[junk240sx]

So occasionally I will see smoke coming from my hood that is burnt oil. I would pop the hood and see that it's coming from the downpipe/turbo area.

Of course the first assumption is that it's the turbo - maybe the oil feed line or return line. But after taking a look around the areas, there is absolutely no sign of any oil leakage in those areas. I don't really lose oil either between oil changes.

So I got around to taking pictures around those areas yesterday in hopes of seeing something, and after looking at the pictures on the big screen, I'm thinking maybe it's my power steering hose leaking. It's not much (which would coincide with my only occasional smoking), but I know these lines have a lot of pressure in them. What do you guys think?

 

[teflon_jones]

It's always hard to tell with leaks of petroleum-based fluids. I'd clean the crap out of that area and keep checking where the fluid reappears.

 

[junk240sx]

Turns out, it seems to be more return line related:
Looking from firewall straight at backside of lower engine:

This is looking from bottom of the car striaight up at the return line/exhaust/downpipe area:

 

[Dredlocks9]

This looks a lot like a problem I only had fixed yesterday. It turns out it was the power steering high pressure hose which had some hairline cracks in the braided hose. It was spraying a light mist whenever the wheels were turned and mist would land either on exhaust, turbo or side of engine. The car was really smoking whenever it happened. I did a radiator and turbo tank pressure test prior and changed the turbo tank hose and turbo side hose.
The P/S hose was a pain in the a** to get out of the engine bay, ironically installation was just as tricky. So happy I can shut down and not have to worry about smoke billowing from under the hood.
Remember P/S fluid is corrosive so may explain some of the discoloration in your engine bay.


Hope that helps.