Hi,
I noticed the other day on startup that there was a tiny bit of smoke coming from my exhaust. I've only seen it once before when I got the car a couple of months ago. At the time I though that wasn't good, so I checked the fluids etc to find the oil level was too high. The good old guys at VW in banbury had over filled the thing. I wouldn't care but for the complete idiot the 1st thing it says when you open the bonnet is DO NOT OVERFILL ELSE THE CAT GETS IT!!!
I drained some oil to take it below the top level and thought no more about it. I noticed every now and then a slight smoke when starting in the morning. Anyway this saturday I got a bit bored and thought I'd have a look under the plasticy engine bits - as you do. When I took the cover for the air cleaner off I was shocked to find it 1) almost black with crap, and 2) full of oil and the throttle body was all oily guey too. At which point I started to panic a bit, thinking the worst - an no - blow by etc... its f**ked.
Anyway my dad -(Mr Retired Rolls Royce Engineer) said - oh yes, that doesn'y look right! In the end we determined that it looked like the typical overfilling consequence. The breather should not let oil come up it even if there was a serious fault with the engine, because its supposed to have a baffle. This of course doesn't work when you overfill it. To make matters worse, a really dirty air filter affects mpg, and causes a depression near the throttle body which sucks even more on the breather.
I cleaned it all out with a solvent so that I could replace and check for signs of a recurrent problem. I fitted a new filter - one which will actually let air through! With new stuff in the engine, I have taken it for about 100miles, had a good thrash down the motorway etc.
Took it off just now, totally clean. Not a drop. So it was too much oil that caused the problem. Also that filter hasn't been changed since the car was new. No Way.
Thus, I'll be having words with them dudes at VW. It was a freshly serviced approved car.
I mean most people would have just drove around and ignored it, it could have and may have damaged the cat and could have blown seals etc. I was thinking that I could forego lots of maintainance now that I have a new car - fat chance.
I'm going to send VW a couple of post-it notes, one marked 'arse' the other labeled 'elbow' and include detailed diagrams of where to stick it.
The moral of this story is: don't assume they know anything at all, check everything.