E320cdi S211 Smoking

[Geez1000]

Hi, just looking for some thoughts really, my E320cdi V6 (2007) is producing white/grey smoke form the exhaust.

The car has done 215k miles and had a full service in July last year. In the winter of last year (2011/2012) about a minute after starting the engine white smoke appeared from the exhaust which disappeared after a few minutes. The car was checked out and I was told as long as it did not continue then there was nothing to worry about. The smoke was not evident during the summer months.

Now the car is smoking heavily, this time white/grey smoke. It's starts about a minute after starting the engine and get worse when the accelerator is pressed, the smoke disappears after a few minutes of driving. The car has been on STAR and the only item on there was an injector with no signal. Everything else seems fine, engine is smooth, no power loss, no unusual noises, no engine management lights, just smoke. I have been informed the Egr is also working as it should do and the air filters were changed in July last year.

Any help or ideas would be much appreciated before I take the car to a specialist.

 

[Terry_]

It does sound like possible turbo failure

 

[st4]

Does the car leak boost? IIRC mine did exactly this when I had this fault.

 

[Geez1000]

Don't think there is a boost leak unless there is a special test. A mechanic friend had a listen under the bonnet and did not notice any thing unusual.

Just curious to a possible turbo failure, I have no loss of acceleration and engine sounds normal, it still sprints to 60mph in just over 7 secs.

 

[BlackC55]

Are you sure it's smoke?

 

[C180_Driver]

You will notice the exhaust gases in the winter a lot more than you do in the summer, due to the temperature.
Mine also leaves a more noticeable white haze behind under full acceleration, had it looked into and there was no fault.

 

[Geez1000]

Olly,

I assume it smoke, it seems too much to be vapour. There is no real smell to it, does not smell of fuel or oil. Even though we are experiencing cold weather this week, last week was much warmer and the smoke was still evident. For the last few months I have been adding millers diesel treatment, I have also been adding millers to my other car which is a tdi and that's smoking a bit more than usual as well.

 

[BlackC55]

It might just be vapour, not smoke. If it has no smell I expect it is.

Does the "smoke" disappear or does it linger?

 

[Geez1000]

It lingers. I started the car the other day to do the school run, left it idling for a few minutes to warm up and our porch area was filled with smoke.

 

[BlackC55]

Oh ok.

As suggested, look at the turbo firstly for any spindle wear.

 

[Geez1000]

Ok, that's a bit beyond me, will book the car into an indie on my next days off, will feedback any findings. Thanks for all your help.

 

[sinewave]

At 215K one would expect a little wear & tear on the ancillaries!

Turbo wear seems most likely.

 

[Geez1000]

Hi Guys,

Just to give you some feedback, car as been to a specialist today, turns out that it is condensation, it just produces a lot. Car has been put on star, everything checked, no fault codes and all parameters are normal. No oil leaks or coolant leaks either.

Thanks guys for all your input, much appreciated, and thanks to Mercland, Nuneaton.

 

[gokdag]

Hi Geez1000,

Have you resolve your problem white smoke ?

 

[ALFIEBEARD]

Hi Geez1000,

Have you resolve your problem white smoke ?

He replied in the post above yours ..it was only condensation due to the weather conditions etc...so no faults found.

Alfie