Smoke on cold start up TD4

My oil level is fine as well, it hardly uses a drop between changes which are every 6 months.
I dont know about the battery as mines the original at nearly 8 years old, its got a brand new starter motor in it that was fitted 3 months ago.
Mine has done this smoke thing for 31k and 3 years so if the battery was causing it, i would have expected it to have packed in a while ago.

I think im going to try the glow plugs and change them as the maf sensor unpluged hasnt done anything to the problem.
What gets me is the problem is not every day, it varies between 1-3/4 days, some days it starts fine and revs cleanly, then it needs to throw out the smoke screen before it will run cleanly.

hi the valves seals can go hard if the car does a lot of standing around especially over winter nights they are only rubber and once the go hard they soon ware and it has only to be very minute even a pin size and bingo it will let oil pass

This thread is going round in circles, there are a number of you with the same problem and all external checks have proved fruitless. Since there is only one claim of a cure ie, the cylinder head overhaul, it looks like one of you is going to have to get on and try it.

Chaser said:

This thread is going round in circles, there are a number of you with the same problem and all external checks have proved fruitless. Since there is only one claim of a cure ie, the cylinder head overhaul, it looks like one of you is going to have to get on and try it.

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I think D3savage should go first. His thread and all.

you should start a poll.

Chaser said:

you should start a poll.

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No need for a poll, its all d3savages fault so he should do it first unless you fancy doing mine for me


can the valve stem seals be done without taking the head off on this td4?

Thanks guys!!!!! There is no way I am ripping the head off!!! What I am contemplating doing is to fit a breather catch tank and duct all the vapour comming out of the BMW vortex breather into a decent catch tank ..... this would then vent direct to fresh air via a pipe running to the back of the car. I know when I replaced the glow plugs ... I took all the inlet ducting off.... and propped it in the corner of the garage at a steep angle.... Not thinking about it ....when I replaced it and started the car up (still warm) ... I got a huge plume of smoke.... I think the oil drained down in the ducting. As well as this I will be replacing the battery....as mine is around 10 years old and shagged....it has little capacity. I do think the glow plugs are very sensative to voltage/amperage so I am hoping this might just help things.... I will report back.

markyzs180 said:

No need for a poll, its all d3savages fault so he should do it first unless you fancy doing mine for me


can the valve stem seals be done without taking the head off on this td4?

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No idea. It would depend on ability to compress the valve spring enough at TDC. It's not something I would attempt, it's better to remove and check/overhaul complete cyl head.

D3savage said:

Thanks guys!!!!! There is no way I am ripping the head off!!! What I am contemplating doing is to fit a breather catch tank and duct all the vapour comming out of the BMW vortex breather into a decent catch tank ..... this would then vent direct to fresh air via a pipe running to the back of the car. I know when I replaced the glow plugs ... I took all the inlet ducting off.... and propped it in the corner of the garage at a steep angle.... Not thinking about it ....when I replaced it and started the car up (still warm) ... I got a huge plume of smoke.... I think the oil drained down in the ducting. As well as this I will be replacing the battery....as mine is around 10 years old and shagged....it has little capacity. I do think the glow plugs are very sensative to voltage/amperage so I am hoping this might just help things.... I will report back.

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Diverting crankcase emissions should be ok as a to test if that is the source of the oil causing the smoking but not about the regulations to permanently discharge those emissions to atmosphere.

it is possible to do the valve oil seals with out taking the head off years ago I had a set of special tools although these were for a ford pinto engin and you put one down the spark plug hole and you had a spring compreser and this went under the cam shaft and bingo a couple of years later and I made a air valve out of a spark plug and just pumped air in to hold the vavels up but I lent it out and never got it back now i know you are going to say but td4's do not have spark plugs ok but they do have injectors now I am sure some handy person could make another valve system to fit but my back is not capable of working long period of time bent over a engin mind you if you took your head of you could do a decoke at the same time but as I said unless it gets unbearable for get about the bit of oil coming out first thing

Yes I know ..... the MOT police would not be happy ....... but the engine would be well happy.....my dear old Mk1 Cortina did precisely this.......

quick update... did an oil change for 5w-30 fully synth (old stuff was like tar!) but still getting a cloud of blue smoke and lumpy running for 4-5 seconds but not every time? was -9 yesterday and its started fine with no smoke at all?? so i'm giving up now, can't be arsed chasing this prob anymore, just gonna live with it lol

Well, it's now Mid-May, and we've been running the smokey freelander on and off now since the original post in December,

I've put everything back to standard, ecu map, egr valve etc etc.
Let it stood for 2 weeks, pre-heated about 4-5 times and starts up fine, drive it about 2 miles whilst cold and there isn't any smoke to speak of, just a slight puff on startup (blue, so a bit of oil), so I've come to a decision, I'm selling it !
Please see the for sale section !!
BUT before I do I am going to look at making the glow plugs work on each start-up and not just when the ecu is told it's cold outside.
Reason being, when glow plugs are used then there os no smoke on start-up and that's the only thing I'm not happy about with it, so I'm going to give this a try first, unless someone buys it in the meantime !

