white smoke

on Monday i was towing with my defender up a steep hill in 4th gear as i was getting near the top i got a load of white smoke come out then when i reached the top it cleared and everything seemed ok
when i started it this morning i got a little puff of white smoke again then it cleared

Any idea of what could be causing this?

what engine has it got?

oi g spot what section are yer in :doh:

its a 300tdi its always chuffed a little black smoke on pull away but never white

ah ffs i dint look i am in the live bit!

ok its gonna be overfueling or unburned fuel, does the smoke stink o diesel?

so not the water stagnating at the bottom of the air filter then ?

not noticed a smell if im using around town dosent smoke much but when using on motorway then smoke seems worse

It could be a lot of things - so here are some more ideas to keep you going.

White smoke on start is probably (but not always) vaporised diesel fuel caused by one or more cylinders not having enough heat to burn the fuel on start up, by the time it comes round again it's going faster (so less heat loss and more oomph) and it works just fine (I would check glow plugs - not that normal in a good running 300tdi but it is cold at the moment).

The white smoke could also be water getting into one or more of the cylinders, when you were towing was the temp getting up awfully high? Check for coolant loss, and check your oil for white emulsion.

Also when you were towing, the engine was running fine then it did it, so it would not make sense for the engine to suddenly mis on a cylinder or two leading to diesel vapour UNLESS there is a compression problem - when you were in 4th going up the hill, was the vehicle going quite slowly, i.e. low engine revs?

Last of all, was it defiantly white, not a light grey? It could be oil, YES I know oil burns blue... MOST of the time; if oil gets into the cylinders it can also burn or more accurately vaporise into a grayish smoke. This is because it is not entering the cylinders in a calculated spray pattern, but rather leaking or blowing in.

He was gonig up a 'steep hill' at the time - are we talking a steep road or a 45 degreee off road incline? If the latter this could have something to do with it???? - Like Sean said - could be contaminate getting into fuel, or ? Overfilled oil in the sump getting past the rings?????

You can also get white smoke when running veggie oil under high load. I vote for the water/head gasket option though - been there on mine before. Had these symptoms months before any of the more common signs of head gasket failure.