Some smoke from exhaust under heavy acceleration. Normal?

[danmm7]

I have 2011 S4, DSG with 60k miles on it. Car is stock and seems to run just fine.

I drove behind my S4 the other day. My wife was driving the Audi and i was following her. On a freeway ramp, she decided to floor it. At that point, i saw some exhaust smoke come out of the pipes. It was not thick smoke or anything, but i did notice it. I was behind it, but did not sense any smell either. It was not white smoke... more like darker.

This is the second time i noticed this.
The first time was few weeks ago, at night, when i was driving the S4 and i floored it on the highway .... i was doing 70mph when i jumped on the gas. It downshifted and this is when i noticed in my rearview mirror that there was some smoke visible behind me, illuminated by the headlights of the car behind me. Again, it was not thick, but i was able to see it, since there was a car behind me.


How bad is this? Is this considered somewhat normal with these engines under full throttle? I am not loosing excessive amounts of engine oil. For the last almost 3k miles, i haven't had to add any oil.


Thanks for any feedback!

[s4bw]

Depends on the smoke, white smoke can be coolant burning(lots of white smoke) or just condensation in the exhaust/ambient temperature/humidity, blue smoke is burning oil and more of a grey/black smoke is usually if your car is running rich(unburnt gas) Or just built up carbon deposits burning away. I wouldn't worry too much about the black smoke unless it gets progressivly worse , probably just means you're cleaning out a bit of carbon build up.

[Mr.Tan]

if its blackish gray i wouldnt worry too much... while i never noticed my S4 doing it, my 335 (n55) used to do it when i would totally floor it and only do it when it real quick, as if it was puffing out carbon/unburnt fuel... My GTI that i currently own also does it, however it runs very rich from the aggressive tune for the large turbo it is running. If you notice anything diminishing and any other problems, get it checked out. but i wouldn't loose sleep over it right now.

[robdog289]

My 2011 was doing it recently. Dealer found both valve cover gaskets leaking. Thankfully fixed under cpo warranty


2011 s4

[Dr GP]

My wife noticed the same thing on my 2011 with 55k on it. I think it is probably due to a bad PVC valve which is a common problem with these cars. Have to take the SC off to replace it. Are you consuming any oil? I have an extended warranty , but the car isn't using enough oil that I want to take it in. Kind of awaiting to see if the T stat fails and have both replaced at the same time.

[chaos2984]

a little black/gray smoke is normal sometimes if you floor it. Sometimes if you see cars punch it sometimes it will puff out a black/gray smoke for like a few seconds. Its just extra fuel that didn't burn right. But if it last longer than like 5 sec or so, I would say something else is wrong with it.

[MYFASTA4]

you were just cleaning the exhaust system ;-), do a couple of WOT runs and see

[slacktide]

I was leaving work today, heading to the highway onramp. There was a nice RS5 in front of me (Bellevue WA is chock full o' Audi) with some slowpoke in from of him. As soon as slowpoke turned off, he floored it and you should have seen the black smoke. If this were 1975 I would say his main jet was 3 sizes too large. That means he was runnin' rich, son.

[Chris Furman]

you were just cleaning the exhaust system ;-), do a couple of WOT runs and see

+1