Newer VW Gen3 engines with blue smoke?

VW cars have a horrible reputation for durability and quality. Leaking water pumps is as common for VW people, as the sun rising in the east.

Changing the oil in my Civic every 6 months, or 5k miles, is not a problem in my world. Every time I check the GTI & GLI forums, though, guys are fighting serious issues.

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Subaru at the top of the list. Surely they jest.
 
Even my 2016 FIAT 500x with 165k miles doesn't produce any blue oil smoke, or lose a measurable amount of oil between changes.
It does help that it's not a GDI though, but still a turbo with choo-choo noises. This tiny FIAT 1.4L T-Jet gets driven like it owes me money, and still has no black soot all over rear bumper and exhaust like most of recent TGDI cars. German, Japanese, Korean, American, I see them all with that soot on my 100 mile work commute.
That being said - the blue smoke is likely a PCV issue as mentioned above. Black soot is somewhat normal these days (thanks GDI), but blue smoke is never normal.
 
Honda we have swallowed so far probably $4-5000 over Tiguan and BMW combined.
And it is probably most uncomfortable vehicle to drive.
I liked our Hondas - 2 were older so a '90 Accord my wife had and a '94 Civic I had. Both v. good. The '06 Ody was a very good minivan but lord the VCM/motor mount issues and the steering rack at 135K. Just was a lot of $$ on that one. Would buy another.
 
I liked our Hondas - 2 were older so a '90 Accord my wife had and a '94 Civic I had. Both v. good. The '06 Ody was a very good minivan but lord the VCM/motor mount issues and the steering rack at 135K. Just was a lot of $$ on that one. Would buy another.
We got this car from in-laws. You couldn’t pay me to buy Pilot pf that generation or one after.
Let me put this way, when we got screwed ny Southwest, when they had that meltdown that Christmas 22, we choose Tiguan to drive on 2,800mls trip, and not Pilot, with two kids. Yakima on top, and that is it.
 
The cars got a tune, how do you know it’s not a poor tune that’s causing the smoke as opposed to the “it’s a VW it must be unreliable” finger pointing.

Take the tune off and see if you still have the smoke. Hopefully the tune has not damaged anything too expensive.

Remember if you want to play you have to be prepared to pay.
 
I'm leaning toward the valve stem seals. Many posts out there about leaky stem seals when VW first put the Gen III in the GLI and surmised that it was an engine manufacturing issue. That engine was produced in the Silao plant exclusively while the GTI engines either came from Salzgitter or Silao and didn't have the same number of complaints with start up smoke or consumption. I believe there is a TSB for the early GLIs from VW, but don't know for certain. While the breather can be faulty, and cause a consumption issue, it's easy to check the condition of it to be certain. One big sign of a bad breather is a loud whistling from the diaphragm area. Also, take the oil filler cap off while it's running and see if it stalls or starts to run very rough. I personally would try a different oil (heavier 5W-40) to see how consumption or smoking reacts.
 
The cars got a tune, how do you know it’s not a poor tune that’s causing the smoke as opposed to the “it’s a VW it must be unreliable” finger pointing.

Take the tune off and see if you still have the smoke. Hopefully the tune has not damaged anything too expensive.

Remember if you want to play you have to be prepared to pay.
The IE stage 1 tune is very mild and well vetted. No reason for oil smoke from the tune itself.
 
I'm leaning toward the valve stem seals. Many posts out there about leaky stem seals when VW first put the Gen III in the GLI and surmised that it was an engine manufacturing issue. That engine was produced in the Silao plant exclusively while the GTI engines either came from Salzgitter or Silao and didn't have the same number of complaints with start up smoke or consumption. I believe there is a TSB for the early GLIs from VW, but don't know for certain. While the breather can be faulty, and cause a consumption issue, it's easy to check the condition of it to be certain. One big sign of a bad breather is a loud whistling from the diaphragm area. Also, take the oil filler cap off while it's running and see if it stalls or starts to run very rough. I personally would try a different oil (heavier 5W-40) to see how consumption or smoking reacts.
Valve stems are easy to check: let car idle a bit and then press gas. If it throws blue smoke, it’s stems.
 
I have about 53k on my 2019 GLI and had the puff at start up for a week or two late this past summer. It was at the end of the only oil interval that I used a 508.00 instead of 504.00. Coincidence? Maybe. I havent seen it do it again since. I did the glove test and per that the PCV is good, and like you minimal oil consumption between changes although I do 5k intervals. Valve stem seals is the popular thought but I've also seen some on the forums where they had them replaced and the issue persisted.
 
I already own a Civic w/1.5T engine. Mostly good, other than fuel dilution, and everyone telling me the head gasket is going to blow!

Fuel dilution is easy to overcome with frequent oil changes. Head gasket blowing? Not common with the Civic, but it Can, and Has, happened. Not overly worried, though. My bigger concern, is the A/C system...
And you’re worried about buying a VW. Honda sounds perfect.
 
VW cars have a horrible reputation for durability and quality. Leaking water pumps is as common for VW people, as the sun rising in the east.

Changing the oil in my Civic every 6 months, or 5k miles, is not a problem in my world. Every time I check the GTI & GLI forums, though, guys are fighting serious issues.

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HUh…..What…worst then a Hyundai…….. no way.😳
 
The PCV valves are known for not lasting very long in the EA888, I used to replace mine at around 40k intervals as maintenance. Not extremely expensive and easy to replace. I'd start there.
 
Are you postive this isn't normal exhaust condensation?

^this

Many posts out there about leaky stem seals when VW first put the Gen III in the GLI and surmised that it was an engine manufacturing issue. That engine was produced in the Silao plant exclusively while the GTI engines either came from Salzgitter or Silao and didn't have the same number of complaints with start up smoke or consumption.

The only factory in Europe producing EA888 engines is sitting in Györ in Hungary while Salzgitter makes EA211 (1.0 - 1.5 TSI) and EA288 (TDI) only.
.
 
Valve stem seals are the ea888.3 boogeyman. Everyone is convinced that's their problem, almost no one is willing to do the work to verify it's not a PCV, turbo seal, oil in the charge piping, etc.

Some seem to think it’s PCV, some say valve stem seals. My independent VW mechanic’s opinion is that it’s most likely either injector haze, or PCV, as he believes that if it was the valve stem seals, I’d have an oil burning problem as well, which I don’t.

Dipstick level never drops below minimum in that timeframe, if it moves at all.

Your mechanic is probably better equipped to answer this than an oil forum mostly full of people who don't own or work on VW's. If the seal is damaged (and not sealing) then oil seeps down past the guide and burns, which ends up being similar to how a motor with bad piston ring seal behaves.

He'd follow the normal troubleshooting steps to rule out other issues, compression/leakdown test is super helpful. But a new PCV is generally cheaper than an hour of diag work, so it's kinda the obvious move. Worst case you did some preventative maintenance.
 
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