White smoke from exhaust

[steelhead19]

When I left work yesterday My Passat was hard to start (took about 8 seconds of cranking). I read some thing that suggested cleaning the EGR valve (not sure if that was the right choice or not) So I did just that and it was pretty caked up with carbon. I cleaned it up then re-installed it. That was the only thing I took off. When I started it afterwards I got some white smoke out of the exhaust which was not a condition I had previous to this. Is it normal for it to do this at first? Along with that I still had my hard start issue. When I got it started I let it warm up and tried again with the same hard start issue. Once it starts if I shut it off and then almost immediately restart it starts right up. Any suggestions?

2005 Passat 2.0L TDI

Thanks a lot


Thank you all after running a while the white smoke is gone.

[RichardSEL]

Not a diesel head here, but mebe worthwhile getting a VCDS Autoscan to see what's being reported as a fault? If you don't know of anyone local here's a locator. It'll produce a small text file. Post here? What engine code do you have? It's three letters starting with a B

U.K:
VAG-COM Diagnostic Service Locator


N. American:
http://www.maptive.com/ver3/VCDS_Locator

[DMitch16]

Hard starting could be a few things. How's the battery? Is it recent or stock original as the originals can last 8 to 10 years before giving up (my stock original I replaced last year is still in my garage, still holds charge and is still used for other less vigorous things than starting a car!). Starter motors can get sticky too. Thereafter there is a whole host of electrical and mechanically related issues that could contribute to hard starting. White smoke at start up in colder climates is normally ok and should go once the car and exhaust is up to running temperatures. If there is still continued white smoke when the car is hot and has been running for a while then there is definitely a bigger issue especially if after a decent journey the inside of the tail pipes are moist not dry. Coolant loss at the same time will confirm some sort of leak internally, head gasket, head itself (cracks are possible - some early Passat PD engines had a batch of "porous" heads due to a problem with the alloy mixing and casting process). A lot of major internal coolant leaks sometimes knock out the first Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) sensor after the turbo as the post combustion area is effectively being steam cleaned and EGT sensors do not like moisture! Not all doom and gloom though as sometimes it's a smaller issue, easy and cheaper to fix.

Start with a VCDS scan to see if there are any fault codes stored that might give you (and us) a clue as to where to look.

[Quatrelle]

When were the glowplugs last changed?