More cars belching black smoke than ever?

More cars belching black smoke than ever?

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Discussion

Limpet

6,309 posts

161 months

Sunday 14th August 2022
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Pretty common for tired mid 2000s German diesels presumably as a result of dodgy remaps and/or poor maintenance. E90 3s, E60 5s, mk5 Golfs, 8P A3s and that sort of stuff. Usually lowered, with illegally tinted windows and in the case of VAG stuff, tyres that are too narrow for the rims.

Red9zero

6,853 posts

57 months

Sunday 14th August 2022
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MarkJS said:
Every single Land Rover/Range Rover over ~5 years old seems to do this that I can see.

Old Defenders stink/smoke the place up but then also blind you with those cheapo aftermarket Chinese LED’s that everyone seems to fit.
My 35 year old 90 has just been MoT'd and was well under the emissions limit, so no smoke here. No led's either, as I prefer the look of the original MoD spec lenses and Lucas H4 flat lens headlights.

MarkJS

1,539 posts

147 months

Sunday 14th August 2022
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Red9zero said:
My 35 year old 90 has just been MoT'd and was well under the emissions limit, so no smoke here. No led's either, as I prefer the look of the original MoD spec lenses and Lucas H4 flat lens headlights.
Just my experience. I’m glad you’re not billowing smoke.

Alex_225

6,261 posts

201 months

Sunday 14th August 2022
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I can’t say I’ve noticed an increase but I you do see these old diesels suddenly puff out a cloud of nastiness, predominantly old VAGs.

I had a 2003 E Class I’d remapped and drive a 2003 Shogun Sport which has an ancient 2.5 diesel, neither chucked out noticeable puffs of black smoke!!

ChocolateFrog

25,309 posts

173 months

Sunday 14th August 2022
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Crap remaps and blocked air filters.

You can usually tell which car has which ailment judging by the rest of it.

donkmeister

8,160 posts

100 months

Sunday 14th August 2022
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Gaagh please tell me "rolling coal" isn't going to become a proper thing here? Surely at our fuel prices and with few diesels over 3-litres it's both too expensive and unlikely to give the effect they're hoping for?

There is surely hope; despite the awesome name, I haven't seen that other bastion of retardedness, the "donk", become a thing here.

Bobupndown

1,801 posts

43 months

Sunday 14th August 2022
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Carlososos

976 posts

96 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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Wheel Turned Out said:
Has anyone else noticed an increase in the number of cars leaving a ferocious trail of billowing filth behind them?

Slightly knackered vans and 3.5t tippers doing it are to be somewhat expected. But I can't remember ever seeing, or being stuck behind, as many cars doing it as I have in the last six months or so. Primarily seems to be mid-late 00's German fare, usually in a bit of a state.

Just seems strange to me how even with clean air at a higher priority than ever, and rightly so, there's still so many people around unintentionally rolling coal.
Yeah seen quite a few kicking about. They’ll get MOT’d off the road eventually.

Wills2

22,814 posts

175 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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Bobupndown said:
Ha! Poor people everywhere would be more apt and there are more to follow get used to this people we are headed for zero, the wheels are coming off.



Red9zero

6,853 posts

57 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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MarkJS said:
Red9zero said:
My 35 year old 90 has just been MoT'd and was well under the emissions limit, so no smoke here. No led's either, as I prefer the look of the original MoD spec lenses and Lucas H4 flat lens headlights.
Just my experience. I’m glad you’re not billowing smoke.
I know what you mean though. It's mainly old Discovery's and a few VAG's round here chucking smoke out. Personally, I'd be embarrassed if my Landie was choking everyone for the sake of a couple of bhp.

Krikkit

26,527 posts

181 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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This kind of thing is accentuated in the very hot weather - air/fuel ratios get further out of whack, so we end up with more smoky diesels than ever.

Usually they're remapped and/or badly maintained of course, but in the dead of winter when the air is cool and dense it's less obvious.

