Perfect startup/tick over, then on the road short period of white steamy smoke, help?

ambulancekidd

ambulancekidd

Funster
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Ayrshire Scotland
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Swift Kon-Tiki 640
Exp
Since 1964 Gosh that makes me feel old.
Ok here goes, the base vehicle is a 1995 Peugeot Boxer Swift Kon-Tiki, 2.5TD with 55k on the clock.

Had our elderly moho out last friday, hadn't been used for a couple of weeks.
Started instantly, tick over was perfect too.

Got her out onto the road to set off & had sudden plumes of white steamy smoke with a loss of power.
This steam evaporated very quickly in the air so my thoughts are that it was steam rather than unburnt diesel.
My first thoughts were head gasket, checked the oil & water, all was well.
I then checked to see if water had got into the (new) air cleaner & it was bone dry.
She started up instantly but, was still showing steam in the exhaust & a bit spluttery, brought her back to the house & investigated further but, could find nothing wrong.
Reversing out of our drive which sadly is easiest means reversing steeply downhill, then levelling out as she gets to the road.
The weather in her layup time had been torrential rain for quite a few days.

So started her up & the steam was gone, running normally, took her for a short run to make sure & she ran perfectly!
Set off & she drove totally normally.

Now the only thing which was different to normal is that when she was parked up, she'd been tilted over to the drivers side & slightly bum down.
Is there any known way for water to enter the inlet side of these engines on these particular vehicles?

I did have a similar problem on our old Peugeot Boxer Autosleeper on MOT day off all days, this cleared very quickly too & it never happened again.

TIA....Robert.
 
Could be some condensation in the first expansion box which has caused the initial steam on start up where the water had accumulated to one side of the exhaust box and as you levelled out hit the hot part of the box and hence the steam.
More so if its not happened since
 
Me thinks Jumbohorlicks is right. If it had continued with white smoke and lack of power I would have said turbo problem. Try parking it the same way again to prove this.
 
moisture in exhaust.
I used to have a motorbike that smoked out of one exhaust because they way it leaned on the side stand.

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If it's the same as mine the water run off along the bottom of the windscreen only has a grill on the passenger side, not the drivers side, so water can collect if drivers side down and can spill all over battery, but then the air filter housing (if same as mine) is right over on the passenger side?
I did once have an older car that had same symptom and turned out to be leaking windscreen washer pipework - whenever you squirted window it also jetted straight at the air filter housing where pipe as splitting.
 
Landy Andy said:
Water in exhaust or water in fuel. Failed turbo would either be blue smoke for failed oil seals, or black for failed/faulty intercooler supply.
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Hi Andy, thank you for the reply.
I had a turbo go on my last 300tdi & its something which I shall not forget in a hurry lol.

I wondered about water in the exhaust but, for the life of me I can't see how it'd get in there & it was the accompanying misfire which makes me thing its water in the inlet side of the air intake.
 
Vipar said:
Me thinks Jumbohorlicks is right. If it had continued with white smoke and lack of power I would have said turbo problem. Try parking it the same way again to prove this.
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Hi Vipar,
Thanks, I've got it parked the same way right now but, there isn't any rain to speak of.
 
Jev88 said:
If it's the same as mine the water run off along the bottom of the windscreen only has a grill on the passenger side, not the drivers side, so water can collect if drivers side down and can spill all over battery, but then the air filter housing (if same as mine) is right over on the passenger side?
I did once have an older car that had same symptom and turned out to be leaking windscreen washer pipework - whenever you squirted window it also jetted straight at the air filter housing where pipe as splitting.
Click to expand...
Hi Jev,

Thanks for this advice, funnily enough the windscreen washers stopped working at same time, I've not had a chance to investigate yet. The air cleaner & the housing is bone dry.
I'll keep you and the rest of the forum updated when I find out what has caused this issue.
 
Had a similar thing happen to me on a brand new Freelander back in 2010 ( I had done less than 750 Miles and only had it 3 weeks), it was a blown EGR Valve according to our workshops but as it was a company car I just dumped it at Workshops and picked up the spare whilst they got it fixed.

When it went it was impressive it looked like I had my own personal Fog following me.

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Gerby said:
Had a similar thing happen to me on a brand new Freelander back in 2010 ( I had done less than 750 Miles and only had it 3 weeks), it was a blown EGR Valve according to our workshops but as it was a company car I just dumped it at Workshops and picked up the spare whilst they got it fixed.

When it went it was impressive it looked like I had my own personal Fog following me.
Click to expand...

Just looked and the 1995 boxer engine had an EGR valve though I am no engineer and I am sure our more qualified members may have a much better in sight into this but the description sounds pretty much like what happened to me and after stopping and contacting our workshops back then, I was able to restart the vehicle and drive it normally the 15 mile trip to workshops and when it was returned they told me it was a blown EGR valve (apparently it some emissions reduction thingy which shows my level of knowledge on newer(ish) engines)..
 
Landy Andy said:
When did it last have a fuel filter change?
Click to expand...


It was given an oil & filter change, air filter & diesel filter in April this year.
I've yet to check for a water trap on this diesel filter & I'll let you know what I find mate.
 
Good luck Robert hope its something simple, tell Mrsambulancekidd its cos you are not getting out enough and using it, I am sure its written somewhere in the Swift owners handbook that it needs to be used frequently.:unsure:
Please tell us we will not have to come all the way up there and sort this problem out.
Best wishes
Les & TinaL
 
ambulancekidd said:
It was given an oil & filter change, air filter & diesel filter in April this year.
I've yet to check for a water trap on this diesel filter & I'll let you know what I find mate.
Click to expand...
If you are lucky and have the obviously metal cannister type - white screw cap at base of filter (easier to see if you move the air filter box out of the way) - gently unscrew and any water (under diesel) will flow out of the same cap that has a small protrusion sticking downwards. When it runs yellow you are wasting diesel :) . Be gentle with the plastic cap as they can easily crack if you then tighten it too strongly (Thanks Mr Breakdown guy for showing how easy that was!)

