White smoke from engine bay

[VA-Mack]

I’m getting white smoke from this (pics attached)
area of my engine. It’s the same area as the recall for the turbo oil line recall which had done last year. I took it to the Dealer said they see no issues with the recall repair and claimed oil was spilled on my last oil change (last week). They “cleaned” my engine bay free of charge and said there’s no more smoke. I drive home and of course there’s still smoke. Any idea what it could be? Blown head gasket? Or something as simple as a line leak?

I took pictures from the area of smoke and it seems to me that something may have cracked (sorry I’m no mechanic) but pictures are attached.

 

[VA-Mack]

2018 GT1/ 120k miles

Also just had coolant flushed

 

[Ohiocruiser]

Burning coolant and oil have very different smell. Which one is it?

 

[VA-Mack]

Burning coolant and oil have very different smell. Which one is it

It’s definitely not a sweet smell like I’ve read coolant smells like. So id guess its the oil

 

[Thomby]

It’s definitely not a sweet smell like I’ve read coolant smells like. So id guess its the oil

The area you have circled looks like the precat (O2 sensor is just to the right). The problem is that this is under/behind the turbo, which has both oil and coolant. Coolant is generally white & sweet smelling, while oil is typically more blue.

A blown head gasket would tend to throw white smoke out the exhaust (so would an oil leak from the turbo seals, piston rings, or valve stems, the exhaust would just look more blue). Engine bay smoke suggests a leak or spill dripping onto the exhaust. Does it seem like a steady supply, or just whisps from a residual spill?

Our engine bays are busy enough that it would be hard to fully clean up a spill, so you could get underneath and look for any signs, or just drive it a while and see if it tapers off.

 

[BIG-D]

The part circled is just the heat shielding around the catalytic converter... maybe some oil pooled in there ?

 

[VA-Mack]

Thanks for all your input. The smoke is almost exactly similar to this post from another owner on reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/kiastinger/s/om0UHB650F

 

[Ah GetFd]

Probably not smoke as that would be blue or black.

Its probably coolant as thats predominantly water so its water vapor.

Take it to a car wash and flush it out with a high pressure wand.

 

[VA-Mack]

Update, I took the car back to the dealer yesterday and now they're saying one of the turbo oil feed lines is leaking down onto the cat which is causing the smoke, but are claiming it's not associated with the recall. What are the odds? How many oil lines are there that this is somehow not associated or are they BS-ing me?

I've opened a case with Kia customer care and now have to wait 3-5 days for a senior case manager to look into my issue.

 

[Snicklefritz]

That sounds like a total BS job to me. A leak that actively "drips" is super dangerous around that much heat. To cavalierly brush that aside with denial that the "leak" has anything to do with the recall is as much as asserting that the new oil line or the righthand one just develop leaks/drips as a matter of normal operation - which is BS.

This is why I have my '18 3.3L going into a private shop tomorrow to look for the "oil leak" that was red-boxed on my recent multipoint inspection sheet. I want our mechanic to look for the leak, not have KIA tell me they found a leak. If it ends up being the lefthand turbo feed line, then I'll have KIA do the recall work - with great reluctance and trepidation.

If our mechanic doesn't find anything obvious, I'll consider the multipoint inspection warning a super sensitive inspection protocol to drum up business and continue to wait on that oil line recall work.