RIP VW Golf - or not...

Yesterday was stressful. I was running a bit late on my way to work and needed fuel. So I filled up to the top - nearly £50! It's getting so expensive to drive to work everyday...

I pulled out of the garage quite hard, and the wheels span a bit on the slippery road. I looked out of the rear view mirror and there was smoke everywhere. That could be done in my Rover P6 easily and the smoke came from the burning rubber on the tyres, but this was smoke from my exhaust.

I eased off a bit on the pedal and the smoke didn't stop. So I took it easy all the way to work. By the time I got to work, the smoke was so bad from the exhaust I could hardly see the office across the car park. I said a few carefully chosen words and opened the bonnet. It all looked ok and the engine sounded just fine. Hmmm.

At this point I thought that my cheap motoring had come to an end. Later on I called my good mate Colin at Kingsdown Garage in Faringdon and explained the symptoms. Fearing it was a few broken piston rings and the end of my great little VW. Mick who works for Colin had a suggestion that the crankcase ventilation breather could be blocked which leads to pressure build up in the engine, forcing oil past the piston rings and into the combustion chamber and that it may not be the piston rings at all...

I hung on to this hope all day, and drove to Faringdon on my way home. I decided that if this was the problem, removing the oil filler cap would probably help. Sadly the smoke continued. BUT... after about 10 miles it seemed to be getting better. When I got to Colin's he whipped off the rocker box and inside was the culprit. A completely blocked breather. Yipee not dead after all.

An hour later it had been cut out as we couldn't clean it as it was so badly clogged up. In its place Colin shoved a bit of wire wool up the breather pipe to act as a filter. I helped him shut up shop and drove a beautiful Triumph TR8 into the garage and helped shove a very low mileage bright yellow Rover SD1 2600 in for the night. Colin followed me back down the road on the way home - no smoke - RESULT!