Lots of Gray/Black exhaust smoke - no codes

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JRHowell

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I had an odd experience the other day.
2013 SHO w/ 185,000 miles ... works great in every way.
It was a hot/humid day and I was parked is a cool basement garage in Chicago. It took a while (15 min) to get out of the garage since someone ahead was having an issue getting through the exit payment process.
Once I got out on the street I noticed a ton of grayish smoke behind me. I wondered ... is my car on fire???
I got out and looked and sure enough there was a bunch of smoke (grayish ... not really white, not really blue) coming from my exhaust. When I looked at my exhaust tips they looked a bit oily.

I was 150 miles from home and I didn't have a good place to stop, so I thought I'd baby it towards home and stop if I was ever alerted with a check engine light, over temp or oil pressure. I checked the oil and it looked normal (no milky sludge).

Well ... made it all the way home with no alerts and normal gas mileage ... about 27mpg at 70-75mph.

The next morning I started it up and no smoke.

I took it into my local Ford Dealer and they said no codes and couldn't find anything wrong.

Anyone have any idea what's going on. I'm now driving it without issue and wondering if that will reoccur.
 

JRHowell

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Sounds like the turbo seals are leaking to me. The oil pooled up while you were waiting and burned off once things got up to temp.
That seems to make sense. Any idea on how to confirm if this is the issue? And do you know if turbo seals are replaceable or do I need to go with new turbos?
 

BradM

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Easiest way I know is to pull a downpipe and look at the turbine/housing. If these are original 185k mile turbos you can bet they are done. They can be rebuilt (but the shafts may be too worn) so I'd look at replacing the cores (CHRA) with aftermarket ones (OEM not available). If you're lucky, you might find new OEM turbos cheap on ebay (I did). However, you can just keep chugging along with what you have. When she starts pushing smoke more often, then change. If it got real bad you could risk clogging a cat. Bottom line, nothing urgent IMHO if its just the oil seals.
 

JRHowell

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Easiest way I know is to pull a downpipe and look at the turbine/housing. If these are original 185k mile turbos you can bet they are done. They can be rebuilt (but the shafts may be too worn) so I'd look at replacing the cores (CHRA) with aftermarket ones (OEM not available). If you're lucky, you might find new OEM turbos cheap on ebay (I did). However, you can just keep chugging along with what you have. When she starts pushing smoke more often, then change. If it got real bad you could risk clogging a cat. Bottom line, nothing urgent IMHO if its just the oil seals.
 

JRHowell

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Thanks for the guidance. Yes, original turbos as I am the original owners. I’ll check into aftermarket turbos. Anyone have a brand recommendation?
 
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