This might seem a bit of a silly question,but after many petrol cars I'm now on my first diesel. I notice (especially with the dark nights) a fair amount of white diesel smoke/haze on pulling away and when pulling from low revs.
How much smoke should I expect from a diesel? I assume that black smoke is a fueling problem etc but I'm not sure about any other colours!
The car is an 02 Focus TDDI.
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Snakey - a diesel, if accelerated hard after a period of gentle driving, will spew out a fair amount of collected soot for a few seconds. You will find that petrolheads will use this as a general criticism of dirty diesels whilst conveniently ignoring the invisible but equally unpleasant and noxious sulphurous fumes that their cars' catalysed exhausts emit under load or hard acceleration.
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Slither down to a good Motor Factor Snakey and purchase a bottle of Millers Diesel Power Plus (6 to 7 notes) and use when you fill up.
Snake oil it isn't (hisssss) and I have been using since HJ recommended a few years ago. In addition to getting rid of the smoke you will find the engine runs smoother and pump gets lubricated.
Also a self induced Italian tune up now and again will do the tub some good if you are brave enough. (Cue Forum search - Italian tune up).
DVD
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Snakey, the Focus TDDi engine is quite smokey even by diesel standards. I have an 02 plate one as a company car. It does 40k a year, nearly all long motorway blasts, and gets driven pretty hard, yet you can still see the haze in following headlights when you open it up. We have a fleet of about 100 of them and they're all the same.
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Thanks for that, I feel a little better knowing its a 'feature' of my particuar car!
Might try a can of that snake oil next service time!
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I think it just shows up worse at night, I can't see smoke in my mirrors in the day, but at night, if I accelerate as fast as possible and look in my mirror, there is a foggy haze that the following headlights shine through. However, they probably don't see it as bad as me as I seldom see it when following other diesels, and mine isn't very smokey at all.
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Snakey,
I have a 04 registered TDDi Mondeo (90ps) which I believe isn't available in the UK. It's german made and I don't reside in the UK.
It is an 02 model I believe. It's barely 7 months old and I can see the smoke trailing behind when I start from rest at a traffic light by looking at my left side mirror as the exhaust pipe is located on the left side of the car. Mine's right hand driving just as yours. It's done almost 18,000km on the clock and regularly serviced at every 5,000km (or even less!). Some said it could be the Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve (EGR) and I was told it is a common fault in the TDCi models. I had a Toyota Corolla Diesel before and it barely showed signs of black soot even when revved VERY hard (and I mean really pushing to its limit). My mondeo shows black smoke easily and I've seen other TDDi focus and mondeos doing the same too.
What engine oil do you use? Do you use one for Diesel engines? I use Fully synthetic 5W-50 (doesn't say for diesel).
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It can be said that every diesel engine will leave a haze that is visible in the car behinds headlights if you look back. It varies in density.
Its an educational thing to watch. Put your foot down and rev to near the limit and the cloud appears, do it again and the cloud appears - but less dense. Do that a few times and the haze is barely perceptible.
10 minutes idling or 1/2 of gentle driving and the whole thing can be repeated.
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I do get a fair bit of hazy white smoke under hard acceleration,but also a bit on accelerating in 5th from low speeds (i.e Motorway driving).
It is much more noticeable in the dark as I've only really noticed it in the recent months.
I use semi-synthetic diesel oil (last change done by a local garage so not sure of the make but I think it was Castrol) and I use a wide variety of fuels, from Jet/Esso to Tesco!. Its and 02 plate and has about 50k on it of nearly all motorway driving.
Maybe its my petrolhead worrying over nothing!
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Would not worry too much about haze picked up in following headlights - they will pick out pretty much anything.
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I noticed my 04 130 TDCi (8k at time of purchase) produced a small cloud of black smoke when pulling away at low revs, but a software upgrade cured it completely.
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Millers diesel plus.......you can't beat it.There are other inferior additives,but stick with the aforementioned.
Ken.
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No Mondeos are made in Germany;they are all made in Belgium(Genk).
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