Excessive smoke on startup of TD?

IanD · Post by **IanD** » 25 Jun 2004, 15:36

This is my first diesel I've owned (Volcane) & often on cold start-up (say about 1 out of every 4) I get a huge cloud of grey smoke puff out & the idle hunts for about 2-3 seconds........then it's fine, doesn't smoke much at all really other than those times & the first time you put your foot down after it's warmed up.
Does this sound normal or could it be something like glowplugs on the way out?
Cheers,
Ian

rossd · Post by **rossd** » 25 Jun 2004, 16:23

It could be either an air leak in the fuel lines or the glowplugs, yes. An easy way to test the glow plugs on the car is to test their resistance with a multimeter, one pin on either terminal of the glowplug. A Healthy plug should see a very low resistance but a caput plug will show infinity.

IanD · Post by **IanD** » 25 Jun 2004, 17:07

Excellent, thanks Ross. Will give that a try

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 25 Jun 2004, 19:20

You can check if you've got an air leak on your fuel lines by, before you start the car, giving the fuel line bulb a good fews squeezes (until it feels solid) before starting the car from cold. If this improves your cold starting then you've got a game of spot the leak to play. Otherwise, its as rossd said, most likely to be a glow plug or two.
When I've had 1 glow plug duff, the car started and was a little lumpy. With two knackered plugs, the car will be difficult to start, very smoky and rough to begin with. With three knackered plugs the engine becomes nigh on impossible to start.

nick · Post by **nick** » 25 Jun 2004, 23:48

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Kowalski</i>

When I've had 1 glow plug duff, the car started and was a little lumpy. With two knackered plugs, the car will be difficult to start, very smoky and rough to begin with. With three knackered plugs the engine becomes nigh on impossible to start.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Thats been my experience with my 1.9TD too. With one plug out the only difference was slightly lumpy tickover for a few seconds from starting, but only in cold weather. I used it like this for about 18 months with no problems, in mild weather it made almost no difference to starting.
When two more plugs eventually died (in the middle of a very cold winter) it would only start at all with a short burst of 'Easy Start' and about 30 secs of cranking, then run very rough with loads of smoke for another half minute or so til it warmed up.
Nick

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 26 Jun 2004, 00:13

I would avoid "ether based "Easy start "products on citroen diesels (on any diesels in fact) having seen a starter motor get blown off the engine complete with the casting its bolted to! in addition to its wonderful lubricant wash off properties.
I have experienced lumpy smoky running after startup caused by dirty injectors too.
Stewart

sooty · Post by **sooty** » 26 Jun 2004, 00:57

I agree with Stewart, never use 'easy start' on a diesel. Its far more damaging than accidently putting petrol in your tank.
Mine also smokes and hunts as you discribe, but in the past when its gets really bad its been a duff plug causing the problem. If you do replace any of the plugs, make sure they are rapid heat plugs not the ones that Halford sell at approx. £20 a set. Come the winter you'll have even more smoke and bad starting because they are not as rapid as they should.

nick · Post by **nick** » 26 Jun 2004, 03:21

Generally speaking I agree - don't use Easy Start, but in this particular case I only used it a couple times a day for about 4 days. I needed the car to travel 50 miles to work & back and Easy Start was the only way I could possibly start it until I had some spare time to replace the glowplugs.
Nick

jrg · Post by **jrg** » 28 Jun 2004, 04:46

Hi, just a thought - I've found that when starting diesels, you get a much better response by letting the glow plugs heat up until you hear the relay click, not until the orange coil light goes out. This way you have better chance of starting on the first turn of the engine, and have less smoke too! I've seen so many people with diesels (I'm NOT implying you don't know what you're doing!) who try to start their car/van like it's a petrol engine. After several seconds the engine starts with a HUGE cloud of burnt diesel fuel.
As I said, just a thought.
Regards,
Jamie.

Dave Burns · Post by **Dave Burns** » 28 Jun 2004, 05:33

The glow plugs must be of the post glow type and the engine should start with no problems at at all (even during freezing conditions) when the dash light extinguishes, and if it doesn't there is a weakness with it somewhere.
Dave

wrinklet1 · Post by **wrinklet1** » 28 Jun 2004, 14:59

hi, just for curiosity, have you checked the air intake pipes and the air filter? On my old Bx I had similar problems and found the air intake pipes were collapsing when I pressed the throttle, causing lots of black smoke, give the pipes a good look at, and check/change your air filter.
Paul

paranoid · Post by **paranoid** » 29 Jun 2004, 00:41

IanD · Post by **IanD** » 30 Jun 2004, 16:21

Well I've done all the checks mentioned & everything seems fine. I've started to leave it about 5 seconds after the glow plug light goes out before I fire her up & it hasn't done it since so if that's all I need to do I can live with it. Thanks for the help guys!