The mystery of Puffing Billy

[Ed50]

Hi all.Can anyone shed any light to why my 2010 Range Rover Sport with 17K on the clock has started to bellow out occasionally huge clouds of greyish white smoke tinged with blue.
It underwent its first service recently bang on its service requirement date,since then the problem has arisen.
The problem isn't constant and occurs during prompt acceleration or when kick down takes place ie,steep inclines.
As a creature of habit I always fill up with diesel at the same garage and have incurred no ill effect to other
vehicles I fill there leading me to believe it its not a fuel issue.
Anyways why I decided to ask the forum is that the vehicle went into the dealership today to be fixed and to my
surprise they've told me they can't find anything wrong with it!.That said, it was slightly pleasing that on it's
return from the garage the dealership delivery driver witnessed the very problem himself.So now we have a concerned owner and a puzzled Land Rover dealer so if anyone can give me a clue I would be very grateful.

[mph1977]

Ed50 said:

Hi all.Can anyone shed any light to why my 2010 Range Rover Sport with 17K on the clock has started to bellow out occasionally huge clouds of greyish white smoke tinged with blue.
It underwent its first service recently bang on its service requirement date,since then the problem has arisen.
The problem isn't constant and occurs during prompt acceleration or when kick down takes place ie,steep inclines.
As a creature of habit I always fill up with diesel at the same garage and have incurred no ill effect to other
vehicles I fill there leading me to believe it its not a fuel issue.
Anyways why I decided to ask the forum is that the vehicle went into the dealership today to be fixed and to my
surprise they've told me they can't find anything wrong with it!.That said, it was slightly pleasing that on it's
return from the garage the dealership delivery driver witnessed the very problem himself.So now we have a concerned owner and a puzzled Land Rover dealer so if anyone can give me a clue I would be very grateful.

it doesn't sit idling for long periods does it ?



i've seen a Nissan Pathfinder do this - it was an Off road ambulance and i was crewing it as the chase medical car for international motocross, unlike F1 the medical car doesn't follow the competitors round but you are required to have the vehicle running and the driver / medic and the doc on board throughout the race ... after a weekend of that it did a good impression of a smoke machine when driven off the course at the end of the day ...

[Ed50]

No the vehicle gets what i'd call steady use and doesn't stand idling and we don't get caught up in traffic congestion very often.
Just a quick example of my problem,the vehicle did a 40 mile run on tuesday without a sign of smoke.It was then parked for 3 hours before being driven home when with about 2 miles to go on an incline it goes and belches out a massive cloud of smoke much to my passengers horror and the following vehicles dismay.

[Engineer1]

Possibly down to the weather, cold and still air may be making your exhaust more visible.

[Ed50]

I don't think so this cloud is random and can only be likened to the plume or ball of smoke from an old steam engine stack.But many thanks for your reply it all goes to help unravel my motors disturbing complaint.

[tonys]

Have you checked the oil level, in case it has been overfilled - not sure if that can be done manually on yours?

[Alicatt1]

How cold has the weather been? if it was around 5c then it could be the park heater, mine blows out lots of smoke and steam at the start of the cold season. Have a look under the front of the car and see if the smoke is coming from there.

[JimexPL]

Presumably it's diesel, in which case you're probably just noticing the particulate filter go through its regeneration, which normally only occurs at high exhaust temperatures, such as under heavy load or kick down when the engine is warm.

If it doesn't regularly occur then the filters get clogged and eventually the car goes in to limp home mode (at least it does on Jaguars, which share the same engine).


James

[Ed50]

Thanks James thats interesting I just wonder if the filter you mention was changed at service as prior to the service
it had not done it before.I did wonder as well if the dealership had over filled when replacing the oil,but they say not,we will see how it goes today as I intend to investigate further.

[budrover]

On the BMW twin turbo engine set up in a Range Rover ...the turbo chargers are controlled by vacuum via actuators.

The electric signal is converted to vacuum by the 'power convertor' valve. This allows fresh air into the system to weaken the vacuum pressure so the actuators modulate [move]. On the BMW engine the fresh air inlet has a filter on the side of the 'power convertor' valve - this gets blocked with road dirt and restricts air flow...causing slow modulation of the turbos and resulting 'puffs or belchs' of smoke.

On the BMW engine, it is possible to remove the filter and clean.

Read any BMW forum for further advice and pictures.

Edited by budrover on Friday 5th November 14:22

[JimexPL]

Ed50 said:

Thanks James thats interesting I just wonder if the filter you mention was changed at service as prior to the service
it had not done it before.I did wonder as well if the dealership had over filled when replacing the oil,but they say not,we will see how it goes today as I intend to investigate further.

The filters aren't changed for some time (80+k miles on most cars). Check the owners manual. Perhaps some sort of software update is making the filters regenerate more often?

e.g. of dpf regen -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZolByxrZbUw

[Ed50]

Thanks guys some very useful pointers,strangley it wouldn't do it today but that said i've only done about 10 miles
in and out of town.I will see what weekend goes like before talking to my dealership again,thanks once more.

[Alicatt1]

budrover said:

On the BMW twin turbo engine set up in a Range Rover

Edited by budrover on Friday 5th November 14:22

It's not a BMW engine in the 2010 RR/RRS the 3.0V6 and the 3.6V8 are both LR/Jaguar/Ford.

There were some problems with the DPF back in 2007 when they first introduced it and there were a few threads on the various support forums abdout the continual regeneration of the DPF but they were mainly confined to the Freelander2 and it was sorted out by a software update.

Edited by Alicatt1 on Sunday 7th November 12:28

[Alicatt1]

Looks like you may not be alone (unless this is you) http://disco3.co.uk/forum/topic55820.html some one else having smoking problems in their D4 3.0TDV6

EDIT: looks like LR have a fix and have issued a TSB about this, a software upgrade and hardware in a new drain valve and pipework to the second turbo

Edited by Alicatt1 on Monday 8th November 08:26

[Ed50]

ALLICAT 1,
Thank you very much for your input,thats just what my Rangie is doing.I have been on to the dealership yet again armed with the Disco 3 photos and text,now all of a sudden they want the vehicle back in to reinvestigate.Now its
a matter of waiting for further developements once they've had another look[going in 24th sept].It seems LR may be
aware of a problem!!!.
Wonder how many more are out there starting to smoke, my dealer still claims mine is a first.
Once again thankyou as your help,interest and advise has proved most constructive.
Regards Ed.