Gary29

4,155 posts

99 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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Funkstar De Luxe said:
There's a very noticeable increase in the this in the Midlands. VAG products coughing up huge plumes of smoke.
I was in the midlands at the weekend (first time in a while) and I did notice a good few cars like this.

CarCrazyDad

4,280 posts

35 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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Wheel Turned Out said:
Has anyone else noticed an increase in the number of cars leaving a ferocious trail of billowing filth behind them?

Slightly knackered vans and 3.5t tippers doing it are to be somewhat expected. But I can't remember ever seeing, or being stuck behind, as many cars doing it as I have in the last six months or so. Primarily seems to be mid-late 00's German fare, usually in a bit of a state.

Just seems strange to me how even with clean air at a higher priority than ever, and rightly so, there's still so many people around unintentionally rolling coal.
I think it's much less of an issue than it was 5-10 years ago! Just my opinion.

Got4wheels

433 posts

26 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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Knackered VAG PD cars and vans are the main offenders here. All lowered with straight cut exhausts so they sound like crappy locomotives and back windows covered in soot to complete the look.

See a few old Discos with the same style. I'd hoped the new MOT regs would get these cars off the road.

Michael

P675

214 posts

32 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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Had a Ford van in front of me letting a lot of smoke out for quite a while, not even that old. Filter button on the AC is useful.

Triumph Man

8,690 posts

168 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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J.R.B. said:
Our TDV8 Range Rover is quite embarrassing for this. The second turbo only spools up past a certain RPM which is rarely hit whilst pottering around town. As a result it clogs up. On those occasions when you plant your foot for the first time in a while and the second turbo spools up the cloud of smoke that comes out the exhaust is huge!
You'll want to hit that RPM threshold a bit more often, before actuators etc start to get sticky and gummed up, and throw you a restricted performance message.

When I had the disco's engine rebuilt and was running in, I was told I couldn't exceed 2500 rpm (the second turbo kicks in just after this). The first time I was able to give it a good boot there was a huge cloud of smoke! Nothing since then though, and I'm sure to regularly get the second turbo spinning to prevent any clogging.

TooLateForAName

4,747 posts

184 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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donkmeister said:
Gaagh please tell me "rolling coal" isn't going to become a proper thing here? Surely at our fuel prices and with few diesels over 3-litres it's both too expensive and unlikely to give the effect they're hoping for?
There are a few doing this around us. May not be unrelated that we're near a us airbase. But when going that way in our leaf I seem to get a surprisingly high number of pickups throwing walls of smoke at me.

Mr-B

3,780 posts

194 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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Driving round an island yesterday and there was a Megane convertible waiting to join and she decided to boot it to get in front of me, I had to back off as she left a massive black smoke trail! I don't know how old it was but looked it up later and it appears to be a 2003/10 vintage. Bloody awful. Don't understand why people buy diesel convertibles, you get to hear more of the tractor engine and smell the diesel stink too.

wombleh

1,789 posts

122 months

Monday 15th August 2022
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piddy44 said:
Round central Scotland it's poorly maintained Fabia VRSs & the blanket of black clag covering the entire rear of the car is worn like some badge of anti-social honour by their simpleton owners.

Transit Connects as well.
The mk1 fabia doesn’t have a DPF so will kick out smoke regardless of maintenance/mods. Don’t imagine tuning it and removing EGR/etc will help much, but they’re quite smoky anyway.

the-norseman

12,405 posts

171 months

Tuesday 16th August 2022
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wombleh said:
The mk1 fabia doesn’t have a DPF so will kick out smoke regardless of maintenance/mods. Don’t imagine tuning it and removing EGR/etc will help much, but they’re quite smoky anyway.
Yep even the OEM map was a bit smoky.

I've run the 1.9 PD engine a few times tuned and managed to get some decent smokeless tunes. I have to admit though my old 2.0 PD170 had 3 different maps, 1 of which was for "off road use" for quarter miles etc, that was very bad.