early morning smoker

[sean86]

hi i have xsara phase 2 1.9 d.every morning on start up it blows out unreal grey smoke and rough idling. only last about a min. no problem start frist turn so i doubt its glow plugs. other than that car run perfect. 70000 miles on clock. any idea? thanks in advance sean

[jgra1]

hi Sean, i would still suspect the glows to be honest..

they can be checked quite easily, if you pull the 8mm nuts and the linking cable off.. resistance should be around .. forgotten... maybe 1200 or within a couple of hundred of that..
worth 20 mins and a multimeter?

it's the easiest way to check, but there are other ways involving taking them all out and powering them from battery etc..

edit.. or... thinking about it, check the GP post heat function first (I think it will have one) - multimeter or test light from a glow to earth.. light should remain lit well after car has started.. (until 60C water temp, or more than ? %30 throttle)

john

[sean86]

ya ok i try that thanks a mill

[Peter.N.]

You can check them by connecting a voltmeter between any glowplug terminal and earth, when you turn the key to the glowplug position it should read 10-11 volts, if it reads anything like 12 volts you have one or more o/c glow plugs. To check which one as John says, disconnect the lead and measure the resistance to earth, should be 1 ohm or less, much higher and they are loosing efficiency, no reading at all and they are u/s.

Peter

[sean86]

ya i tested them all seems ok. i noticed a bit of oil leaaking down on top of 1 of the glow plugs and injector coming from vale gasket. could this cause the blue smoke?? thanks for the replys

[sean86]

solved all glow plugs were screwed thanks all the help

[citroenxm]

I NEVER found testing them in situ a sucess! Theres no other way but to remove them to try..

Ive tried the meter checking and in the end always resulted in removing them and flashing them across the battery.

You only need one out for a smoke fully start, but the car will still start....

[CitroJim]

You only need one out for a smoke fully start, but the car will still start....

Yes, and a D is a lot more tolerant of poor glowplugs than a TD. The D has a much higher compression ratio which eases starting considerably. I've known a D start quite OK with no working glowplugs at all. It was my fault - I replaced them and accidentally shorted the supply to earth. I only realised as I noticed the glowplug light didn't light

[citroenxm]

except xm 2.1s...which once warm always start again without heat!!!