cold start. smoke

Hi there,

Hope all is well.

Since my 6 year service, the last 2 cold starts have been not like usual. The car has not been used for a few days and as soon
As the engine fires up, smoke comes out. I would say quiet a lot. Is this usual or could it be a sign
Of a potential issue. Its a TD4 2003 with 23k on the clock.


Your help would be appreciated

If the smoke is white, no problem, it's just condens.

I would go along with the above, in that it shouldn't be a problem. My guess is that you may have a glow plug not working as it should. Worth getting them checked out. Are you having to crank the engine for longer before it fires up? If so, this points to glow plugs

hi there,

it starts fine, but as soon as it fire up the initial start up, there is a puff of quiet amount of smoke. then the condensation comes after a few moments. its like a grey white colour. i know it has sat there for a few days but never had this problem. Car is only got 23k miles. But its has only done it twice. It usually has no smoke on initial start up then the condensation.

Your help will be much appreciated.

Cheers

Does it smell of Diesel? Mine does the same, as does most TDI type engines. If its running okay then don't worry about it.

Yes it does smell of diesel a little. It feels like it does not start correctly and kicks out on initial start up. All the later starts seem ok. Is it because its cold and that it has been sitting for days? I never had the issue before.

Just concerned, especially when spending £560! on a six month service by a specialist. They changed fuel filter, breather pipe on Turbo, all the filters/pollen, oil and brake fluid change. The proper scheduled 6 year service with a few extras.

I'd say that if anything is wrong then you've got one glow plug out. It starts on three pots initially so it probably thrashes for a second or two, until pot four lights up. Until then pot four's fuel is getting dumped out the exhaust and thats what your seeing.

Do a search for glow plugs. Its easy to test with a multi meter and if one has gone then the general rule is to change all four as the other three are probably on the way out too.

Hi there,

I let the light go out on the dash prior to starting. It only happends when I left it for days without starting. I started it yesterday, it was fine without smoke on cold start. I put diesel treatment in as seems ok. With the glowplugs, would they need changing at 23k miles?

Cheers

hi there,

Thanks for the replies. The smoke is on initial start up and then followed by the condensation smoke which is normal. Its the smoke on initial fire up of the vehicle, is what conerns me. Its my first diesel so not sure if this is normal.

It starts ok, so can it be glow plugs?

wouldn't worry about it too much till it starts smoking for longer afetr starting, or fails to start at all.

my td4 does it, the colder it gets or the longer it stands, the worse it seems to be. in the summer it doesn't do it at all.

Cheers for this! so this is the normal characteristics?

Check your oil level. If it is higher than normal and you haven't added any, then you could have an injector leak. If it's leaking then your oil will be diluted with diesel and the level will be higher than it should be. Once the oil gets thinner and overfilled it gets into places that it shouldn't and then you see blue smoke at start up.

My symptoms were as above. On starting (cold engine and standing for sometime) the TD4 clears it's throat it runs fine.

I had an injector replaced, a couple of tank fulls with "forte" diesel cleaner and 500 miles of running. Oil level is good and blue smoke at start up is at a minimum......

Hi there,

Just a 6 year service only 200 miles ago. Would of they not seen a leaky injector? Not sure about oil level, but will check



Regards

Nick

On a 4 pot engine an injector leak would show up as a running problem for most of the time, not just during start up. I think this is unlikely.

Glow plugs can fail at any time, but I'd say yours are okay. My Hippo throws out a little unburnt fuel just after start up. Recently I've had the situation that I conduct a cold start and, due to condensation, I have to reverse up the street with the side windows down so that I can see where I'm going. Then I get that smell of diesel, even after a minute of running. There was a burst of grey smoke during the initial start up but that has cleared. In addition the engine is deliberately overfuelling to keep the cold fire burning. The ECU will stop this once the engine has begun to warm up. I have seen old mechanical diesels with a choke, so to encourage overfuelling in the same way as an old petrol engine.

And ok to kick a little puff of black smoke pulling away from lights or under load?

Some engines do this, some don't. Inject cleaner may improve this as could a new air filter. Also diesels do get sooty exhausts. Try, when the engine is up to temprature, leaving your gear change late so to get the revs up towards red line a few times. That will kick the crap out of the exhaust system.

mine did this, cleaned the EGR valve out, replaced the crankcase breather filter, used injector cleaner, doesn't seem to do it any more.

it's worth cleaning the EGR valve and replacing the crankcase breather filter any way.

My story and how it was explained to me...

When the engine is off the injection system is still under pressure. If you have a failing injector, it will slowly 'drip' as the engine cools. This may take a few hours so the symptom of a little ruff running will only show up at start up. During normal running, the system is at full pressure and the working normally - no issues, no error codes, no warm starting problems. When it does this, diesel will drip into the cylinder, past the piston and settle in the oil, hense the raise in oil level. This is a gradual increase over a period of a week or three. There are other causes (diesel pump leak etc but I was told that there would be other things wrong too)

Going by what happened to me, the injectors were taken out and tested by a Bosch centre and I had one replaced. No more raise in oil level, but still some blue smoke at start up. I used an aggressive fuel additive (forte), cleaned out the EGR valve and after a few good runs of 600 miles of so - the problem seems to have eased.

ok cheers guys.

I had a service back at the end of October. They changed breather pipe on turbo, fuel filter, air filter. Its was the Land Rover set 6 year service plus a few bits. These symptoms have only started since then.

In an old thread, I put one litre of unleaded by mistake! Could this of caused issues? I did what was said and fill up diesel.

Cheers
Guys

Will book it on Monday. Not happy with it,

Turned on now and its the same. The smoke that comes out is the similar that of the fuel burn heater at the front