Smoking turbo AGAIN!

[HKPS]

Hey guys...so I had my engine and turbo replaced around 30k miles, then just my turbo replaced under warrant at around 45k miles. Now i'm at 60k miles and i THINK it's starting to smoke again. Now since I am no longer under warranty and cannot get a free turbo replacement, would replacing the stock turbo with an aftermarket turbo get rid of this problem? Is it something inherent in the stock turbo design that makes it especially vulnerable to burning oil? Will an aftermarket turbo have a better design to prevent this? Or is it just a problem that all turbos have? Thanks!

 

[kwright997]

I could be mistaken but the turbo should carry a warranty through the parts department. It should be one or 2 years and a certin amount of miles. Could be something you might want to look into.

 

[Atreyu3388]

Another option you could look into is getting the rebuild K04 from Ken at ProtegeGarage. That way, if something ever goes wrong at least you only have a K04 on the car and you can't be ridiculed for going aftermarket at all...just a thought.

EDIT: Also, switching to a thicker oil (5w40) will remedy this almost immediately. I know it did for me at least...

 

[bova80]

and if you have the cobb AP set idle RPM's at 900.

 

[1quickturbosix]

and if you have the cobb AP set idle RPM's at 900.

You must use ATR for this right?



Switch to 5w40 and give that a go. I heard that can remedy the problem. I switched to it AFTER I had my turbo replaced, just to be safe!

 

[Blendercloud]

I've got about 22,000 miles on mine. Just this weekend I switched to Royal Purple 5w30 synthetic and put on my Corksport CBE and Race Pipe. For the first time I noticed the car smoking quite a bit this weekend. I would imagine it's the thin oil. I know I'll be switching to 5w40 in a couple months.

 

[bova80]

i've been using rotella t syn 5w40 and only fill up with 5.5qts for that past 2 oil changes and haven't had any smoke at all. i used amsoil euro 5w40 with only 5.5qts and never had any smoke with it either. one key thing is to make sure you don't put to much oil in.

 

[Blendercloud]

I remember you saying that before about the fill level. I only put 5.5 quarts in. At first I just thought the new exhaust was smoking. After 400 miles I'm still getting that smoke, so I'm fairly certain it's the turbo.

 

[bova80]

well you are on 5w30. like i said before, there really can't be anything wrong with these turbos other then perhaps to much oil pressure going into them. on the one message board a member has created a restrictor for the oil feed line and this has eliminated his smoking problem as well. even replacement turbo's have been said to smoke. if the turbo was shot then it would smoke all the time not just at idle. why did mine smoke last summer when i used 5w30 but not is not when i'm using 5w40, oil catch can and also have my rpm idle set to 900? it didn't magically fix itself.

 

[mazdaspeedster3]

I've got about 22,000 miles on mine. Just this weekend I switched to Royal Purple 5w30 synthetic and put on my Corksport CBE and Race Pipe. For the first time I noticed the car smoking quite a bit this weekend. I would imagine it's the thin oil. I know I'll be switching to 5w40 in a couple months.

Test pipe will cause some additional smoking I am sure...

 

[caprisun]

Test pipe will cause some additional smoking I am sure...

speedster3, Could that just be crap from the new piping part burning off?

 

[mazdaspeedster3]

Yes very likely. I have also noticed though that people with test pipes smoke more than people who dont. ussually when they are getting on it. However, I have seen CBE's smoke for a day or two after install as well.

 

[Blendercloud]

Just to be clear, the test pipe won't 'cause' smoking. The oil is more visible because most of the oil was being burned up in the catalytic converter.

In all likelihood, the reason it's smoking is the move from conventional to a synthetic. Even with the test pipe, and straight through mufflers/exhaust it didn't smoke until I changed the oil to synthetic two days later.

 

[all4bspinnin]

i think one of the guys found that running a catch can and a restrictor on the oil feed solved the problem... dont quote me on this... its on one of the other boards...

 

[bova80]

this was posted on another forum:

So I stopped by the dealer today to say hi to a buddy who works there and the service manager and the tech guy starts talking to me about oil changes. They ask if I've had any issues of smoking or anything, to which I haven't.

They then tell me they have replaced a few turbo's on CX-7's now and that Mazda North America Corporation has changed their recommended 5W-30 for the DISI engines to 5W-40 Fully Synthetic either Mobil 1 or Valvoline.

This information is straight from the Mazda Tech heads at Corporate in Virginia and California. So the dealership has been stocking up on that now.

I find this quite interesting that Mazda after what, 3-4 years on this platform is now changing their oil recommendation for this engine!!!

Eitherway, it's FTW and I think a lot of it has to do with the community and all of your support, trials and tribulations (sweat, blood and money) into the car.

Thought I'd share this with you guys. Enjoy

 

[caprisun]

bova, thats VERY interesting...was that post recent?

Has anyone else had an oil change done at a dealer recently with 5w-40 as recommended?