2007 A4 TDi - Black Smoke

[lukewells]

Hi,

At the office here we have several Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda and Seat cars.

They are all TDi with mileages ranging from 1K-90K.

None of them smoke, except for the 2007 Audi A4 TDi (7k miles)

The car has smoked from new, and went into the local dealer with around 3k miles on it.

The dealer said there was no fault, despite our protests that none of the other VW/Audi cars we have smoke, even the one with 90K


I placed a complaint with Audi UK and the dealer has now had the car back in again to check it.

The dealer has aparently checked the ECU, performed a smoke test and checked the air system and there is nothing wrong with the car.

When asked why the car smokes then if there is nothing wrong with it, the technician said it was normal for diesels to smoke.


Now let me explain what I mean by "It is smoking"

When you start the car from hot or cold it chugs out a black cloud.

If the car is idle (hot or cold) and you rev it gently (1.5k rpm) you get a big puff of black smoke every time.

Now the worst bit is, when I was following the car the other day, every time the driver set off from a junction, it chucked out a black smokescreen for 3-4 seconds, it was smoking more like a 30 year old tractor running on 3 cylinder than a 2007 Audi.

According to the driver, when acceleraing onto a motorway/A road, he says he can see the trail of smoke it is leaving in the rear view mirror.

The driver does high mileages of mainly motorway driving, and I know he looks after his car as the last one he returned had 100K on the clock and was immaculate and drove like new with NO SMOKE.


So what do I do? Aparently the car is fine, but I just know that its going to have problems later in life if its smoking now (It will have done over 100K by the time it is due for replacement)

Is it normal for an Audi to smoke like an old tractor like Audi say it is?
VW don't think that their TDi's should smoke like this (and they don't)

Kind of makes you wonder what is the point in paying a premium for an Audi over a VW for an inferior product.

Thanks in advance for your comments

Luke

[nickynibbles]

No its not normal, you can do a search on this site for smoking diesels and you'll get a selection of threads on this. Its often related to some small problem thats straight forward to put right. If your dealer is saying there's nothing wrong he's talking rubbish! Take it to another dealer, its under warranty after all so not going to cost you no matter how many times its looked at!!

[paul b]

Depends how smokey it is. If it is seriously smokey, could be the MAF. But it could be down to newness as it is 2007. May go away after a bit.
Paul