how much diesel smoke is too much

[coopers1969]

Hello all.

just purchased a second hand 2007 TDV6 SE excellent service history every 10000km at a dealer it has done 128000 and i have had it for 2 weeks now and loving it. I noticed something tonight that has go me wondering if not a little concerned, i had driven in the city cruising home when after about 20 km of very relaxed driving i put the boot in and the amount of smoke that came out the back was hmmmmm alot i felt sorry for the car behind me. i haven't noticed any lack of power if anything feels great. fuel economy is 11.1 km city driving and 3/4 of the tank gone, which i think is good. should i be concerned. i have looked around the forum and there is everything from just clean the MAF sensor to injectors and melting cylinders. Could this be because of very relaxed and hardly touching the the go pedal or could there be something more sinister.
thanks for any imput.

[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....

[Owl]

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.

[AnD3rew]

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.

[nat_89]

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!!

[Tote]

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

[sinistr]

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

[PhilipA]

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

[Dougal]

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.

[Basil135]

Hello all.

just purchased a second hand 2007 TDV6 SE excellent service history every 10000km at a dealer it has done 128000 and i have had it for 2 weeks now and loving it. I noticed something tonight that has go me wondering if not a little concerned, i had driven in the city cruising home when after about 20 km of very relaxed driving i put the boot in and the amount of smoke that came out the back was hmmmmm alot i felt sorry for the car behind me. i haven't noticed any lack of power if anything feels great. fuel economy is 11.1 km city driving and 3/4 of the tank gone, which i think is good. should i be concerned. i have looked around the forum and there is everything from just clean the MAF sensor to injectors and melting cylinders. Could this be because of very relaxed and hardly touching the the go pedal or could there be something more sinister.
thanks for any imput.

Given its age, I am guessing it has spent most of its life running around Adelaide, doing the school run.

If you can, load it up with a trailer loaded to max (legal) weight, and then pull it up some hills.

Not sure where you are in Adelaide, but pulling it up the freeway, or Cement Hill if your down south, should do it.

Diesels like to work, and work best when they are warmed up properly. If your doing a lot of city driving, especially at this time of year, then she probably needs a good hard run to blow the cobwebs (and soot) out.

But yes, at night, it appears that there is a heap of smoke behind you. Check what the others have said, but if all is good there, then she just needs a run.

You may even find that your fuel usage goes down after it as well.