Right then guys, looking for opinions with an issue I have with a 1.8t. Basically it's smoking at idle when hot or cold. It's fine when on a run and driving normally and the car goes very well so pretty sure it isn't turbo related. The smoke is white. There is a very small amount of clear water droplets under the oil filler cap and a thin layer of mayo around the underside of the cap too. The water level hasn't moved to my knowledge and the coolant doesn't look contaminated. The oil has been run up to temperature on a long drive but still no difference. I'm leaning towards either head gasket or oil cooler but can rule either out based on the above. Can the cooler go gradually? I though they crack internally and it's a mess or nothing, they don't 'slightly' let go, or do they?. And then if it was head gasket there would be signs of contamination somewhere. The car idles fine, goes well and does what it should, but as soon as I stop and let it idle, even after a long drive, it'll start smoking. It's a KO4 turbo in an S3 with 151k on it and a Superchips map if that makes any difference. Any thoughts would be grateful received.
White smoke is usually water/condensation. You can get that if the exhaust system is cooled down. The weather has been quite moist, so you can have condensation in the oil that will boil off when the engine is up to temp. Some of this can remain on the oil filler cap. I have the same 8L S3 and have noticed similar. However I am not using water. I do get some light blue smoke on a very long idle which points to the turbo. I also have my own engine remap running the engine. My car has 30k less miles than yours.
