Thread: how much diesel smoke is too much

Maybe needs a good hard run up some hills to clean her out.

Maybe she is chipped ?

If you want to see smoke...get a 200 owner boot it in front of you....you need to pull over and wait for the air to clear.

Brett....

Check the intercooler hose on the RHS of the engine bay. They have a habit of spliting.
2nd time mine split, I replaced with aftermarket silicon hose.

They do put out quite a bit if you put the boot in suddenly, it is particularly evident if it is dark or dusk and the car behind you has headlights on, it really shows up. What you are talking about sounds pretty normal but do as Owl suggests and check the intercooler hose as this seems to be a common cause of abnormal exhaust smoke.

Originally Posted by discotwinturbo

Maybe needs a good hard run up some hills to clean her out.

Maybe she is chipped ?

If you want to see smoke...get a 200 owner boot it in front of you....you need to pull over and wait for the air to clear.

Brett....

Hahaha your too bloody right there god the 200 series pump out some smoke when they boot it!!

On a still day in the middle of the Simpson Desert there might have been a couple of D3's entertaining themselves by putting the boot in on the flat bits and watching with glee the counter rotating diesel smoke plumes that were exiting the vehicles........
Seriously the will blow smoke sometimes unexpectedly and particularly if they have not had any serious accelleration for a while.

Regards,
Tote

Hi Coopers1969...
I noticed you said 'tonight' when writing your post so I assume you saw what looked like smoke in your rear view mirror with a car following you with its headlights?

Some black smoke is normal in a diesel - you don't want white smoke.

However I'm pretty sure during the day you'd not see as much if any black smoke because the exhaust tips are pointing down and there isn't much to see as high as your mirror.

What you see at night is smoke and what I'd maybe call diesel haze as the particles escape.. Diesel soot another words.. But it's all simply emphasized by the headlights of the car behind you.
It's like fog almost so the light from the headlights disperses and catches what looks like a lot of smoke but it's not.

It's concerned me but during the day I couldn't see an excessive amount of smoke so that's the explanation/conclusion I've come to.

Try and see how much smoke you see at the back if your car during the day...

Mike

I have noticed this particularly at sand driver training when they are booted up a sandhill , but also on road.
AFAIK a stock TD5 doesn't do it and I wondered how they meet emissions . Maybe the emissions tests don't replicate the conditions.
Regards Philip A

Italian tune-up and see if it helps. If a diesel has only done short running (or no running and just idling) there can be a build up of soot that literally needs burnt/blown out.

When hot and working it should be ~98% clean.