[indian21r]

Black smoke is becoming a major issue for me while cycling in the mornings. I do multiple laps of Uphill near durgam Cheruvu in Hyderabad and some of the vehicles emit so much black smoke that you cannot see 20m ahead of you. The main culprits are the taxis that shuttle people to offices

Tata Indica - more than 60% of them. Atleast 20% of these are so bad, I dread to cycle when they are there. Even of flats they emit the smoke

Tata Sumo- except for new vehicles almost all of them pollute like that is there duty

Chevrolet Tavera- Quite of few of them compete with the Sumos

Tata Winger - Again really bad. You can see some of the wingers are covered in so much smoke that the backside is a different shade of white

Buses - Tata buses emit more smoke than Ashok leyland ones.

Rest of the lot is one vehicle here and there that smokes. But what surprises me is how come so many Tata Vehicles are emitters of black smoke. Are they missing a filter or something? When we had our generation One Indigo I never observed this problem. We used to get is serviced regularly and it did 78,000 km when we sold.

Don't the taxi guys service their cars regularly. I think the Traffic Police should actually stop a vehicle if it emitting black smoke and have the guys test for pollution. If they fail the vehicle should be removed from the roads until it is serviced.

As long as one is in the car with windows rolled up, it is fine. But what about the public who is sharing the space with them. With increasing vehicles on road, we should atleast see that the existing vehicles pollute as minimal as possible.

[FarPatel]

I agree with your observation on Tata vehicles regularly emitting visible exhaust. Perhaps it is because they are mainly used by transport operators who don't think it is important to take time off to service their vehicles according to their schedules.
However, competing with them are the state transport buses, dump trucks and all other such vehicles that are flogged till death do them part.

[ramzsys]

The 1.5 dCi unit of the Renault is often seen belching out black smoke. Every second Nissan Sunny that i see on road(sometimes even the fresh car from the showroom) gives visible black smoke.

Hope the owners are not driving the crdi engine like the old school IDI engine.

[dass]

The volvo busses are not far behind. Both the government ones and the private ones. If you standing behind one of them at a signal, when they pull out you are sure to be drenched in black smoke. Some of them have their exhaust pipe facing back than down. Is that a design issue?

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by dass

The volvo busses are not far behind. Both the government ones and the private ones. If you standing behind one of them at a signal, when they pull out you are sure to be drenched in black smoke.

Volvo's be it B9R and B11R, both are good in this regard. I have rarely seen Volvo buses smoking, yes there is light smile but nothing alarming.

Originally Posted by dass

Some of them have their exhaust pipe facing back than down. Is that a design issue?

Yes that is a design issue.

The Tata Marcopolo buses have this feature that point the exhaust top directly behind on the other road users. After a few complaints and couple of deaths Tata changed it and bent the pipe downwards.

Volvo buses have them pointed downwards always.

Anurag.

[dass]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Volvo's be it B9R and B11R, both are good in this regard. I have rarely seen Volvo buses smoking,

Yes that is a design issue.

Volvo buses have them pointed downwards always.

Anurag.

I travel the outer ring road daily and see quite a few of them on road, B9R and B11R. Both the BMTC and the private ones and see most of them 'smoking'.

I haven't noticed the Mercedes busses 'smoking' much though.

I guess I should take a snap and post it on the facebook page of Bangalore police, they have anyways asked the public to post pictures of smokers.

[narendra.vw]

I guess, I am referring to only TD engines.
The breather valve pipe from the valve door is routed to Air inlet hose.. Due to this there is some oil residue left in the air inlet. This bit of oil mixes with air & into the combustion chamber. The oil burns with air fuel mixture & comes out as black smoke.
Also keep in mind how ever good the is Turbo is, there will be some oil coming out of Turbo bush into the inlet Turbine. Meaning getting into the Inlet hose. Problem is more if engine has a Inter cooler.
Many of you would have absorbed black smoke in cold start. It’s because by over night oil would have collected in the Inlet hose & suddenly It is sucked once engine is started.
Some modern engines are fitted with oil separator.

[rishirich27]

I had been facing this problem for the last 5-6 month. My pajero had little hard cold starts (once i went to a hill station and it almost took 7-8 cranks to start and even after that had to ideal for atleast 10 min to get normal). It also gave out a huge black cloud of smoke while accelerating. The car went for a service also during this time and i thought a new air filter will help or may be company mechanics would figure out the fault. But as usual they did not bother to check anything other than those normal items like filters and all. My cars two year old and has some 32000 km on the meter.

So last week i decided to open my tool box. I unplugged all four Glow plugs. My first visual encounter was that 3 of them were covered with carbon and just one was fine, all clean.

Then i tested using a multimeter, the clean plug had a resistance reading of .6 (on 200 ohms setting) and all others were like above 200 ohms. Clearly all those black ones were faulty. I then also tested by connecting them directly to 12V charge from battery and now all was crystal clear. Only the clean one was working red hot and other ones just did not spark or glow.

video link

http://youtu.be/5rXxFfpsYkE

I inquired about new one, Rs 1500/piece for what they call original company fitted ones, HKT (made in japan) for Rs 750/piece and some other brand for Rs 500/piece. I went for HKT. The plugs are in place now, the car starts well but still sometimes it take a little more than normal (what i mean is its not perfect yet). So now i tried cleaning injectors using diesel injector cleaning solution by "ABRO". 200ml in 20 ltr diesel.

Now the black smoke is considerably low, acceleration more or less same. I am thinking of getting the injectors removed and getting them properly cleaned. And may be also get a K&N filter for it. I want to get rid of this black smoke.

Friends i need suggestions if this is the right approach or is there anything i am missing upon. One thing more i would like to share is that this "little hard start-ups and smoke problem" started some 8-9 months back when i got my tank refueld and suddenly the car just won't start. It took some 3-4 cranks to start it. I took it to dealer and he did some thing and asked me to burn fuel as low as possible and then refuel once and add some engine oil to tank. That was bad fuel at that time i suppose. But it was never the same again.

Suggestions to get rid of black smoke, normal perfect cold start and a smoother acceleration ?

[.anshuman]

The cold start issue could have been due to faulty glow plugs. But for Black Smoke get the Fuel Pump checked. Instead of using additives i'd prefer to get Injectors cleaned professionally whenever facing some issue this this.

[Pam81]

Sometimes, too much load on the vehicle causes the engine to burn in-efficiently and hence lots of smoke. Best example is TATA & AL trucks.

Another best example in Pune is the 6 seater shared Tempo. If you ever follow that vehicle from behind, you will see it is pretty evident that the engine is a clear mismatch to vehicle capacity. The way it struggles to pull with all passengers on-board clearly shows in expelling a cloud of smoke everytime it moves. Even bystanders at road will be inhaling lots of soot particles and acidic elements when this vehicle passes by.

I was wondering myself, how this vehicle even passed in regular RTO FC regulations!

[JoseVijay]

My friend recently bought a pre-owned Bolero GLX (2003 model). The problem is quite opposite to the title of this thread. Not black smoke, but white smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe.

What could be the problem? He contacted one of his friends who also owns a bolero and that guy has suggested to get boring done for the engine. The vehicle has clocked 1.5 lakh kms on the odo.

Any pointers and solutions are welcome.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

My friend recently bought a pre-owned Bolero GLX (2003 model). The problem is quite opposite to the title of this thread. Not black smoke, but white smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe

The engine is consuming oil, hence the unburnt oil is coming out as white smoke.

Do check the piston rings.

Anurag.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

The engine is consuming oil, hence the unburnt oil is coming out as white smoke.

+1.

Definitely drinking oil in this case. However, is it smoking continuously or only on startup? If it is smoking continuously - you might need new piston rings/ get the cylinder rebored.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

Not black smoke, but white smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe.

In addition to checking the piston rings, I advice your friend to keep a very close look on the engine oil quantity. If smoking is heavy and continous, the oil will be consumed faster.

If neglected, be prepared to have a seized engine!

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

If it is smoking continuously - you might need new piston rings/ get the cylinder rebored.

Anurag.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by JoseVijay

...white smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe.
What could be the problem?

Look for oil in coolant, or water contamination of engine oil. Head gasket likely to need attention. How is the FE?