2011 Acadia SLE Smoke on Start Up

S

sderosa

New member
Joined
Dec 7, 2010
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Points
0
I purchased a new 2011 Acadia 2 weeks ago and has less than 300 miles. I have just noticed the exhaust produces a brief bluish smoke that has a burning smell to it. Appears to produce smoke when the car is started after sitting for a while.

I am a bit concerned that this condition appears to being present with other owners as well and am not certain how any prospective buyer would be aware of this condition. This can't be a normal operating condition for the Acadia or any vehicle. I have owned many cars but none with this condition.

I plan to bring the Acadia back to the dealer ASAP. Does anyone have any recommendations on what the issue is and how this problem can be rectified? Has GMC issued a Technical Service Bulletin?
 
sderosa said:
I purchased a new 2011 Acadia 2 weeks ago and has less than 300 miles. I have just noticed the exhaust produces a brief bluish smoke that has a burning smell to it. Appears to produce smoke when the car is started after sitting for a while.

I am a bit concerned that this condition appears to being present with other owners as well and am not certain how any prospective buyer would be aware of this condition. This can't be a normal operating condition for the Acadia or any vehicle. I have owned many cars but none with this condition.

I plan to bring the Acadia back to the dealer ASAP. Does anyone have any recommendations on what the issue is and how this problem can be rectified? Has GMC issued a Technical Service Bulletin?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the engines are made with more piston and ring clearance now to have it live longer. When the engine is cold, the pistons and rings have not expanded to there operating size and the engine will have blow by's.

As the engine sites over night and cools down. The aluminum pistons contract making them smaller then the cylinder bore. Once the engine is started the seal between the piston rings and cylinder are still large and compression is lost in to the crank case and feed back in to the engine via PVC valve and breather tube.

Once the piston and rings have expanded to there operating size, the blow by's will be gone and the blue smoke is gone. This is also notice with a piston slap which was addressed with a simple PCM program that Gm has done with there engine's now.

The timing once the engine is started is retarded till the engine has hit it's operating temperature. This is one reason why some who have replaced there OEM thermostat with a colder thermostat get less HP thinking that the colder the engine the more fuel and advance timing they will get.

That was the old school till GM had the famous piston slap issues and they re-programed the PCM for a open loop system till the engine hit it's operating temperature then ran on a close loop system.

Sorry for the news, but all is good. Regardless feel free to have the dealer check up on it but your most likely going to get an answer of something like. It is normal with the vehicle and that the smoke on start up is caused by the direct injection fuel system/Catalytic Converter cold reaction, that this is a normal condition and no repair is necessary or to be attempted

Keep us posted.;)
 
Thanks for the response. Repsective of your summary, there is no way that a car (especially new) should be throwing out blue smoke on start up. Very disappointed with this situation after going back to an American car after 15 years. Car is going back to the dealer tomorrow with only 300 miles.
 
sderosa said:
Thanks for the response. Repsective of your summary, there is no way that a car (especially new) should be throwing out blue smoke on start up. Very disappointed with this situation after going back to an American car after 15 years. Car is going back to the dealer tomorrow with only 300 miles.
Click to expand...

No worriers, your not alone with this issue. There might be an update on the PCM program to address this issue.

Keep us posted. ;)
 
SLE Smoke on start up

GM DSM looked at my Acadia along with the multiple strart up videos I compiled. Smoke on start was not something he had seen before. We started 3 new Acadias on the lot and they all smoked on start up. Each started with blue smoke turning to black over a 30-45 second period.

GM Quality Control states this is a normal condition for the 2010 and 11 Acadias tied to new EPA standard. On cold starts, fuel is sent to the catalytic converter to start a controlled burn to bring the catalytic converter to operating temp. quickly. The result of this is the discharge of blue and black smoke.

Apparently this condition will apply to the Traverse's and the Enclave's as well. From an ethical stand point, this conditon should be explained to the consumer prior to purchase. I am not pleased this was not disclosed to me and apparently many GMC dealers are not aware of this condition.

It seems counterproductive to produce 30-45 seconds of smoke to reduce exhaust emisions. This is not something seen with the competitors.

GMC engineering should find another way to meet any revised EPA standards other than having smoke emissions dispersed on start up. This "normal" condition certainly does not look normal and is not spoken to in the owners manual.

I'm not pleased with this condition and there are others who have the same complaint. This certainly leaves an Acadia owner in a difficult position when they try to trade or sell the vehicle.

