Blue/white smoke going up very steep grade ....

[Fay Kelley]

At 5:52 PM -0400 8/2/08, suffolkd at aol.com wrote:
>Fay:
>
>You stressed the engine somehow.
>
>Either got the motor real hot working hard to pull you and the car with A/C on etc.... up the steep hill.

It must be cooling itself efficiently .... ever since I told the guy at Audi that my car was
over heating .... 1/8th inch on the engine gauge and he told me it wasn't and then to have
it "fry" on me on the way home ... I have watched my engine temperature guage like
a hawk ever since, LOL.

>
>It could have puked coolant out the overflow line.

ya, it was definitely related to the incline .... do you mean that the coolant got in the engine ?

>The A/C will turn off if certain conditions are too hot.


The reason I caught is as odd is that I have driven 3 other vehicles
up that grade many times in very hot weather
'95 Chevy S10
'95 Audi A6
'92 Audi 100
and never once has the AC cut out like that.

I might have had the car on cruise control which might have caused the
throttle to go to the floor ... I don't need to put the car to the floor
when not using cruise control, but cruise control seems to do that sometimes.

>Another is when the throttle is pressed to the floor (WOT - Wide Open throttle)
>This will shut down items to get the most power out of your engine.

I was wondering whether there was some sort of automatic governor ??? that is
exactly what it acted like.   I turnd the AC off and waited a few miles til I was
level and it has run fine since.   Thanks for the explanation.

>You either blew all the carbon out of the tailpipe, or burned the spilled oil off the exhaust manifold/pipe.
>While working the engine HARD up the hill.

What about blowing carbon out of/off the rings ??

>Check all the fluids and their levels while at home.

I checked the oil right away and that is perfect ... exactly on.   didn't think to check
the coolant ... will do that tomorrow (watching Nadal tennis match right now)

>Keep an eye on the temp gauge as you drive around.

It has never moved once it gets to the 1/4 mark since I bought the car.
So far SO GOOD !

>USE the A/C around town to see if any problems come back. Yeah I know its AZ.

Honestly, there are a few times in early morning here in Flagstaff where we don't need it,
but the interior is black so it doesn't take much.

>Try the hill again keeping an eye on your throttle input and temp gauges.

I have to drive to Sedona in a week or so and the grade is quite step BUT
I generally drive that fairly slowly compared to the InterState highway.

>BACK off the throttle if you are at the floor (go back to 3/4) or downshift a gear.

I have an automatic .... do you want me to downshift going 65 ?

>You may have had several elements which maxed out the motor output
>OR came very close to ruining the motor/head gasket getting it too hot.

but wouldn't the gauge need to indicate an increase in temp in order to
fry the head gasket?   Or am I wrong about that.

Would the car not run well after that?   It seems to run okay.   I took it
out today and warmed it up and then ran it up to 90 to see how it ran
and if there was any smoke on level, and I didn't see any,
and it ran fine.    That doesn't mean that there wasn't ... I can have my
hubby drive behind me.

Thanks !
-- 
Audi Grrl
Red '97 A6 Avant AWD

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