Excessive Smoke

[Guest alibali]

I had a problem with excessive smoke coming from the auxiliary heater exhaust under the N/S rear wheel of my 2003 Galaxy Zetec diesel. There was also a patch of diesel on my driveway directly underneath this exhaust. It required 3 trips to the dealer before they would believe there was a problem as the problem happened sporadically. But when it happened it was really bad, with diesel fumes belching over the roof of the car and filling up both lanes of the road. It was so bad you wondered if the car might catch fire. It tended to happen within a minute of starting the car and was worst on cold days or after the car had been sitting a while.

 

First the dealer said there was no problem. The 2nd time they changed the glow plug on the auxiliary heater (which they told me was a day and a half job - not!). Finally the car did the dirty on them (hurrah!) and Ford told them to change the fuel pump that feeds the auxiliary heater. This did the trick. No more smoke.

 

But even then the service desk rep couldn't explain to me what the problem had been. He said it had been a metal ring, or was it a metro ring? They were trying to say it was a metering valve - the fuel pump in other words! Boy were they reluctant to tell me what had been the problem. How dare I wish to know such things, couldn't I just take the car away now it was fixed under warranty, and stop being a pest.

 

If anyone else suspects their deisel Galaxy Zetec is smoking too much from the auxiliary heater exhaust, look for signs of deisel on your drive and suspect the fuel pump.

 

ps. Great forum, this was a big help to me.