2009 1.6 75HDI Smoke on starup

[Evilsamo]

My 56 plate 1.6hdi was producing white diesel smelling smoke on startup, and darker smoke on hard acceleration, ok the mileage is about half yours, but injector cleaner has cured it. It's also relatively cheap so is a good place to start.

[Bodgit-Fixit-Run]

I have the same problem so thanks for the information in this thread. really helpful. I really need to get the injectors out. can the be home reconned. ie can you get new seals and nozzels etc?

[polar]

Try some Millers fuel treatment first.

Injector seals use genuine Citroen - the injectors can be ultrasonically cleaned but its a specialist job - By the way dont get the injectors mixed up if you send them for recon mark them. Apparently it is not bad bad if you mix them up the vehicle will still run but not at optimum.

[dumdum]

Don't want to sound like the grandma egg sucky thing, but I'm aiming this at the least techy people on here who may not know. So please don't take offence if you do know this.

OK. When trying to identify diesel problems using smoke, it's a good idea to know what the smoke indicates.
Diesels rely on compression to raise the cylinder temp high enough so when diesel is injected into the cylinder, it will spontainiously ignite as the air temp will be above diesels flash point.
It also follows that the diesel has to be injected as a fine mist so that it fully mixes with the oxygen content of the air and completely burns all of the fuel injected.



Blueish smoke is oil being burned- Could be worn valve stem seals or worn rings or bores

Black smoke is incomplete combustion- Usually not enough air, or too much fuel, or fuel not atomising properly. Can be caused by blocked air filter, faulty injector (hosing)  or full throttle in loaded vehicle uphill where more fuel  is being supplied than can be burnt  (Mainly old mechanical systems suffer)

White smoke is unburnt diesel- Fuel is being injected but not burnt and goes out the exhaust in the form of a white, dieselly smelling vapour. Can be caused by low compression which will not give enough cylinder temp to ignite fuel, fauly glow plugs on older indirect engines, or faulty injectors not atomising the the fuel properly (hosing)

As I said earlier, it is probably an injector issue, but as you have to take them out to test them anyway, it makes sense to me to put a compression tester in and make sure all is OK. It only takes a few minutes to do and eliminates any compression related problems.

[Image: injector.jpg]

White smoke is generally water in combustion chamber, comes out as steam, looks like white smoke...

Unburnt fuel is a direct result of incomplete combustion so they both tend to result in black smoke

[Col]

Don't want to sound like the grandma egg sucky thing, but I'm aiming this at the least techy people on here who may not know. So please don't take offence if you do know this.

OK. When trying to identify diesel problems using smoke, it's a good idea to know what the smoke indicates.
Diesels rely on compression to raise the cylinder temp high enough so when diesel is injected into the cylinder, it will spontainiously ignite as the air temp will be above diesels flash point.
It also follows that the diesel has to be injected as a fine mist so that it fully mixes with the oxygen content of the air and completely burns all of the fuel injected.



Blueish smoke is oil being burned- Could be worn valve stem seals or worn rings or bores

Black smoke is incomplete combustion- Usually not enough air, or too much fuel, or fuel not atomising properly. Can be caused by blocked air filter, faulty injector (hosing)  or full throttle in loaded vehicle uphill where more fuel  is being supplied than can be burnt  (Mainly old mechanical systems suffer)

White smoke is unburnt diesel- Fuel is being injected but not burnt and goes out the exhaust in the form of a white, dieselly smelling vapour. Can be caused by low compression which will not give enough cylinder temp to ignite fuel, fauly glow plugs on older indirect engines, or faulty injectors not atomising the the fuel properly (hosing)

As I said earlier, it is probably an injector issue, but as you have to take them out to test them anyway, it makes sense to me to put a compression tester in and make sure all is OK. It only takes a few minutes to do and eliminates any compression related problems.

[Image: injector.jpg]

White smoke is generally water in combustion chamber, comes out as steam, looks like white smoke...

Unburnt fuel is a direct result of incomplete combustion so they both tend to result in black smoke

I did say smoke and not steam or water vapour
" white, dieselly smelling vapour"
Steam is a completely different thing and is easy to tell the difference. Steam will disperse quickly and doesn't really smell, smoke lingers and has a strong dieselly smell. I also gave the the difference between unburnt (White smoke) where no combustion has happened and incomplete combustion (Black smoke) where fuel hasn't fully combusted and has left sooty particle in the smoke.

[dumdum]

Don't want to sound like the grandma egg sucky thing, but I'm aiming this at the least techy people on here who may not know. So please don't take offence if you do know this.

OK. When trying to identify diesel problems using smoke, it's a good idea to know what the smoke indicates.
Diesels rely on compression to raise the cylinder temp high enough so when diesel is injected into the cylinder, it will spontainiously ignite as the air temp will be above diesels flash point.
It also follows that the diesel has to be injected as a fine mist so that it fully mixes with the oxygen content of the air and completely burns all of the fuel injected.



Blueish smoke is oil being burned- Could be worn valve stem seals or worn rings or bores

Black smoke is incomplete combustion- Usually not enough air, or too much fuel, or fuel not atomising properly. Can be caused by blocked air filter, faulty injector (hosing)  or full throttle in loaded vehicle uphill where more fuel  is being supplied than can be burnt  (Mainly old mechanical systems suffer)

White smoke is unburnt diesel- Fuel is being injected but not burnt and goes out the exhaust in the form of a white, dieselly smelling vapour. Can be caused by low compression which will not give enough cylinder temp to ignite fuel, fauly glow plugs on older indirect engines, or faulty injectors not atomising the the fuel properly (hosing)

As I said earlier, it is probably an injector issue, but as you have to take them out to test them anyway, it makes sense to me to put a compression tester in and make sure all is OK. It only takes a few minutes to do and eliminates any compression related problems.

[Image: injector.jpg]

White smoke is generally water in combustion chamber, comes out as steam, looks like white smoke...

Unburnt fuel is a direct result of incomplete combustion so they both tend to result in black smoke

I did say smoke and not steam or water vapour
" white, dieselly smelling vapour"
Steam is a completely different thing and is easy to tell the difference. Steam will disperse quickly and doesn't really smell, smoke lingers and has a strong dieselly smell. I also gave the the difference between unburnt (White smoke) where no combustion has happened and incomplete combustion (Black smoke) where fuel hasn't fully combusted and has left sooty particle in the smoke.

We shall agree to disagree, Unburnt fuel is grey and as you say thick and heavy like a smog, the general public may not have such an easy time distinguishing between the two as someone who's experienced it before

[jj9]

Always check the operation of the glow plugs / relay first before going any further.

Many people say glow plugs are not needed on the modern HDI engines but they are wrong, they are needed and the engine may put out smoke when started from cold if the glow plugs are not working.