I have 20K miles on my 1.8T and recently upgraded from APR stageIII to III+. I had just noticed some thick white smoke from my tail pipe during idle the night I flew out of town on a 30day trip. There was no time to confirm what caused the smoke. I am still out of town and the only clues I have is that the smoke did not smell like oil. When I drove the car around the block the smoke stopped. I turned off the car for about 10 minutes, started it again and revved it a little, it started to smoke again. I know logically one would think that the problem is due to a blown head gasket but with only 20K and a reliable turbo kit how possible can it be that the gasket might have blown? I really hope that the problem will have vanished when I return home but this is wishful thinking.

On what car is the kit installed? I know th eturbo is new but .. might also be coolant or oil leaking past the seal ...

I just noticed it less than 1k miles since the III+ was installed.

The III+ is on 02 GTI 1.8T. I contacted APR about the problem, they were confident that the turbo charger is fine but gave no further comment about what the cause might be.

How new was his turbo when the problem accrued? Was it covered by the manufacture's warranty?

week.

I had my GT28R leaking some oil from the comrpessor outlet.

Unfortunately I did not have the time to troubleshoot the problem as am still out of town but this is going to be the first thing that I will do as soon as I return from my trip. It would be unusual if it turned out to be a problem with the turbo seal as it is a new turbo. Someone mentioned that it could be a a drain problem (I find it hard to belive)that may have caused a pressure build inside the turbo which lead to the oil leaking through the seals. If that case was discovered to be thru and then fixed I wonder if the seals will go back to doing their job again or if they will be permanently useless?

according to APR and other shops I spoke to when this happened to me. Basically they will replace the CHRA and reuse the housings and recablibrate the wastegate.

give innovative a call and see what they have to say about it. that is why PES did not use ball bearing setups.

I still like having the BB turbo for the great response. I do like the sound of the T28 better tho.

i had a friendly little run in on the freeway with a GTI. :-P

Good News (I think). The smoke stopped after replacing the turbo drain hose. The old hose had a gauche in it which is bad enough to cause a restriction therefore causing a pressure build up in the turbo that was being relieved through the seals. The smoke has not come back since the hose was replaced.