Smokey 57 Passat 1.9TDi

[whitehall1212]

Can anyone help?

Recently bought secondhand 57 Passat 1.9TDi. All seemed fine except recently starting in cold morning feels very rough and kicks out lots of smoke. After a couple of mins is fine and runs well all other times with normal smoke. Garage is a bit stumped and says there is no diagnostic issues. Has put additives in the oil and has changed some kind of switch but to no avail. Any ideas????

Thanks

[martin1810]

What colour is the smoke. Black or white. Too much white smoke usually means faulty glow plugs.

[Quatrelle]

Try waiting 5 seconds after the glow plug light goes out and see if it smokes.

What sort of mileage has it done?

[jammydodger]

if its smokey and seems like its misfiring and only does it in the morning or after several hours of not being used it could be air in the fuel lines. have had this before on a peugeot 306 dturbo and a mondeo td the non return valve in the fuel line was at fault both times. the ford garage put in a clear fuel line under the bonnet so you could tell when the fuel had run back into the tank. they just fitted a non return valve into the fuel line which cured the fault.
the peugeot was a faulty seal at the fuel tank end.

[Spudrig]

Mine doesn't smoke at all when its cold. There is just a slight smell of diesel in the garage when I start it up in the morning, but thats about it, theres no visible evidence of smoke

[whitehall1212]

What colour is the smoke. Black or white. Too much white smoke usually means faulty glow plugs.

Thanks for replies guys. For info the smoke is worryingly blue/white. Car mileage is 25k so not much really.

[Spudrig]

Whitehall, you could also try Millers Diesel Power Sport 4 to clean out the fuel system. I've been using it for over a year and there has been a decrease in the black smoke. You can get if from Halfords. But as yours is blue/white it may be more serious. Take it to another dealer or even an independent VW/diesel specialist for a second opinion.

[martin1810]

Whitehall. What's the oil level doing. A hint of blue in the smoke is only a problem if the oil level is dropping dramatically. The blue being oil. Can you leave the car with your garage over night so they experience a cold start. It might be worth running some fuel cleaner through it as Spudrig says, in case one of the injectors is letting in too much fuel on start up.

[Quatrelle]

..... in case one of the injectors is letting in too much fuel on start up.

Yep, my guess is its unburnt fuel.