Just curious for those that started smoking out the exhaust after the test pipe install. After replacing the turbo at the dealer does it still smoke? Is it the test pipe making this happen because it eliminates 1 cat. I know theres a huge thread on the smokers cars but i havent read anyone saying that after they had the turbo replaced under warranty if it started or stopped smoking. I have a cobb sri, su test pipe, and a magnaflow exhaust by the way. Thanks peoples later.

i just had my turbo replaced and 1000 miles later its smoking again. i do have a catless TBE though which is prob the culprit. can any one comment on whether when this turbo smokes its losing its longevity?

i read on a mazda 3 forum that someone had a smoking exhaust after downpipe install, but then they installed a new turbo inlet and this in turn made the smoking go away. their reasoning was that pressure could now equalize on both sides since there wasn't as much restriction that the stock turbo inlet had and the turbo seals can now seal properly. not sure if i buy that but apparently his car isn't smoking anymore.

i have a 2.5" turbo inlet, smoking like a banche.......

I noticed my turbo smoking when I installed my test pipe. The dealer replaced it.

Now I have 9000 miles on the new turbo and no smoking, still have test pipe installed.

Thanks guys hopefully more comments will come so far we got one yes and one no. Im not sure if i should take the time to do it or not I got 5008 miles on the car but it started after the test pipe install. It has very low miles. Imma remove the test pipe and reinstall the cat to see what happens.....

get the turbo replaced now because mazda has a "new updated design" with a new part number that they replace it with. even if it still smokes at least you have the new design. not to mention you just have to remove the test pipe

Thanks for that quick reply im sure a few of us will find that useful. Ill give it a shot.

Yes, try to get the turbo replaced. I installed my TP when my car had ~5000 miles too. I am now at 7000 and have not noticed one puff of smoke.

Mine was replaced, then began to smoke pretty soon after.
However, I never saw smoking prior to the replacement. It was replaced because of oil I found throughout the intake tract.

I had a smokey turbo which I only noticed after installing a SU test pipe.

Dealership replaced the turbo just about a month ago.

Subscribing to find out how to avoid more smoke. Should I not re-install the test pipe on the car? Change my oil more often to prevent thinning? Something else?

some have reccomended trying 5w-40 oil. if it was something that simple to eliminate smoking then i'll kick myself in my ass for selling my downpipe.

I'm not an expert on smoking turbos, but I started investigating upgrading the turbo to prevent this from happening. I brought in my ebay smoking K04 to MPI for evaluation and the hopes of upgrading it and installing it eventually. The owner said that there are really no upgraded seals for this turbo. And if you free up the exhaust side, oil will be sucked through the seals. He suggested a heavier oil (10w30). I guess 5w40 may be better. MPI did say that with the bigger compressor wheel, the turbo will not work as hard to produce the same boost. I haven't heard yet if owners with upgraded turbos have smoking issues. (not too many upgraded turbos out there.)

There have been suggestions of equalizing the intake side that might help.

bova80, Did your smoking issue decrease when you put the stock DP on?

with my stock dp on i don't have any smoke at all, go figure.

Just to add a bit of confusion for everyone...

I started smoking about a 6ish months ago. It would get very bad at idle at first but wouldnt do it all the time, and bad I mean that I couldnt see the cars behind me at a drive thru ). I have everything stock on the exhaust except I have one of my mufflers off. So I decided to put my muffler back on as I was going to take it to the dealership later on in the week. Well I noticed that the smoking stopped. I left my car idle quite a bit and never saw any smoke so I never even brought it to the dealer. So I took my muffler back off and a within a week it started to smoke again. Its almost like that only when we free up the exhaust it starts to smoke.

Had my stock turbo replaced after installing the test pipe @ 17K. Right now I have 24K on the car and have yet to see smoke again.

Ok just an update I took the su test pipe off this morning so now the car currently only has a magnaflow cat back exhaust and a cobb short ram intake. Its still SMOKING so the test pipe isnt making it smoke. I will take it into the dealer and see what happens. Later.

