Trouble Starting and lots of smoke

Hi guys I've read a few posts lately about similar issues but nothing exactly the same.

right, Its only on the 1st start of the day (normally when its cold at 6am, but did it again today at 12) shes just struggles to bite and then after about 6-10 seconds she bites in and starts but there is a lot of white smoke and idles a little lumpy and then settles down. I have replaced all glowplugs (britpart unfortunately) and new battery.

Someone said it could be a power line to the starter motor, but this wouldn't cause the excess smoke. Also it has been said it could be the cam position sensor?

Ive been told by a mechanic (who's garage shut down on Friday ) its the glowplugs and i should wait longer before trying to turn her but to be honest this has no effect..... could it be a bad batch of glows from britpart?

Did you replace the glow plugs yourself ?

Did you replace all 4 of them ? ...If you did you would have had to remove the fuel pump and it might be a tooth out , that's what it sounds like .


Is it a td4 or xedi Lseries ?

Its a 53plate (facelift) TD4, and yes done it myself ... didnt remove fuel pump as there is only one under the rear arch.

It was doing it before i replaced the plugs aswell.

Could be a knackered battery . Any motor factor should check it for free .

Nope i replaced with a bosh silvertop on thursday and when to start at lunch today and same problem :-/

Hi James,
You can check out your new glow plugs by removing the wires and testing them with a continuity tester or a lamp from the battery.
You say you have changed the battery for a new oine so that should be ok.
Check out the cables from the battery to the chassis and from the battery to the starter motor - any that are loose or corroded (it can be hard to spot so undo them and clean them up is best) connections will reduce the starters speed and make starting harder when very cold - double check the actual battery connections for a hard corrosion layer.
If you can eliminate the possible electrical problems then as you are getting white smoke it points to over fuelling.
Search for injector leakback test (lots on here about it - Angelock did a good write up).
If you have an injector(s) going down it can cause what you are seeing - they seem to both slowly deteriorate and suddenly go giving problems. Sometimes they are recoverable with injector cleaner treatments sometimes not.
Cam position sensor only affects warm starting so is probably a red herring in your case.
Post back on what you find/eliminate.

Thanks for the reply, Ill have a look and get back to you on the wires and test.
I was thinking maybe MAF or temp sensor as sometimes when its really cold the glowplug light barely stay on and other times it does.

White smoke could indicate one of your injectors is not atomising and spraying neat (un atomised) diesel into one of the cylinders. This used to be a common fault on Leyland engines when the end of the injector nozzle broke off,

Also check the contacts are clean on the fuel rail pressure sensor on the end of the common rail, this can be a coon cause for ****ty starting and lumy idling when first started.

Hello peoples,

I'm new to this forum today and was browsing, when I came to this post and see that you've been having the same problems as me. I've got an older xdi with the L series engine bus symptoms seemed the same. I changed two glow plugs (could not get to the other two but they passed a continuity test) and also the diesel filter. Problem solved. Often, white smoke on a diesel refers to fuel starvation, not over fueling.
Weather over here in Bavaria has been pretty chilly (at times -22c) so I've been filling up with the 'Ultimate' diesel - it's good down to minus 35c and seems to help with starting in extreme cold.

but not 'bus' oops!

Often, white smoke on a diesel refers to fuel starvation, not over fueling.



Black and white smoke, when fuel related, is caused by incomplete combustion and not starvation. Incorrect pump timing, on engines with injection pumps, can also be a cause of excessive white smoke.

I have gone through quite a few threads and posts about this cold starting problem with white smoke, I have found that nearly all the posts never get to a positive solution or they just run dry the threads that is.

Very frustrating when posts never get finalised feed back from the OP

I've just been through warm start issues with my 56 plate td4 with 111200 miles, it started cold with white smoke, started hot, when left for half hour or so it wouldn't start, it would crank and crank, eventually start and rough idle and stop, crank again and it would start with loads of white smoke,I had done cam sensor and the fuel filter with no change, bought a new battery no change, it had been to local independent for full check with Autologic equipment, they said fuel rail pressure was a bit low but it was in tolerance, I trawled through all the forums and did read a bit about the high pressure fuel pump regulator seals failing because of supermarket fuel.


I bought a set of seals from eBay for £25. They arrived and I fitted them, problem solved, even the cold start smoke has almost disappeared, hasn't missed abeat since, happy days

The part can be found on http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Landrover...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item259d84b114


I also posted this on another forum


Hope this helps someone

I have returned to this thread because I too am now having a little bit of trouble starting the TD4 from cold only, have checked on the T4 and injectors are within spec, ran some injector cleaner through the system, this brought the injectors to a better level than before, even so I am still finding that starting from cold is not great and puffs of white smoke.
Yesterday I did a quick leak back test and once again all seem within tolerance, I will be doing another test later today as the first test was stopped by rain.

My next step is also to check the high pressure fuel pump regulator seals, which I purchased from here below.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281754064623

This ebay seller must be making a killing, so I stayed clear.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Landrover...cdfe112&pid=100011&rk=1&rkt=9&sd=161556508948

I will report back later tomorrow with my findings, in the mean time quick pic of the first LB test and a quick video.