w211 e220cdi: Blue smoke in the morning

[haydar]

My w211 e220cdi gives off blue smoke in the morning for about 5 minutes. During this time (and maybe a little afterwards) the idle is irregular. Once cleared, the car gives off no smoke for the rest of the day. Performance of the car is A1, though the injectors do sound a little noisy.

Recently the CATs seemed to have become blocked, as there was some really horrible smells coming from the exhaust and the cars performance was down. I've just had the CATs removed and the car in comparison seems like a performance car. Let me add I'm based in Lahore, Pakistan and the quality of the fuel is really bad and there is no real low sulphure fuel. Probably the reason the CAT's got blocked.

What could be the reason for the smoke in the morning? Could it be a seal on the turbo charger? Turbo seems to whistle up ok. Are these cars know for valve seals going? But if the valve seals had gone, wouldn't the car be smoking all the time?

All help appreciated.

 

[mattkh]

My w211 e220cdi gives off blue smoke in the morning for about 5 minutes the fuel is really bad and there is no real low sulphure fuel.

Hi
I thought diesel was diesel wherever one lived.
Anyway, what is the mileage.

 

[Blobcat]

No there are very different qualities of Diesel. Spain has some particularly poor quality diesel

 

[haydar]

Car's covered about 100k miles

 

[mioba]

could the smoke not just been water vapour thats condensed overnight in the exhaust.

 

[bitonw]

blue smoke -> oil burning...

 

[haydar]

No I don't think it's vapour that's condensed over night as it doesn't disperse quickly. It's not a fog machine, but it's enough so as not to be ignored. My thinking is it could either be unburnt fuel or oil. If it's fuel then that points to the injectors, which could be the case as they are noisy. However, if it's oil, it could be either a seal in the turbo or possibly value seals. It could be that the blocked exhaust maybe put too much pressure on the turbo seals?

I'd be really interested if anyone who knows these engines, or has been through this already, can tell me what are the possible reasons for blue spoke in the morning. Give me a complete list, but something I can get my teeth into.

Thanks

 

[Blobcat]

They (diesels) can all 'smoke' a bit especially at start up and under hard acceleration. You need to decide if this is just the regular diesel 'normality' or something requiring a bit of attention.
Try some better quality diesel
You could also try some diesel injector cleaner and give it an 'Italian Tune Up'

 

[IAN MAC]

They (diesels) can all 'smoke' a bit especially at start up and under hard acceleration. You need to decide if this is just the regular diesel 'normality' or something requiring a bit of attention.
Try some better quality diesel
You could also try some diesel injector cleaner and give it an 'Italian Tune Up'

Italian Tune up.. ???

 

[haydar]

Cheers Blobcat

But I don't think this is the usual Diesel black smoke stuff (which I'm used to since I owned a BMW 330d before). This is only first thing in the morning and it's definately white/blue smoke. The car didn't do this before the problem with the exhaust, or at least not to the extent that I noticed.

I guess I've become paranoid. The 330d I owned had a catastrophic engine failure when the turbo blew up, sending engine oil to the engine. Even when I removed the key and jumped out of the vehicle, the engine revved it's heart out until the car ran out of engine oil. Scared the s*** out of me. Need new engine, exhaust, wiring, etc... £14000 to fix!!! I'm worried that if it's a turbo seal that's gone, this car could be headed in the same direction.

 

[Blobcat]

Italian Tune up.. ???

'Drive it like it's stolen' is another name for it. Basically get it nice and warm then use all the revs in 2nd and 3rd to really clear it out.

 

[Blobcat]

Cheers Blobcat

But I don't think this is the usual Diesel black smoke stuff (which I'm used to since I owned a BMW 330d before). This is only first thing in the morning and it's definately white/blue smoke. The car didn't do this before the problem with the exhaust, or at least not to the extent that I noticed.

I guess I've become paranoid. The 330d I owned had a catastrophic engine failure when the turbo blew up, sending engine oil to the engine. Even when I removed the key and jumped out of the vehicle, the engine revved it's heart out until the car ran out of engine oil. Scared the s*** out of me. Need new engine, exhaust, wiring, etc... £14000 to fix!!! I'm worried that if it's a turbo seal that's gone, this car could be headed in the same direction.

I would find a Diesel specialist and let them have it overnight so they can see the problem first hand. White smoke denotes water which is never a good thing (unless it is just the condensation). Are you using any water?

 

[haydar]

The funny thing I don't think I'm losing any water or oil. Having said this, I did replace the water pump recently, but I can't see how that could be causing any problems?

 

[carabind]

If its running irregularly till warm, with smoke till then , then the smoke may well be unburnt fuel. Withoutgassing yourself, does the smoke smell ? You should be able to tell if its diesel or oil. What's the mileage so far? Air/Fuel filters chnaged recently??
Poor fuel will also not help (ie lower cetane (?) doesn't burn as well)

 

[haydar]

Yes the smoke did smell. The mileage of the car is around 100k miles. Car has been serviced very regularly and since I've had it, it's been serviced every 5k kilometers. Fuel quality is very poor I fear. Strangely it hasn't pushed out so much smoke in the last few days, hardly noticeable, but the irregular idling is still there, though less than before.

 

[carabind]

apart from the filte chnage, worth a try with one of the additives that clears out the fuel system - you can get them for diesel

 

[television]

Taking off the cats may have upset the Lambda,this little device in the exhaust manifolds adjust the fuel / air ratio. the car may need re programining to compensate.

Malcolm

 

[haydar]

Right here is an update. Took the car to MB Pakistan and it looks like it's the turbo that's causing the problem. Everything on the car has been checked out to be clean, but when they opened up the turbo they found oil in it. In their words is a minor leak but it looks like I'm going to need a new turbo. Is this a common problem for this car?

Television, I asked about the lambda sensor but the MB guys told me it sits before the CAT so it should not affect the running of the car. Also, appart from the rough idling in the morning for about 5 minutes, the car's performance and ecconomy after removing the CAT is much improved.

 

[IAN MAC]

You say they ' opened up the turbo ', now that would surprise me. What would seem more likely is they found oil in the hosework to the intercooler, which is a common thing to find. Something that you'll find spoken about in here somewhere, not that you'll get a definitive answer as how it gets there, just a few opinions.

 

[haydar]

Ok, now you've got me worried? Do you have any idea how you can tell if the Turbo has a problem or not with an oil leak? Don't want to go spending large amounts of money for nothing!