No smoke with my testpipe installed and run with 5w30 100% synthetic motor oil . Stock turbo nerver remplaced and stock downpipe .

I had some smoke with the 0w30 synthetic . So i run the 0w30 only in winter , we have -20 celcius here in Canada.

possible info coming for this.

I have 39,200 miles on my car and my exhaust started smoking today. I pulled into the postoffice and scraped my exhaust. I let the car idle ( my fiance was sitting in it) and when I came out it was smoking like crazy. I have not had any smoking before this. When I was driving it was fine, it only smokes when it idles.

I just changed my oil a couple days ago and when I checked today it was a little high. Im thinking this might be the cause of my smoking.

i just remembered, when i seafoamed my car a couple weeks ago, i put some in the crank case....hmm, i just got my oil changed yesterday i'll check if it still smokes.

Some info... i only have a hks BOV and a straight pipe TBE (no cats no muffler) i had just the cat back part done first with the stock down pipe and the 1st cat still on and the car ran fine, no smoke. The same day i changed out the downpipe for a ATP catless, it started smoking, but ive noticed its only at idle after the car has been in boost. If you can stay out of boost the car wont smoke but with our tiny K04s its kinda hard not to get into boost seeing as the engine itself is too weak and needs the extra support under load. I think it is due to the turbine side not being equal to the compressor side along WITH oil thinning out and leaking through the seals.

holy crap, really?

Seafoam, wonderful stuff which I highly recommend, when used in the engine oil as a cleaner, is only in the crankcase for about 10 miles, then change your oil.

SEAFOAM IN THE CRANKCASE THINS YOUR OIL. DO NOT LEAVE IT IN THE OIL LIKE AN ADDITIVE.



We have enough issues with shearing, no need to lower your viscosity even more.....



FWIW, when I do this, I add the seafoam, 'bout a third of the can, in the parking lot at purchase, drive home, then change the oil.

i only added a little like a couple capfulls, not a third of a can like the label says. but i swear the smoke smelled like when i put seafoam in the vacuum line.

I have stock turbo never replaced never smoked, 35K on my car, I have the TP and 2.5" single outlet exhaust. I don't think it is the exhaust that is causing the turbos to smoke but without the cat or stock mufflers the smoke becomes more noticeable.

I have wondered what would the cat look like inside. With the amount of smoke coming out the back of my car, the cat would have to be pretty nasty on the inside.

i'm really surprised no one has tried a 40 weight oil to see if that solves the problem. well i will be installing a cp-e catted downpipe soon enough (comes today) and then be switching to amsoil 5w40 euro spec oil to see if this solves the problem. i know a lot of speed3 guys use the 40 weight oil and it has eliminated their smoking.

well i think the occ will help with the issue as stated by cobb... i have never had smoking prob but i also dont have dp on yet.. (scared to install it!)

nope didn't help me. as back in may i had the cp-e catted downpipe installed and it smoked. then about a month later i installed the saikou michi catch can per whoosh's instructions, which are the same as cobb's except different pcv, and it still smoked. so i went back to stock and it no longer smoked. been doing research ever since and the most plausible solution I have found without buying a bigger turbo, is to go with a heavier weight oil.

did you use aftermarket pcv or one that came on car? I think there was something said about the oem not working correctly for some?! Someone should know bout this.


Let me know how the heavier weight oil does.

whoosh said the oem pcv was good. so basically it was set up with the oem pcv in the stock location going to catch can then catch can going to another oem pcv and then to intake manifold. Chris (Laloosh)'s ms3 has tons of mods, and maybe he'll chime in, and he doesn't run a catch can at all, is catless and runs a 40 weight oil and has only smoked once and he said it was a freak occurrence. and there were other speed3 guys on MSF that were smoking switch to the 40 weight and then it went away.

Will running 40 weight oil cause start up issues in the winter time?

if you run a 10w40 it might but i'm going to run a 5w40 so i dont think it will.

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