3.0TDi - Smoking problem?
Discussion
Noticed a strange phenomenon today. Coming back up from Sidmouth through single carriageway roads following a bunch of traffic, noticed plumes of whitish smoke after a bit of over run. Stopped for about 5 mins, no sign of oil or oil film on the back of the car. Revved the car a few times whilst stationary and no sign of anything.
Got back on the M5 for the 90 mile blast home and nothing, not even a wisp under acceleration.
Have not had chance to check oil level yet as it's dark, persistently raining and car are not being used tomorrow.
Any ideas, hopefully it is just a one off occurrence.
Got back on the M5 for the 90 mile blast home and nothing, not even a wisp under acceleration.
Have not had chance to check oil level yet as it's dark, persistently raining and car are not being used tomorrow.
Any ideas, hopefully it is just a one off occurrence.
At a guess with it being whitish smoke it could be a couple of things. Possibly a little standing water in the exhaust steaming off in the exhaust, although with deisels you don@t tend to get loads of water or it could be a small amount of unburnt fuel ignitting in the cat you heat deisel gives white smoke. Just keep an eye on the levels oil water and tempreture. If the weather was really cold I might even suggest the cabin heater which on first start smoke like nothing else but I dont think it has been cold enough or even if your car has an auxillary cabin heater.
Have found out that there is a possible duff batch of injectors in this engine from around 2006. Apparently the metal at the tip goes soft and dribbles fuel in hence the smoke. I am trying to find out more but the cure is a new set of injectors at around £2.5k !! 
Have got a warranty on mine so will try to pursue it along those line. Has anyone else heard of anything about this?? Tame Technician?
Have got a warranty on mine so will try to pursue it along those line. Has anyone else heard of anything about this?? Tame Technician?
Garage report:
Road rested vehicle for appearence of white smoke from exhaust. Checked coolant and oil levels - okay. Carried out guided fault finding test - no faults. Checked for technical product information - found TPI relating to injectors, carried out test on injectors - found three out of tolerance - possible failure of needles on injectors - further investigation required.
Don't like the sound of the last part, but I it were injectors then I would notice a a drop in power or at least rough running I would have thought, I'm wondering if there are no fault codes and no coolant losses if it is just dpf burnoff. And they are trying to get me to cough up £2500 for new injectors that are not necessary.
What do you make of that report TameTechnician? Are they trying it on? The guy did say they were slightly out of tolarence, not wildly out.
Road rested vehicle for appearence of white smoke from exhaust. Checked coolant and oil levels - okay. Carried out guided fault finding test - no faults. Checked for technical product information - found TPI relating to injectors, carried out test on injectors - found three out of tolerance - possible failure of needles on injectors - further investigation required.
Don't like the sound of the last part, but I it were injectors then I would notice a a drop in power or at least rough running I would have thought, I'm wondering if there are no fault codes and no coolant losses if it is just dpf burnoff. And they are trying to get me to cough up £2500 for new injectors that are not necessary.
What do you make of that report TameTechnician? Are they trying it on? The guy did say they were slightly out of tolarence, not wildly out.
Report sounds perfectly plorsable to me. If there is a TPI that fits the symptom and gives specs for a good / bad injector and they are coming up as bad, dont think they're trying it on at all.
You would notice a major loss of power if the injectors "failed" in the sense that they were no longer injecting, but if there is another less obvious problem with them (over injecting, poor spray patterns etc) it could well cause the smoke with no other problems.
Piezo crystal injectors are still a reletivly new technology, I remember when I was at Jag we had a dodgey batch of injectors in the 2.7TD engine, but they smoked and misfired at the same time.
If you not convinced take it away and think about it, see how often the fault occurs for and for how long etc.
Ask them nicely for a copy of the TPI (technically they shouldnt give it to you, but if you ask nicely) so you can read it and digest what its saying before you commit yourself to an expensive repair.
I can only look at the TPL/TPI's with a valid vin number (never put your vin number on the internet) so I'll try and find a similar car at work to use to look it up and see what it says.
Whats the engine code please.
You would notice a major loss of power if the injectors "failed" in the sense that they were no longer injecting, but if there is another less obvious problem with them (over injecting, poor spray patterns etc) it could well cause the smoke with no other problems.
Piezo crystal injectors are still a reletivly new technology, I remember when I was at Jag we had a dodgey batch of injectors in the 2.7TD engine, but they smoked and misfired at the same time.
If you not convinced take it away and think about it, see how often the fault occurs for and for how long etc.
Ask them nicely for a copy of the TPI (technically they shouldnt give it to you, but if you ask nicely) so you can read it and digest what its saying before you commit yourself to an expensive repair.
I can only look at the TPL/TPI's with a valid vin number (never put your vin number on the internet) so I'll try and find a similar car at work to use to look it up and see what it says.
Whats the engine code please.
Apologies for not getting back to you sooner, I had food posioning over the weekend to add to the misery!
The engine code is BMK.
I'll PM you any more codes if needed.
PS: I can re-create the fault now.
It happens in heavy traffic, I am travelling down a steep hill on a motorway (after 50 mins travel time), start/stop traffic, not using the throttle, when I pull off my junction at the bottom of the road and use the throttle I get clouds of smoke down the slip road and at the traffic lights at the bottom of the slip road. This smoke then engulfs the car at the traffic lights, when I pull away and give it some beans, I get smoke for a few seconds, this then vanishes after about 10 seconds of throttle.
Sounds like a leaky injector now, but I don't like the sound of replacing all 6 at a cost of £2500, can they be replaced individually?
The engine code is BMK.
I'll PM you any more codes if needed.
PS: I can re-create the fault now.
It happens in heavy traffic, I am travelling down a steep hill on a motorway (after 50 mins travel time), start/stop traffic, not using the throttle, when I pull off my junction at the bottom of the road and use the throttle I get clouds of smoke down the slip road and at the traffic lights at the bottom of the slip road. This smoke then engulfs the car at the traffic lights, when I pull away and give it some beans, I get smoke for a few seconds, this then vanishes after about 10 seconds of throttle.
Sounds like a leaky injector now, but I don't like the sound of replacing all 6 at a cost of £2500, can they be replaced individually?
Edited by Silverbullet767 on Tuesday 19th January 10:12
Silverbullet767 said:
It happens in heavy traffic, I am travelling down a steep hill on a motorway (after 50 mins travel time), start/stop traffic, not using the throttle, when I pull off my junction at the bottom of the road and use the throttle I get clouds of smoke down the slip road and at the traffic lights at the bottom of the slip road. This smoke then engulfs the car at the traffic lights, when I pull away and give it some beans, I get smoke for a few seconds, this then vanishes after about 10 seconds of throttle.
Sounds like a leaky injector now, but I don't like the sound of replacing all 6 at a cost of £2500, can they be replaced individually?
Exactly the same symptoms as I am getting. Apparently the injectors don't always seal properly and dribble excess fuel in at idle and the white smoke is the excess fuel being burnt off. The clouds of smoke are very embarrassing at times. Does not happen all the time thank goodness.Sounds like a leaky injector now, but I don't like the sound of replacing all 6 at a cost of £2500, can they be replaced individually?
Edited by Silverbullet767 on Tuesday 19th January 10:12
I assume the difficulty is isolating which injector is at fault and the strip down procedure will be the same if you are replacing 6 injectors or only one.
Gassing Station | Audi, Seat, Skoda & VW | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff