover gasket and running down the metal guide on the left?

I have been told by the garage that my car is breathing heavily.

A friend thinks that the smoke may be just condensation in the system which needs a good clear out because the pipe has been disconnected for so long. He advised me to drive it a while but I can not do so because this causes the oil leak which smells because the oil is dropping on the cat. Whats strange that revving the car heavily on the spot with the pipe connected does not cause the oil leak nowhere near so much, the odd drop. Hope this makes sense.

I could really do with some help guys as I would like to be more in the know when I take it back to the trader this week.

Thanks

If you find out please Let me know what the problem is, i have the same issue, I have had it for 50k miles now, usually its the rocker cover gasket leaking, this is a dead common fault on all a4's, then the oil drips on the turbo and you can smell burning inside cabin. i have changed the rocker cover gasket and this never fixed mine, I don't know if i have the same breather as you, as mine is the quattro version so the engine is mounted different.

Another common fault is the dipstick leaking, this is due the it getting brittle and breaking, cheap to replace the holder costs £4

 

[royster]

The car is due to be picked up tomorrow for someone to look at. I will let you know what they say about the issue.

 

[enda1]

You could get a compression check done on the engine, what mileage is on the engine?
Sounds like the engine is losing compression and is leaking pressure into the crankcase. With the breather hose disconnected this hides the problem. With the hose connected it might be pressurising the rocker cover and causing the oil leak or blowing excessive oil upto the rocker again causing the leak, whats your oil consumption like
You could also reconnect the brether pipe and give the engine a good rev and then open the oil filler cap, if you get a pop and a blow out of pressure then you have excess pressure under the rocker cover.
Maybe the seller left this breather pipe of deliberately to hide the problem.
Did the car come with a full service history

 

[royster]

You could get a compression check done on the engine, what mileage is on the engine?
Sounds like the engine is losing compression and is leaking pressure into the crankcase. With the breather hose disconnected this hides the problem. With the hose connected it might be pressurising the rocker cover and causing the oil leak or blowing excessive oil upto the rocker again causing the leak, whats your oil consumption like
You could also reconnect the brether pipe and give the engine a good rev and then open the oil filler cap, if you get a pop and a blow out of pressure then you have excess pressure under the rocker cover.
Maybe the seller left this breather pipe of deliberately to hide the problem.
Did the car come with a full service history

The car mileage is about 106000 and was regularly serviced up to 103000.
I had a compression test done on the car, they said it was slighltly low but still within spec. As you said though it does look like the pressure is coming back to crankcase causing the oil leak. With the pipe connected and given quite a lot of revs there is slight drop of oil being leaked. If I drive the car though with the pipe on the oil leak is worst I have noticed smoke coming from inside the engine bay where the oil leak has been dropping on the cat and being burnt off.