I drove back to my parents yesterday and apart from one limp-home mode happening the car was it normal self.

Just now I started the car with vag-com attached and started logging channerls 11, 10 and 8 (iirc). Reserved back on the road (after waiting 20 seconds for a gap in the traffic), and pulled off. 1st, 2nd - bit of a stutter, into 3rd, all power gone and smoke pouring out of the exhaust. Not really sure on the colour, not totally white, and not really sooty black either. Stopped in the road, and car sounded really rough, with virtually no power. Pulled into a field gateway a few yards up the road and turned it off.

Turned it back on, and still no good. Turned off and waited a minute and tried again. Still really chuggy (as if on 3 cylinder) and still loads of smoke billowing everywhere (brother says the smoke was more white ish). Pulled off in 1st and if the I kept the revs up it moved, but really badly. Dumped the car in the next gateway and walked home. Will go and tow it home after lunch.

Any ideas? If it was black smoke I would wonder if the turbo seals had failed. White and head gasket maybe? I have noticed that for the last 6 months or so that sometimes when the car starts there is a good puff of whitish smoke out of the back. Coolant levels don't seem to drop though.

Have I broken my car?

Cheers,

Matt

Edited 12 April, 200917 yr by mbames

Well, just walked back up the road to the car, and checked it for fault codes - nothing logged at all!

However it started on the turn of the key and not a puff of smoke anywhere, although it did smell a bit diesely. Pulled off and she was a good as gold - even the turbo was working - felt a bit more lively than than when I set off this morning.

A quick search on here shows this is not the first time it has happened before, such as http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/loss-power-v-strange/105746/

Strange one this.Doesn,t white smoke mean over fuelling? maybe it could be pump timing or cambelt has jumped 1 or 2 teeth?

Hope its something simple.Good luck:thumbup:

Seeing as my post was quoted, I shall add to this.

I had this about 4 or 5 times during about 3 months. I then got my car serviced, and asked the guy to scan for fault codes, but nothing showed up.

Since then, I have not had the problem re-occur, even though I am due to have it serviced again later this month.

Must admit, when it was happening, it was most worrying, as I was never sure if the car was going to take off or not if I buried the accelerator, which is not good when pulling out into traffic.

Mine made it to work fine this morning, and also did not show any fault codes at the time. I wasn't particularly booting the car when it "failed". I was a bit more nervous about overtaking a few things this morning on the way to work, but it made it here.

When yours "dies" do you just pull over, turn the engine off and wait 10 minutes, and then turn the key to find all is well? I let mine idle when it first happened, but it was really rough and blowing whitish smoke everywhere so I turned it off. I guess my next service is due in about 5-6k as I am on variable.

Are the injectors mechanical, or electrical - faulty injector dribbling in fuel?

Stuck injector? how many miles has the car done?

Car is on 147k at the moment.

Maybe a silly question, but I am not really versed with how injectors work.... so not really sure how can one become stuck?

Fuel injectors are a precision made item and can be damaged by even the smallest particle. Life is said to be typically 60k miles but the last ones I changed had done 128k on a diesel.

Here is link to the wikipedia picture that shows how they work:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Injector3.gif

With your mileage it is worth getting them checked out.

How does one go about getting them checked out? Can they be taken apart and checked, or is it a case of just replacing them? Maybe time to replace the fuel filter....

What sort of cost might I be looking at for a set of new injectors? I see your Wiltshire based - I am at MOD Boscombe Down currently.

Thanks for the picture.... makes sense.

In answer to your question the first couple of times, I let it idle, and it was rough as a bears proverbial.

The remaining times I just switched it off, left it a couple of mins, and restarted fine.

Also, as fate would have it - Yesterday, I got the feeling it was going to do it again, I had slowed down for some traffic lights from about 30 to below 10, and as they changed went to accelerate, which it did.

Changed into second, and felt a slight judder for a couple of seconds, with clouds of grey smoke. Cleared itself though without having to do anything more, but was already looking for a place to pull in and leave it for a couple of mins.

Been alright since.

Also, as fate would have it - Yesterday, I got the feeling it was going to do it again, I had slowed down for some traffic lights from about 30 to below 10, and as they changed went to accelerate, which it did.

Changed into second, and felt a slight judder for a couple of seconds, with clouds of grey smoke. Cleared itself though without having to do anything more, but was already looking for a place to pull in and leave it for a couple of mins.

Been alright since.

Opps... feel guilty for asking! When did you last change your fuel filter? Mine was a good 60+k ago.

My snag is on my normal trips to/from work places to pull in are few and far between (twisty backroads, so I might get a unwelcome smack up the **** while I wait for the car to "cure" itself).

Hey - Don't feel guilty, just one of those things. Anyway, I'm not the vindictive type particularly not to a fellow briskodaian!!! :-)

The fuel filter was changed at the last service I seem to think, so about 10k ago or August/September last year.

Anyway, it's going in for another service and MOT in the next week or so, and I will mention it to the guy who looks after it for me (independent VAG specialist!)

I have only done a few hundred miles since last weekend and so far there has been no repeat (yet!). I did manage to log some "warm" engine figures from vagcom, I'll try and get some cold figures tomorrow - just need to figure out how to get Excel draw the graphs I want!

Would be interesting to see what your vag bloke says.... seems we are in the minority!