cold start. smoke

hopefully this will come back with nothing to worry about. fingers crossed.

Probably take me for ride!

I had very same problem in my 03 TD4 - original suspicion was glow plugs, which the local garage 'diagnosed' and replaced - to no avail. Turned out it was a leaking injector.

Was yours happening on warm days? Mine does not. Just when really cold and on the first start of the day? Would the garage not of noticed
This on the service? If leaky injector, is it pricy?

I don't think injectors are on the service schedule apart from what might show up when they run a diagnostics. Yes, injectors are pricey, (£100 to £150 each if I remember rightly) that's why I had them all professionally checked by a Bosch centre so they only had to replace the one faulty one. I have heard tell of garages that have replaced them all because they were not able to check which one was causing the problem.

ok cheers. still not one hundred percent confident. at the service they changed the breather pipe on the turbo. even at times when drving it puffs out on smoke when it didnt before!

It concerns me that you have spent £560 on a service and then the problems start. Don't be conned into 'experts' doing things because the book says so. What do they say is causing it by the way? (Sounds like a normal reaction to the extreme weather in any case) but would be interesting to hear their thoughts.

i will call them tomorrow.

I sent emails and they did not respond. Just feel like a mug!

I dont know how play this as the service was done at the end of the October. It was a 6 year service that was done. They changed the breather pipe on the Turbo, brake fluid change, fuel filter change and the set 6 year schedule.

Not been the same. At 1500 rpm somtimes kicks out black smoke. Or reversing up kurb, little puff of smoke that it never used to do. Tried all the fuel treatments and injector cleaners and no use. Car has only 24k miles. I am starting to get really paranoid! Thinking to myself, did it do it before or did it! Very passionate about my cars and when they dont run well, ****es me off. Now a trust issue with Garage! See what they say.

Spoke to the Garage and is booked in for Thursday. I know will probably get charged an arm and a leg. Little wary as they may charge me alot!

They said it could be a glow plug. They asked me to do a test and turn on without letting the light go out! Same puff of smoke on cold start. On the black smoke, they stated it could be a hose.

on the service, they changed the cyclone breather pipe on the turbo. So not sure what is going on.

Regards

just got freelander back. Garage took it and checked it! plugged it in checked hoses and drove the vehicle. agreed that it was not right! Conclusion, EGR clogged. What they said is to drive it more and hard at times. Put in Diesel conditioner, assume same as redex? drove it home and seems alot better? dont know what they did but they must of drove it hard! but seems better. They did not charge me which was nice as they could of done!

EGR valve similar syptoms?

Disable the EGR valve or fit a bypass.

cant I just clean it? at pull off at junction, slight hesitance and little puff of black smoke. Garage says just to use car more and will get better! continue to use fuel cleaner? Redex ok?

Could someone have used old cooking oil in the car before you got it? Just a thought. Sounds like a typical low use problem i.e. 3000 miles per year from new could prevent things from getting a good blow through. Sometimes 'mileage to the moon and back' cars perform better than low mileage ones. Give it a few good runs, keep an eye on things and see how it goes. Bypassing or doing away with the valve is possible and common on some other cars (Vectras etc) but really if it is there as standard you should ideally keep it. New ones are dear though and it may come to that rather than going to the effort of taking the old one out and maybe damaging it when scraping out the gummed up deposits and re-fitting it only to find you still have to change it for a new one anyway.

been driving it every day and has got better. Did not have a chance to use it yesterday and started it today and slight puff on start up. Just concerned if leaky injector or something else more serious. The garage seem to thing not used enough and sticky EGR. Been using redex fuel cleaner as well and it has helped the black smoke issue i had. Now the issue is on cold start. The first of the day. It is cold at 39f and it does feel like its overfueling. Could this be possible?

Regards