Vito CDI white smoke

[columbiers]

Hi,
Hoping someone can give advice with this- I only have limited knowledge of diesels! Today my Vito van, 2001, 108 cdi model, suddenly starting poring white smoke out the back, huge clouds of it. This is smoke, not steam, smells very smoky too! Van is running rough and went into limp home mode, not revving above 3000.
No engine light on, no codes when scanned with OBD scanner.
Can anyone advise on some tests I can do to work out what the problem is?

 

[DSM10000]

Today my Vito van, 2001, 108 cdi model, suddenly starting poring white smoke out the back, huge clouds of it.

Your van has just elected the new Pope

(Sorry! couldn't resist)

 

[StMarks]

Sorry if you already know this, but in a diesel engine white smoke occurs when raw diesel is emitted through the exhaust completely unburned.
If this happened suddenly, I would guess at a catastrophic failure of one or more injectors.
Another possibility would be sudden loss of compression in one or more cylinders, sufficient extreme that diesel compression ignition can not be achieved.
Hth.

 

[columbiers]

Thanks, yeah I assumed it was unburnt fuel.
Would a leak off test show this type of injector fault? Assuming so, I'm guessing leak of test followed by compression test is the way forward?

 

[Mr. H]

Sounds like an injector failure, stuck open it would seem. Hopefully they are easy to get out as they can get well and truly stuck to the seat.

 

[Damien O]

The other possibility is the headgasket. A common problem on the CDi engine.

 

[pawnie]

My vito started running weird today pulled up at traffic lights...puff of white smoke. Soon after went into limp mode. Pulled into a layby turned engine off waited, turned back on she stopped running weird and no limp mode. I'm hoping it just needed a burp! If this isn't the case any ideas?