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TinaL said:
Good luck Robert hope its something simple, tell Mrsambulancekidd its cos you are not getting out enough and using it, I am sure its written somewhere in the Swift owners handbook that it needs to be used frequently.:unsure:
Please tell us we will not have to come all the way up there and sort this problem out.
Best wishes
Les & TinaL
Click to expand...

Me thinks your quite correct Les & I'm giving Hazel these instructions as we speak.
I of course agree with you completely.
The weather is beautiful this week so I intend to drag the moho from her slumber, possibly tonight or tomorrow.

I shall manage to fix this mechanical blip, possibly wiv a big hammer & if that doesn't work, it'll be time for a bigger hammer lol.

Give our love to Tina, catch up soon mate...Robert & Hazel.
 
hi had a fiat van spare used once in a while suddenly clouds of white smoke loss of power EGR slowly clogged up mechanic changed ran normal said the van should be given a good hard run weekly to stop build up just a thought......................Ian
 
boxerdog said:
hi had a fiat van spare used once in a while suddenly clouds of white smoke loss of power EGR slowly clogged up mechanic changed ran normal said the van should be given a good hard run weekly to stop build up just a thought......................Ian
Click to expand...


She rarely gets a motorway run just now however she does have to work very hard in The Galloway hills & that's where she's spending most of her time for now.

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PhilandMena said:
I'm not a mechanic but is this not the same error you would get when a head gasket goes ?
Click to expand...

Yes pretty much mate but, a head gasket which has gone to the degree where steam is coming from the exhaust doesn't usually clear itself, normally just gets worse.
It was my first thought though.
 
Hi I have a 2.3t and if it has stood for more than a month in damp weather it does exactly the same, it is moisture in the inlet and exhaust system, soon clears. If we use the van every couple of weeks it never does it.
 
Hi AmbulanceKidd - I realise this is a while ago, but did you ever get to the bottom of this?
I’ve got a Fiat 2.8 idTD and it’s doing the same. It seems to start fine with the flame start, then on driving away it sends pretty steady white exhaust out for first 5 mins or so. She seems to be running fine, no misfire and no signs of head gasket trouble. Pulls well once warmed up and all good.
I’m not convinced it’s just accumulated “damp” as there is too much of it for too long and I’m wondering if an injector is not quite right or perhaps the cold start mech on the Bosch VE pump is involved?
Thanks in advance for any follow up or tips.
 
Agree with Jimbohorlicks .

We had the same symptom on early motorhomes that we owned.

Water vapour emitted until the engine warmed up a bit then fine.

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ChrisAndEmma said:
Hi AmbulanceKidd - I realise this is a while ago, but did you ever get to the bottom of this?
I’ve got a Fiat 2.8 idTD and it’s doing the same. It seems to start fine with the flame start, then on driving away it sends pretty steady white exhaust out for first 5 mins or so. She seems to be running fine, no misfire and no signs of head gasket trouble. Pulls well once warmed up and all good.
I’m not convinced it’s just accumulated “damp” as there is too much of it for too long and I’m wondering if an injector is not quite right or perhaps the cold start mech on the Bosch VE pump is involved?
Thanks in advance for any follow up or tips.
Click to expand...
Hi, Yes I did get to the bottom of this problem.
These older engines had a cold start device which seizes up, it doesn't affect the start up but its very smokey til it gets up to temp.
Changed that & it was job done. The odd bit is that it passes the MOT with the issue if the vehicle was warmed up before the test which mine always was.

Hope this helps..Robert.
 
ambulancekidd said:
Hi, Yes I did get to the bottom of this problem.
These older engines had a cold start device which seizes up, it doesn't affect the start up but its very smokey til it gets up to temp.
Changed that & it was job done. The odd bit is that it passes the MOT with the issue if the vehicle was warmed up before the test which mine always was.

Hope this helps..Robert.
Click to expand...
Thanks Robert - that’s really helpful. It was on my suspicions list after reading this helpful item:

Ducato Cold Start / Flame Start system explained – Motor-Roam

motor-roam.co.uk motor-roam.co.uk
I’ll test the supply function including wiring and see what I find!
Best wishes, Chris
 
Quick update:

As a first step, I decided to check the flame start operation. On checking, the glow plug was not igniting the diesel dripping into the inlet manifold. I checked the glow plug, powering it with a fused jumper wire and it was not warming up. Checked the resistance of it at tens of mega ohms, so I conclude it has failed. Part looks to be available as a Beru GF006. For the moment, I’ve stripped it all out and then put it back together but leaving the glow plug and its fuel supply solenoid disconnected to disable it.

Van started fine today on a cold (zero ish degC) day and then took it for a decent 30min run. Practically nil white smoke and running really strongly once warmed up. Exhaust pipe also seems less sooty than before. The small amount of white smoke was more consistent with moisture being driven off.

So, at the moment, I’m reassured that there isn’t a bigger problem lurking and that I can drive without doing damage.

Next steps are to properly get to grips with:
i) the wiring side of all things related to the cold start systems and
ii) the wax motor solenoid valve that should, on (temp controlled?) 12v supply, warm up to allow the diesel pump to returned to standard rather than cold advanced timing. This should happen by spring action on the advance lever against the contraction of the melting wax.

Will update further in case anybody else has this problem.

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