Lots Of White Smoke With Strong Diesel Smell? Can Someone Please Shed

[Irfy]

Hello All,

 

I have a 2003 mk2 Ford Galaxy TDI Automatic, I gives out a lot of white smoke and when I say lots I mean lots, it covers the whole street as if your in a steam room, also there is a strong smell of diesel. But when the temperature reaches half the smoke stops but still can smell the diesel. It does not loose water or oil and it doesn't mix water in to oil or oil in to water. It also has a slight judder only when on idle but picks up speed and drives fine, There are No warning lights on. I have replaced all 4 injectors for some second hand ones and replaced the loom for the injectors, but still the same.

Just to note when I bought the car the air mass metre was missing and was told the car went through some puddle of water....

Can some one please shed some light as I'm really desperate.

Kind regards

Ivan.

[avee]

see the reply from chrisb to Bittsyyesterday

check out 30 pages onbooster heater

[gregers]

WOAH YOUR CARS ON FIRE, :46:

as above sounds like you need to replace your glow plug in the heater.

 

find the thread sit back feet up and spend the evening reading up.

[dlt1617]

The auxillary heater only comes on when the outside temperature is low enough and the engine is cold so that you get heat in the car quickly as deisels can take a long time to warm up in cold weather.

Eventually after approx half a dozen starts where the heater logs a fault with not running properly its shuts the heater down and stops doing it!

The bad news is even if you then replace th glow plug in the heater it will not work until the fault memory has been reset. I planned to do mine in the summer and forgot all about it but I'm not to worried just a bit cold first thing!

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

[Irfy]

Thanks all but No luck at all, the mechanic changf the glow plugs today as he told me two of them were not working which I find strange as there are No fault codes, but still same problem, lots of white smoke and diesel smell.

 

I have also taken out fuse no 12, still same and still No fault codes.

 

Note the smoke is coming out the car exhaust and not the booster heater?

 

What else should I check? The booster heater metering pump? Where is this fitted?

[Irfy]

Just to note it smokes very bad when cold and calms down when the temp needle touches half, but still you can smell the diesel, need your help!

[acecard]

Thanks all but No luck at all, the mechanic changf the glow plugs today as he told me two of them were not working

 

just noticed you said smoke is from the engine exhaust so forget the booster heater for now - but how would u get the thing started with 2 duff plugs ....

Edited December 21, 2012 by acecard

[SilverBeast]

@ace card Iffy said white smoke is not coming from the booster heater exhaust, but the car exhaust.

[f0ster]

if the smoke is coming from the exhaust then the problem is the engine, you said it was vibrating on tick over, this points to an injector not atomizing the fuel or possibly slightly low compression on one cylinder, diesel will only burn when the correct temperature is reached and the fuel is atomised correctly

[acecard]

@ace card Iffy said white smoke is not coming from the booster heater exhaust, but the car exhaust.

yeah sorry corrected half way through

[dlt1617]

Hi do a search on here for a post about a coolant temperature fault and I think it might be your problem, from memory (could be wrong as I'm getting older!) if the coolant temperature sensor fitted in the bottom of the thermostat cover is faulty it can cause them to smoke. Totally ignore the previous advice ref the additional heater as we all thought it was from the small exhaust for this not the main exhaust for the engine

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

 

p.s. I think the sensors come in two colours and you need to check which one is fitted, also once you know the colour get it from VW as it's far cheeper (it's common so they will know which one!)

[SilverBeast]

I've just got a sensor (literally today) for mine as it has been faulty since I got it (a couple of years). It has never smoked and always started fine, it just takes ages to warm up. If I was you, I would get a VAG-COM lead from eBay for less than a tenner and download the free vcds-lite software. You will then be able to scan for errors (it does show faulty temp sensors).

 

There are actually four different colours of sensor black, grey, blue and green. I think black and grey are the same, there are also blue and green.

