Bad Smoke

[WWNJCX7]

Ok so my car now has 5500 miles on it and I had my second smoke incident. For no apparent reason, I had ALOT of white colored smoke come out of my exhuast after starting the car. This condition continued for about 45 - 60 seconds and then stopped. This is the second time this "bad smoke" thing has happened and I am not happy about it. Could it be a sticky waste gate valve, blow off valve or what I dont know. I also have my CEL appearing again intermittently for the past 3 weeks, not that I think it has to do with the smoke issue. Either way, not a happy camper to have this happening to my 4 month old car.

Would love to know if anyone else has experienced similar thing...

Thanks

 

[CX-7owner]

Sounds like a bad turbo......

 

[Zoom49]

I have my CEL appearing again intermittently for the past 3 weeks, not that I think it has to do with the smoke issue.

Thanks

If it is happening in cold weather or upon cold starts it might have something to do with the announced recall of the Anti swirl valve. I dont have this issue but reading the recall letter it might apply if you are in the group of build dates.

 

[Alpha Wolf]

White is not smoke...

It is water vapor...

Usually condensation in the exhaust system causes this.

Humid? Cold at time of shut down?

I don't know what the smog valve would do to cause water to accumulate more than normal in the exhaust.

 

[ktexas]

My wife's CX-7 just had the CEL come on this morning on her way to work. We just bought this car 9 days ago. Now we did buy the owner's demo car with 4,900 miles on it, but i still don't understand the CEL. This is our first Mazda, so I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. BTW I am enjoying reading all these posts and learning as much as I can about our new car. I have always been a regular on forums for my vehicles. TIA.

 

[amp]

this is a known issue with the speed6..
just got mine back from the dealership.. theyve replaced the turbos...
they commented that they had a cx7 with the same issue and is slated to have their turbos replaced as well..

 

[Killer]

this is a known issue with the speed6..
just got mine back from the dealership.. theyve replaced the turbos...
they commented that they had a cx7 with the same issue and is slated to have their turbos replaced as well..

* Turbo...as in singular.

 

[cruzdreamer]

Ok...just today I had the white smoke that is really smelly......it is chilly here...50 degrees....I am concerned because it smells raunchy and I have had this car for a year now and never noticed this. Actually yesterday it was brought in for the recall and I smelled something on the way home and thought maybe it was just something else somewhere else...hmm.....probably should call the dealer.

 

[rcllkl]

Finally, other CXr's with smoke!! I took my CX-7 in for an oil change at 11,000 miles and 50 miles later I started to see the smoke as I pulled away from a stop light. Pulled over, checked the oil and it appeared to be over serviced. So I'm thinking, crap, oil must be blowing through places it doesn't need to be in. I went back to dealer they confirmed overfill but said that had nothing to do with the smoke. Said it was condensation. I said it's pretty strange that up until that time I had no smoking. It's still doing it today. I'm concerned there is turbo damage. I called Mazda and got a claim number issued just in case. Suppose to be meeting with a tech rep sometime this month. I noticed recently as the weather has cooled down and I'm not using the a/c as much that the smoke has decreased...not sure what is going on but it's pretty damn embarrassing to pull away from the stop light in a new car and be smoking like an old tomato truck going down the road. By the way, the smoke coming from my car is blueish white and does not have any sulfer smell or anything like that.

 

[amp]

* Turbo...as in singular.

bad habit.. ive owned five fds with twins...hence the mistake
(screwy)

 

[mikey1981]

the car is very sensitive to temp changes.

my shutter valve went over last winter, had 2 cel lights before they replaced it. the smoke came when starting the car, and would smoke anywhere from 1 min to 5 mins, usually due to cold morning starts and or a quick decline from lets say a nice warm winter day to freezing temps. My car was garaged.

the day they repo'd it, they started it and it actually would not stop smoking (it ran idling for about 20 mins while they checked the car out). This was in May '07. Never knew why, dealer & mazda rep had no answers for it. (bang)

Granted, my car did have some decent problems like detonation causing shut down, but, the problems i had with my car, although at some times severe....dont seem drastically different by what i have been reading on this board the last few weeks (by new owners and owners now having some issues). Especially now with the shutter valve recall, which was responsible for my cels on cold days of winter 06-07.

you def did right by calling mazda and opening a claim. just in case, ya never know.

 

[cruzdreamer]

My dealer did not seem too concerned....I am monitoring it for now. Little bit of smoke yesterday...not like the day before. Smells bad though....almost like a burning bad chemical smell. I have had the car a year and 2 weeks now....hmm....why now? And this happened after they did the recall on it...never happened prior to that? Any ideas? It's not that the car is just cold....happened even after driving it for 15 mins. Anyone find anything out please check back in....Thanks...

 

[AWmustang]

Only happened after the recall? Maybe they botched the install of the new valve and it's stuck.

 

[cruzdreamer]

Ok...now have not noticed it in 2 days....tempermental I guess

 

[rcllkl]

see my post above on 10-10-07..I took the car in for the recent emissions recalls this week and while there, sitting at idle for awhile before they pulled it in the garage, the smoke started rolling out the exhaust pipes. The service manager and tech were standing right there so no denying it this time. They both agreed this wasn't normal,,,, no s#*t sherlock!! I've been trying to convince them of that for weeks now. So the service manager calls the Mazda support team and they say, "well we we did have a problem with a bad batch of seals in the turbo's during the time period my CX-7 was produced". The bad seals allow oil to leak by and gets burned out through the exhaust system. So the car is still in the shop to rplace the turbo. Of course they claim there is no other damage as a result of this malfunction but who knows. I'll make sure this is well documented just in case. I don't know exactly when my car was produced but I bought it in Nov. 2006, so it must have been a few months before that. If you are having smoke problems it's worth finding out if your car was made during this time as well.

 

[Rick's CX-7]

Guys,

Invest $20 every oil change or every other oil change and get a Used Oil Analysis. This can most definitely have an impact on a Mazda tech.
Most dealer mechanics wouldn't even know what a UOA is, so don't bother with them.

Rick

 

[rcllkl]

Not sure I undertand the connection with getting a used oil analysis and the car smoking as a result of bad seals or over servicing???

 

[CX-7owner]

Rick is just a little obsessive with his oil, for some odd reason.

 

[WWNJCX7]

Bad Smoke Returns

Well now that the cooler weather seems to be upon us, I have had more smoke incidents with my CX7. My smoke incidents seem to be more frequent at a rate of once every 2 weeks or so. And I know it is NOT condensation, its white smoke ! I have not had the car in for the shutter valve replacement so I am not sure if there is a correlation with that or not. I also have been having an intermittent CEL for about 5 weeks or so. Just a hassle to bring the car in and get it checked out with my schedule.

Either way I find it to be troubling as well as embarrassing with all that smoke coming out of my car ! Hope there is an easy fix to this, but of course since the problem is very intermittent - I am sure the dealer will not be able to recreate the problem and therefore not take care of it. So glad I paid 31k for a loaded AWD GT and have all these issues ! (flame)

 

[CX-7owner]

The shutter valve sticks in cold weather, which is why it needs to be replaced, have the recall work done.