Let's see how GMC addresses and corrects this issue. This is not an issue that should be left completely to the DSM's to handle.
 
that is a regular emission issue. good that u r taking ur car to the dealer. usually suck kinda emission problems get sorted out after u get ur first servicing done.
 
sderosa said:
GM DSM looked at my Acadia along with the multiple strart up videos I compiled. Smoke on start was not something he had seen before. We started 3 new Acadias on the lot and they all smoked on start up. Each started with blue smoke turning to black over a 30-45 second period.

GM Quality Control states this is a normal condition for the 2010 and 11 Acadias tied to new EPA standard. On cold starts, fuel is sent to the catalytic converter to start a controlled burn to bring the catalytic converter to operating temp. quickly. The result of this is the discharge of blue and black smoke.

Apparently this condition will apply to the Traverse's and the Enclave's as well. From an ethical stand point, this conditon should be explained to the consumer prior to purchase. I am not pleased this was not disclosed to me and apparently many GMC dealers are not aware of this condition.

It seems counterproductive to produce 30-45 seconds of smoke to reduce exhaust emisions. This is not something seen with the competitors.

GMC engineering should find another way to meet any revised EPA standards other than having smoke emissions dispersed on start up. This "normal" condition certainly does not look normal and is not spoken to in the owners manual.

I'm not pleased with this condition and there are others who have the same complaint. This certainly leaves an Acadia owner in a difficult position when they try to trade or sell the vehicle.

Let's see how GMC addresses and corrects this issue. This is not an issue that should be left completely to the DSM's to handle.
Click to expand...

sderosa,

I also purchased a new '11 Acadia a couple weeks back and noticed the same thing. Actually, your post is verbatim what I have experienced, minus the trips to the dealer. I was in the early stages of diagnosis/concern... I am a huge automotive enthusiast, and I love my new GMC Acadia! I just want to ensure many trouble free years of enjoyment. How many miles does yours have now? Has the amount of carbon/smoke changed at all? Please keep this post updated and feel free to contact me through my direct email.
 
I have 1200 miles on my Acadia. The smoke emission is consistent at every cold start. Since the GM DSM provided the answer as to why this happens, I have been trying not to look at the smoke although it's difficult not to notice the smoke on some cold starts when wind blows the smoke to the front of the car.

It is difficult to get my head around why GMC's Quality Control and Engineering is ok with this condition happening. I have not seen any other manufacturers vehicles with this condition. It's going to take Acadia, Traverse and Enclave owners to really raise a level of concern with GM to have this addressed and corrected.
 
I can understand why you're all concerned. When we plunk down the money (or promise of future money) required to drive home a new car, we want it to be *perfect*. The proper engineering solution would've been to use an all-aluminum motor, so the expansion rate for the pistons and the block would be the same. But an aluminum block makes for significant long-term wear problems. Bottom line is, engineering is nothing more than managing trade-offs.

Now if you *really* want smoke-on-startup, you should see what I'm replacing with this new Acadia I bought for the wife over the weekend. 1995 Suburban - the word 'billows' is appropriate. So perhaps that gives me a bit of perspective. ;)

I'd be curious to see what the overnight temperatures are that trigger this behavior. We've had ours for three days and haven't had lows under 40 so far. I'll try and make some observations next week when we're supposed to get a round of cold again.
 
Can GMC provide information on how this condition will be corrected? When will a TSB be issued?
 
The mornings are cold in New England now. Blue and black smoke is very noticeable on cold morning first starts again. I have 6,000 miles on my Acadia now.

Waiting for GMC to issue a technical service bulletin to correct this issue.
 
Condition still exists with my Acadia. Waiting for a fix from GM Engineering. Curious to see if 2013 Acadias emit smoke on cold starts.
 
If I bought q new GMC that smoked, it would be parked on top of the sales managers desk!
 
2012 Acadia

I bought the 2012 Acadia, I now have over 79,000 miles on it and I have never had any issues with it at all, except for a seat belt recall. It has been a real good vehicle so far. I do wish that it got better gas mileage though but it's not real bad at 19 to 20 MPG. When I decide to trade it in for something else I will most likely get another Acadia, I think that they are nice little rides.
 
I'm sorry to hear abt this issue with the GMC Acadia (as well as the Traverse and the Enclave). I'm on the lookout for a new SUV (i don't mind buying a used one) and i quite like the Acadia. I'm a bit touchy abt the smoke issue, but i trust the newer models would have improved by now since this thread was posted.
 
Stay away from the 3.6 litre VVT engine from GM it has been highly problematic since it's inception in 2009 high oil consumption and timing chain tensioners are most common
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page



Back
Top