My car has some serious problems. After driving it for 30-45 minutes it will just start billowing smoke from the exhaust pipe. And I mean a LOT of smoke; I can hardly see out the back window when this happens. I lose a little bit of power, but the car keeps going. If I keep driving, it will stop after a little while, but usually I'll pull over and turn the engine off for a few minutes, then keep going and everything seems fine. I've noticed that this usually happens when I'm accelerating up hill, but I can't be 100% sure that it's not just completely random. Also, the transmission slips a little going into 3rd gear. I had to have the transmission replaced at around 96k mi. because I has having MAJOR transmission problems (slipping, and eventually not shifting at all.) But it started slipping again shortly after that, so I think the mechanic put a bandaid on it and told me he replaced it when he didn't. Or maybe he swapped it out with a used trans. from a junk yard. I donno. I was living 900 miles away from where I am now when I had the work done, so I can't bring it back to be looked at again. The thing that gets me is that if this were a cracked gasket or seal that was letting coolant or oil into the cylinders, wouldn't it smoke like that all the time instead of just randomly? Help!

 

Is it a TDI? There could be oil leaking into your turbo. Has your engine ever run away? My golf had a bad turbo and oil was leaking in like crazy, the engine ran away and that was it, I blew the engine. It was brutal.

 

Nope, it's a 2.0L gas engine.