Black Smoke and UJ Problems

Two questions

1) simple on I just get a black smoke on firing her up on my landy 200TDI. Could it be that something is worn and letting in oil? although the oil levels don't appear to be dropping or is it injectors?

2) This is now second time this is happened and getting annoying the front UJ to the diff has snapped twice now. Is it a driving technique that I am missing or is it a prop problem? This time the prop buried itself in the oil filter!! So really want to get this sorted. I've replaced all UJ's the first time it happened a year ago.

Ideas anyone?

a little bit of black smoke on startup is normal - it's just unburnt fuel

what makes of UJ are you fitting ?

White smoke is unburned fuel isn't it? Black smoke would show that there's a lot of fuel being injected (to get the engine firing quicker) and the engine is burning it all, so there's no problems there as Sean said! It's just usual. If you start getting blue smoke (burning oil) when you're driving, that's when you should be worrying.

Only fit Hardy Spicer UJ's (or GKN/Dana Spicer in some parts of the world). I would go for a complete front prop - only about £37. Check the UJ's regularly and grease them every couple of months/few thousand miles.

black smoke is incomplete combustion - the engine is running slightly rich, expected from cold.

i am getting blue smoke on my 200 tdi is this bad?????

nobby85 said:

i am getting blue smoke on my 200 tdi is this bad?????

Click to expand...

possibly.
head gasket?
rings?
turbo?
valve stem oil seals?
other possibilities?

In the absence of any other symptoms, start off checking the turbo, then do a compression test and a sniffer test.

Treworgey 90 said:

possibly.
head gasket?
rings?
turbo?
valve stem oil seals?
other possibilities?

In the absence of any other symptoms, start off checking the turbo, then do a compression test and a sniffer test.

Click to expand...

Whats a sniffer test? Cos i might need to do one...

It's a test that looks for combustion gasses in the coolant. Any decent garage should be able to do it for you.