tdi 90 struggles to start when cold and lots of white smoke

[gusty66]

hi could anyone point me in the right direction on how to solve my starting problem with my oct 1.9 tdi (ALH) ,

when starting the car when cold after the plug light goes out i hold the key for about 6-10sec on starter on foot on pedle then it fires over with an large amount or white smoke. but as soon as it has started the smoke clears straight away.

also once it has started then all day long with lots of engine off and ons its starts on the key first time.:confused:

cheers

[AwesomeSarah]

HI

Have you had the fuel filter changed recently????

Sarah

[gusty66]

yes the fuel filter and oil filter cave been changed also new 3rd piston and turbo cleaned new oil and coolent about 3000 miles ago

[fordfan]

Glow plugs, coolant temperature sensor and given that work has ben carried out on the engine, fuel pump timing.

[gusty66]

hi all i have also had the cambelt changed and glow plugs replaced, and today i have had the fuel pump timming checked.

i will by a coolent temp sensor and see if it solves the problem

[fordfan]

To be accurate the timing needs to be checked with the dealer VAS tool or VCDS. VCDS will give a graph showing the maximum, minimum and optimum settings and it only takes a very small movement of the pump pulley to take it out of specification.

[Railroad]

White smoke on startup will either be due to coolant in a cylinder or fuel passing through the exhaust unburned. Are you losing coolant at all? Do you have a misfire on startup as well as white smoke? A diesel engine is a compression ignition engine and has no ignition system as such. A loss of compression could be the problem, or retarded pump timing as has already been said.....

[Fat Boy Slim]

Why did you have 1 piston changed????

[gusty66]

the 3rd piston was changed due to the rings went oil everywhere hence all the cleaning and i still have not yet getting around to check the cat, and i did loose water after rebuild for 500 miles only about 500ml in total but there was no coolent in the system at the time. since then it has been flushed and drained and coolent/ water put in and no water loss since.

the cambelt was changed by a vag mechanic with all the correct vag setting tools but it was not hooked up to a computer

[Taxi 219]

Sounds like the Temp sensor.Good luck hope works out ok

[Gunswick]

i have this problem too:

http://briskoda.net/octavia-i/white-smoke-difficulty-starting-cold/149090/

exactly the same problem as the OP. its ONLY when cold (i.e. car not run for 5 hours). If you stop the car even 20 seconds after the first smokey startup, it then starts instantly with no problem.

not sure if that helps narrow the issue.

[gusty66]

hi

replaced the temp coolent sensor yesterday (CTS) , tryed so start it this morning and it has made no diffrence.

[rwbaldwin]

How many miles does this car have on it?

How many seconds does it take start when cold?

Have the injectors ever been serviced?

What is the fuel economy like?

I suspect you might have bad/leaky injector.

[gusty66]

hi its done 207000 miles and it takes inbetween 5 -10s to start , dont know about fuel injectors service and the mpg is very good , the car has just gone to cornwall and back in one weekend 500 miles one one tank £50 (i love that ).

[Gunswick]

mine has only done 112,000 miles though!

i drained the fuel filter (no water really) and obviously there is no difference.

I get 55mpg on a run, its just cold starts that are rough, once running the car is fine (or on hot starts its fine too).

i suspect a sticky egr valve at startup, causing a lack of air in the engine, leading to unburnt fuel and white smoke.

my EGR had gummed up to the point that the car would not start in May, but the AA chap removed and cleaned it "choke & carb cleaner". At 200,000+ miles it probably looks like a dog's dinner! Either clean it and the pipes coming to and from and the intake manifold just after it. A garage should charge about 2 hours labour tops.

or the glowplugs are not receiving power, either a faulty relay or something...

it taked my car 3-5 seconds to start. it sounds almost like its firing up one cylinder at a time.

or the injection pump timing could be out.

another option is that the battery is knackered, meaning that the car does not start with its full force and splutters into life, even though there is enough power to listen to the radio etc with the engine off. check the battery voltage...

[gusty66]

today i tryed to start it diffrentley, instead of holding of starting untill the glow plug light goes out and giving it extra 20s before starting from cold. i got in and turned the key straight away and it fired over in 5sec which was better, this weekend i will clean the erg valve and see what diffrency that makes.

[copycat999]

dont know if any help to you but m8 got same problem with a rover 200 tdi and found the fault to be fuel pump solinoid (not good at spelling) was jammed open so fuel flows back to fuel tank thats why it takes so long to start

That was a year ago car still does same every day for the firtst start then its fine

[cheezemonkhai]

Worth checking you've not got an air leak on the fuel lines which lets the fuel drain back to the tank when the car has been standing.

[KenONeill]

Also worth checking what revs you have when on the starter; it wants to be spinning above 250rpm for an easy start.

[greg123]

If the engine is healthy I can almost guarantee it will be injection pump static timing (presuming fuel system and engine in good mechanical health).

Can you get this checked please and report back on what the timing is, it should be about 70/110 or somewhere between the mid and upper lines on VCDS tditiming graph.

Re the fact it's using water and only had one set of rings changed... quite possible the engine is in poor shape. A compression check on all 4 cylinders when cold is needed, please post figures.

The comments on fuel filter, glow plugs and starter rpm I do not think are relevent due to a) blocked fuel filter restricts on high draw, eg high rpm and load and poses neglegible restriction at cranking speed this engine in good health doesn't even use glow plugs above 9c, which it is, also it will start down to 0c fine without glow plugs c) the 250rpm issue is for hot start. Cold start I have had them start up fine down to around 100rpm (if compression is good).

White smoke upon startup that smells of diesel is generally retarded timing, which co-incidentally makes them a dog to start, but very quiet when running (not naily, a correctly timed diesel tdi sounds a touch 'crisp' or bording on starting to sound crackly/naily when the throttle is blipped).

HTH IMHO ETC

Greg.

[gusty66]

could anyone give me advice on how to test the glow plugs on my car because i started the car today without the glow plug lead conected and it started just the same. i now i think this could be the problem , the glow plugs in the car are new but i dont think there is any power to them.

[KenONeill]

Presuming (from your car details) this is an Octy or Furbie, that's perfectly normal; the glow plugs are only energised below 5C IIRC.

[gusty66]

hi

does anyone knows where i can get my timming checked on a VCDS i live in berkshire and dont like spending money at garages

i really need to get this sorted

[KenONeill]

Look at the site map in the VCDS/VAGCom forum.

[allytech]

It deffo sounds like the static pump timing is out, if you cant find anyone local give us a call and we ll run it through the pump setup procedure:thumbup: