[RedOne]

Greetings!

My Landcruiser has recently started blowing out a cloud of white/blue smoke when starting after standing idle for 2-3 days. More gap results in more smoke. After the initial puff, the smoke persists for 2-3 kms more but only on accelerating and then dissapears. Under heavy acceleration, say in 3rd to redline, it does blow out some black smoke but I guess that is normal.

There is no other problem with the engine: No loss of power, starts easily, no oil leaks etc. and gives consistant mileage as before.

Details of the truck:
97 LC 80
1HDT engine (4200cc turbo diesel, in-line 6, 12 valves)
Done 86K kms as per odo but could be a bit more

Any suggestions as to what could be the reason for the white smoke? My regular shop tells me to leave it alone as the engine is strong otherwise.

Gears,
Red-One.

[suman]

Injectors OK? Any abnormal Turbo noise (whine)?

[vikram_d]

White/blue smoke is very typical of oil burning. Monitor engine oil levels for a few days.

[anupmathur]

Has the engine been re-built ever before?
White smoke can also result due to combustion with excess air. Blue is usually oil burning.

[Jaggu]

Check its not a good sign, there is some contamination if oil/water lines at some point. Early diagnosis will save you from big pain later on.

[RedOne]

Suman,
Don't know about injectors; I guess it need to be checked on a test rig. Turbo is normal.

Vikram,
No drop in oil level, so I guess it's a small amount of oil which is getting burnt. As mentioned, it does not happen after 2-3 kms.

Anup,
I bought the truck 2 years back so not sure if it's been rebuilt before.

Jaggu,
No oil/water mixing, if that's what you meant.

Gears,
Red-One.

[theMAG]

Since its a 12-year old diesel, pl check the problem others have mentioned - oil burning.

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by RedOne

I bought the truck 2 years back so not sure if it's been rebuilt before.

In that case, you cannot be complacent about this. Symptoms are not happy.
Either brace yourself for some maintenance (expensive!) or get rid of this truck!

[RedOne]

Thanks guys, for your responses.

Just an update:

I checked with someone who knows LC engines. Apparently the smoke only on startup is due to oil seeping into cylinder from valve opening while left for long time. Could be due to valve seat wear or because valve clearance adjustment is due.

Will get it looked into.

Gears,
Red-One.

[tbppjpr]

After searching on the community for a while I found this thread title suites everyone who has a diesel car and faced issue of white smoke while cold start, so putting my my query here.

Introduction:
I have a Polo 1.2 TDI, bought in April'11 and has done 6800 kms so far. My driving is less, sometimes car left parked for 2-3 days and sometimes it is not touched even for a whole week. I always got filled Hi-Speed diesel from my favourite COCO BP fuel station so far. Current diesel in the tank is normal which was filled at a highway bunk.

Symptoms :
Weather is getting very cold these days and I noticed white smoke first time few days back when started my after putting back the engine oil stick into the chamber after checking oil levels, oil got reached to bottom mark. Now it has become common these days to get white smoke from the exhaust for few seconds., after few seconds car gets normal and no smoke from exhaust.

Called workshop when first time got the white smoke, they told me that its normal to get white smoke from a diesel car in cold mornings.

I am still curious to know if anything serious is there ? Please help.

[BLACK1]

I think that white smoke in winters during start up is due to temperature being lower than required for proper combustion of diesel. Its quite common to see my 107k kms old indica emitting white smoke during start up in winters, but after idling the car for 4-5 minutes the smoke stops .

[tbppjpr]

Originally Posted by BLACK1

I think that white smoke in winters during start up is due to temperature being lower than required for proper combustion of diesel.

I also think so as my car is relatively new and its her first winter season, workshop guys also told me the same but I am afraid about the fact that white smoke is symptom of engine oil burning, low oil levels or water in fuel lines etc. So worried about these facts, how do I confirm that its just normal cold start smoke.

Originally Posted by BLACK1

Its quite common to see my 107k kms old indica emitting white smoke during start up in winters, but after idling the car for 4-5 minutes the smoke stops .

My car is just 6800 kms old and the smoke appears just for few seconds, after that there is no sign of smoke. Sometimes smoke doesn't appear if I parked the car in last night and start in next morning, it only appears if I don't drive the car for a longer period like one day gap between last and next drive.

[BLACK1]

Engine oil burning is usually indicäted by light blue smoke & if such smoke appears only during startup irrespective of the weather conditions then its due to worn valve guides & seals. This leads to reduction in oil level.

[akhilesh51]

Need some help from BHP gurus.

I have recently purchased Audi Q5 2.0 TDi and have encountered a weird phenomenon which I have been told by the service centre people to be common with all Audis.

During the course of last month (Purchased the vehicle in Oct 2014), Twice we have encountered heavy white smoke from exhaust at engine idle. Once it happened when the vehicle was idle at traffic light and again yesterday when idle when I reached home at night and vehicle was idling just before switching off. I have not pushed the vehicle to its limit (it has run 2000 kms in total) since purchase and have largely used the car for short trips 10-20kms barring a 700 km trip 5 days back.

The volume of smoke encountered both these times was highly abnormal and never encountered in any of our other vehicles including a 2009 VW Jetta that we have owned since last 6 years. It was white in colour and odourless. There is no apparent leak in coolant or oil as checked by the technicians. The smoke reduced and then hen completely smoke when vehicle was accelerated at idle itself or driven.

Now, a visit to service centre and after standard checks, we were told that all recent Audis have been fitted with a catalytic converter which stores exhaust waste in order to reduce pollution in cities and release the smoke at periodic intervals or when the vehicle is being constantly driven above 80KMPH (i.e on highways).

I want to confirm if this is true or there is a back story to this whole thing.

[Akshay1234]

What they tell you is true. Actually you should give your car the beans once every few days to clear all that out. If used mainly on short trips as you have, and if not revved much this happens.