Thank you to everyone for their comments and advice but there comes a time to just say that life's too short and move on.

Cheers

David.

I know its a bit late in the day on this one but.
I too have this exact same problem and have been trying to solve it for a few months now I have as the rest
Re con injectors
bmw updated breather
new map
pierburg maf and synergy 2
egr bypass
checked all hoses and pipes
blah blah blah
A few weeks ago i replaced the turbo actuator got a new one from darkside.
messed around with the position of the vanes cos my theory was that the turbo was fluttering when holding 2000rpm with no load and not putting in enough air. If you make the turbo come in stronger at 2000rpm the smoke completely and utterly vanishes, the only issue is that the map detects issues in pressure at higher rpm's and cuts the engine out.
So next thing im gonna do is check if there is a really **** measuring point for the map sensor where the air is swirling around and giving erroneous readings.
This would cause the turbo actuator solenoid to be fluttering making adjustments all the time and the turbo would follow suit. if the inlet manifold is gunked up enough could this be the cause?????????

forgot to mention on mine every single cylinder is misfiring at this point (no load 200rpm white smoke everywhere), so it is not caused by one individual cylinder/injector it is definitely something common to all cylinders

white smoke usually means duff turbo

It's a real shame to hear you have the same problems as we suffered, I have since spoke to a number of people who to this day can't definitively give an answer or solve the problem.
As I said in my last post there comes a time to call it a day and move on. If you do get lucky (if that's a fair comment) then it will be worth the effort, the problem I had is that is was our only car so I couldn't afford the time off the road, if you can put it to one side and have a play when you can then you will get there I'm sure. Good luck with it, I really do hope you solve the mystery.
Best wishes
David

I'm beginning to think that it is a trait of this engine although since swapping to BP ultimate instead of supermarket standard diesel mine has been cured.

markyzs180 said:

I'm beginning to think that it is a trait of this engine although since swapping to BP ultimate instead of supermarket standard diesel mine has been cured.

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See my post 12 in this thread some 11 months ago.

If you actually want, or don't care about smoke, buy supermarket diesel.

I can switch the smoke on or off depending where I fill up.

Morrisons will give me a James Bond type of smokescreen.

Due to money off vouchers Mrs Singvogel persuaded me to fill up with Tesco's diesel a month or so back and it was 'smokin' like a good'un'.

Any of the 'super diesels' from Shell, BP, Total, Esso etc will reduce the smoke to virtually zero.

I use Shell V-Power whenever possible and the MOT testing machine even prompts the tester to check that the probe is correctly inserted as it cannot detect any smoke at all.

Of course there are some folks who don't believe a word of this, and insist all diesels are the same, as they come from the same storage tanks.

There are none so blind as those who cannot see .... smoke!

Singvogel.

Singvogel said:

See my post 12 in this thread some 11 months ago.

If you actually want, or don't care about smoke, buy supermarket diesel.

I can switch the smoke on or off depending where I fill up.

Morrisons will give me a James Bond type of smokescreen.

Due to money off vouchers Mrs Singvogel persuaded me to fill up with Tesco's diesel a month or so back and it was 'smokin' like a good'un'.

Any of the 'super diesels' from Shell, BP, Total, Esso etc will reduce the smoke to virtually zero.

I use Shell V-Power whenever possible and the MOT testing machine even prompts the tester to check that the probe is correctly inserted as it cannot detect any smoke at all.

Of course there are some folks who don't believe a word of this, and insist all diesels are the same, as they come from the same storage tanks.

There are none so blind as those who cannot see .... smoke!

Singvogel.

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Indeed Singy....and I was one of those who thought it was all an 'urban myth' :behindsofa:

but I have to say that I am now 'converted' !!! At £2.50 per tank extra (well less if you take off the the amount for each dose of Millers that I don't use any more) it is well worth the money. I had serious doubts about a couple of injectors but within 10 miles the difference was very noticeable. It starts better, runs better, is more responsive and gives better mpg which probably means it equates for about a pound extra per tankful which makes it a complete no brainer. I changed around 6 months ago now and I have to say I wish I had done it sooner!!

PS....I use BP because you still get your Nectar points and because my local one is less than 100 yards from Sainsburys station, they always pricematch!!!