Thread: White smoke - Loss of power - HELP!

If the smoke is from the exhaust pipe it can indicate one of two things - water in the fuel or not enough fuel to the engine. Either of these will result in a loss of power. Use the plug on the fuel filter to see if its water.

If its water in the fuel drain the fuel right away - it can seriously damage the injectors, pump etc ( been there on an indirect injection Hilux which is more tolerant of crap fuel than a CRTD).

Blknight has nailed this one I reckon!
Check your trans hoses where they meet the cooler and also on the passenger side rail.
Then check under the bell housing for fluid.

Weeeell, the disco has just departed for the hospital on the back of a tow truck. Let me tell you, she didn't look a happy camper!

After the various suggestions here, I finally realised that the whole of the back of the car, plus most of the underneath is coated in some kind of oil. So yes, it looks like the trasmission oil caused the white smoke, probably burning on the hot exhaust.

It's now going in to be diagnosed. I do have a so-called warranty on the car, but I fully expect them to try to squeeze out of that. The warranty does state that it covers all parts "within the transmission casing", so if it is a broken transmission cooler pipe I can see them trying to refuse coverage.

Not without a fight let me tell you.

I will update this when I know more, maybe even naming names.

Originally Posted by e3j

Weeeell, the disco has just departed for the hospital on the back of a tow truck. Let me tell you, she didn't look a happy camper!

After the various suggestions here, I finally realised that the whole of the back of the car, plus most of the underneath is coated in some kind of oil. So yes, it looks like the trasmission oil caused the white smoke, probably burning on the hot exhaust.

It's now going in to be diagnosed. I do have a so-called warranty on the car, but I fully expect them to try to squeeze out of that. The warranty does state that it covers all parts "within the transmission casing", so if it is a broken transmission cooler pipe I can see them trying to refuse coverage.

Not without a fight let me tell you.

I will update this when I know more, maybe even naming names.

As long as there is no damage to the transmission a cooler pipe is small change. I'd almost bet the hose has blown off the cooler up the front.
Hopefully there is no damage to the internals and just fixing the hose and some fluid will have you on the road again.

I Shall quote of the scripture.

now you walk out of the valley with cooler line death , you shall not fear The grey box of evil, Aulro is with you, technical chatter shall console you.

Or something like that.


The auto is fairly self preserving as the pump beings to aerate the oil the pressure drops off, as the pressure drops off the box begins to shut down and the TC stops pushing power as its no longer full of oil. As the box begins to shut down one of the first things that happens is the cooler line is shut off along with the lockup clutch. then the clutch packs that provide the drive.

Tombie 2, you hit the nail on the head. The swage connection holding the solid pipe to the flexible pipe had blown apart. Total loss of fluid. Easily fixed, now drives fine, but I'm just hoping there's not some damage to the box that will rear it's head sometime in the future.

Now for the interesting bit. The car yard "warrantee" is not worth 2 bob. They rejected the claim for the exact reason I mentioned. The broken part was "not within the transmission casing". The repairing mechanic expressed amazement that such a failure would not be covered under a warrantee.

Moderators, is it ok to name names here? I would like to warn everyone off this mob, but unsure if that's allowed.

Anyway, for the time being, this is the second claim I have tried, this one and one for front shockers replacement. Rejected on both ocassions.

As the warrantee (3 years on all used vehicles) is obviously written to exclude almost every possible failure, it's only reason for existence is to sell more cars. Dishonest in my opinion.

A bit more info, comments please.

Approx 1500 km ago, the same company performed a 90,000km service. Transmission oil change was due at 80,000, but they couldn't obtain the correct fluid (?) so did it at 90,000.

So 1,500 km after they change the fluid I get this failure. This to my admittedly suspicious mind suggests they stuffed something up. It seems to me that, apart from mechanical damage, the only way for a swage connection to burst is over-pressure. The only thing I can think of to cause over-pressure is too much fluid.

Seems almost impossible that the car would pick this exact time to blow a pipe.

Of course I can't prove any of this, but I personally think that some idiot didn't even drain the old fluid, but just topped up the gearbox until it wouldn't take any more. That would certainly over-presure it.

Any thoughts?

While I can appreciate your line of thinking, its not correct.

Generally the lines suffer a failure of one kind or another at some point in time, its just that yours happened sooner rather than later. You might find that, in this case, at some point in the past someone has accidentally given the fitting a whack with something and thats accelerated the problem or that the swage wasn't done properly at the factory.


Over filling the transmission will cause problems and the first of these is over heating this will bring up a warning on the dash. But lets say they filled the box up to the very brim (which you cant easily or accidentally do with your box due to the method of filling) The first seal to blow out would be either the rear spud shaft seal or the sump gasket itself as neither of these are rated for any serious pressure. if by some chance neither of these blew out the external pump seal would be next in line for failure followed very closely by any of the other gaskets that go to make up the box.

IF you can send me a copy of the exact wording of the warranty cards and contract you may find that you can have it replaced it just depends on the assessor you just need to have better wording applied to the repairs required and someone who can out talk the guy whos trying to get the company out of paying for it.


As I mentioned previously as you stopped the vehicle quickly and had the forethought to get it investigated and repaired promptly I highly doubt that there will be any future problems that are solely caused by the events that have taken place.