I have a spare of the blue one, as mine looked blue when I poked my digital camera round the back of the engine and took a photo. I got it from a forum member who also bought it in error and used it for a week.

The green one has four pins I believe, all the others have two.

[Irfy]

So if it is the coolant temperature switch would it still smell of diesel?

 

I have replaced all 4 injectors with good used ones.

[Irfy]

Ps. I have a fault code reader and has no fault codes stored.

[SilverBeast]

The temperature sensor is used by the engine management to determine if it needs to make the mixture richer because the engine is cold. It is also used for the temperature guage in the dash. If the guage is measuring the temperature normally (mine appears to do, but VAG-COM flags it as faulty) the the sensor could still be faulty. I only have knowledge of the Galaxy from reading this and other Forums, and they have saved me a fortune. I was aware of the majority of common potential faults through reading up, mainly on here, prior to buying. There are other members with a lot more experience of Galaxy's who will no doubt be around at some point to help you.

 

(i) Are you absolutely sure that the white smoke is coming out of the vehicle exhaust? My Booster Heater exhaust blows on to the Rear Silencer of the engine exhaust.

(ii) Is it possible you have white smoke (or steam) coming out of the vehicle exhaust and the diesel smell is still from the Booster Heater exhaust?

(iii) I believe that the Booster Heater stops operating when the engine temperature reaches 75C so the smoke cutting out at half engine temperature seems unlikely to be a coincidence. Particularly if it has only just started when the weather has got colder, as it only operates if the air temperature is below 10C.

 

It depends what code reader you have, I don't know how well they read codes from the VW engines the only other one I tried didn't connect properly to mine as I'm not sure if they are OBDII compliant. VAG-COM is used with a PC (or more usually a laptop) and does give slightly more meaningful messages. It can also diagnose other systems in your vehicle, including the Booster Heater, Parking Sensors and air-bags. It will also reset the Faults on those as well as the engine. The free version does all this, I doubt if you would need the paid for version.

[Irfy]

I can say 100% from the exhaust the smoke together with the smell. As I mentioned calms down when temp is sitting at half.

It starts on the first key, heaters work fine and drives good, did take it on the motorway driving upto 80-90 mph not a problem just that little judder at idle.

I have the Autel AA101 scanner.

[SilverBeast]

Sorry, I don't have any more suggestions to offer. Googling threw up this link which does refer to causes of white smoke at start up that disappears when warmed up.

When white smoke occurs at cold start, and then disappears as the engine warms up, the most common causes are fouling deposits around piston rings and/or cylinder glazing.

[seatkid]

White smoke from exhaust is usually because the injection timing is out, check the timing belt is correctly installed or hasnt jumped a tooth. Faulty crankshaft or cam sensors can also lead to incorrect timing. In all cases the performance will be down significantly and starting usually poor

 

Can also be due to low compression. (Worn rings or burnt/damaged valve seats) - try a compression test. Performance may not be down much in this case.

 

White smoke indicates low combustion temperature or incomplete combustion (late injection) leading to unburnt fuel - hence the smell.

Edited December 22, 2012 by seatkid

[chrispb123456]

Going back to your first post you mention about being drove through a puddle!

If water had been drawn in through air intake this could have damaged the MAF sensor, and worst case water into combustion chamber/s causing hydraulic lock with the consequence of bent con rods which could give low compression.

[seatkid]

Going back to your first post you mention about being drove through a puddle!

If water had been drawn in through air intake this could have damaged the MAF sensor, and worst case water into combustion chamber/s causing hydraulic lock with the consequence of bent con rods which could give low compression.

Hmm hadnt noticed that.....Missing MAF sensor begs the question - what did the previous owner really do? Yes, a good possibility of previous owner grossly understating a major incident. Damaged engine due to attempting to drive through deep water quite likely. Damaged valve gear, hydraulic tappets, camshafts, pistons, conrods all possible.

 

Compression test is first step to take.

[Irfy]

Thanks going to do a compression test, will keep you updated.

Thank you all for your support.