Intermittent White Smoke S60 D5 185 Engine

[definethelight]

Hi, This is my first post on a forum - so I apologise in advance if I've made any mistakes. I have searched other threads for an answer to this problem but have become confused and could not find anything specific. I have a 2005 S60 D5 with 148,000 miles on the clock. Always main dealer serviced. With the exception of a few electrical niggles it's generally been a reliable car. A recent repair by my local main dealer was coupled with a free of charge 'software update' something to do with fuel re-generation... Not sure what that's all about - anyway, All was well for a few days, then having travelled for around 20 minutes on the motorway (not fast as the traffic was terrible - probably around 50-60 mph) I noticed a plume of white smoke in the rear view mirror. Initially I thought that the car behind had locked up it's brakes! I pressed on, and then felt a judder, and a strange almost rasping sound that lasted a second. At that point another cloud of white smoke was ejected. I pulled into the services and inspected. The smoke was coming from the exhaust. Not taking any chances I got relayed to the Volvo dealer. They started the car the next day and couldn't replicate the problem. The AA chappy thought that I had either blown a head gasket (but the coolant level was normal) or the EGR valve could be faulty. Volvo said that the diagnostic equipment had not detailed any errors - and all is normal. I had the oil changed - just to be sure and went away thinking it was another niggle. A day later (prob 150 miles later) the same thing happened. I tried to make it to the Volvo garage before the symptoms stopped - but after 10 miles or so (driving gently) I could not make it misbehave. It's so bad that other motorists flash me - an point to the car as they pass - Embarrassing or what! Volvo kept the car for 3 more days, and tested (occasionally) and still claim it's perfectly ok. The car goes to an independent tomorrow - to see if he can shed some light on it. I was wondering if anyone here had experienced anything similar? Could this be DPF? or is that black smoke? Sorry to ramble on - Thanking you in advance, Scott.

[Bernard333]

If its not your head gasket the only thing I can imagine is your turbo is sticking possibly its on the way out . Have had recent experience of a turbo failing completely on a diesel Galaxy , it made large billowing clouds of white smoke at the end even though the engine would still run and restart ok . The turbo impellor had so much play that it was scraping the alloy outer casing and the ends of the blades were worn down . Your mechanic can easily check for play in the turbo shaft by removing the air inlet pipe coming from the air filter to the turbo and waggling the rotor although this may not reveal a turbo with just failed oil seals .

[definethelight]

Thank you Bernard3333. I'll let you know if we find anything today. I'm just off to the independent Volvo specialist. I'll tell him your suggestion about the Turbo. I feel disappointed in the main dealers approach to this. I guess they become quite reliant on the diagnostic equipment these days. Probably saves us time and money overall. Thanks again, Scott.

[definethelight]

Right, The independent has had a look (finally) and has deduced that the EGR valve needs a good clean out. In addition he has found that an injector is suffering from excessive leak off - whatever that means... To top all that the Clutch Slave Cylinder is leaking oil - all in all £1300 to put right! Nice. Let's see if this stops the clouds of white smoke.

[Bill_56]

The 'software upgrade' was probably the fix for rising oil-levels with DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) equipped cars, Euro 4, from mid '05 onwards.

Many of us suspected that this software mod (which volvo call an 'upgrade) would spell trouble, especially perhaps for for high mileage vehicles, and your story does merit a raising of eyebrows.

You could ask your specialist to check the DPF as well as EGR. If the DPF did indeed fail within a few miles of the upgrade, it would confirm many of our suspicions. EGR failure is not something we'd really anticipated, but it's not entirely unrelated (all part of the emissions control) and failure soon after the update could be more than co-incidence.

To be honest though, it's pure speculation, I may be barking up a different tree. Can I suggest you read the extremely long thread below. Arm yourself with a good supply of caffeine/alcohol/antidepressants, in a combination that befits your personal preferences and time of day...

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=95323

Should you wish to continue this line of exploration, you may get more interest by submitting the story to the above thread.

Oh, and welcome to the forums. You made no mistakes, you've nothing to apologise for. But even when one does make mistakes (I speak from experience) they are forgiven, it's a friendly forum.

[definethelight]

Good evening Bill_56 I'm not the only one burning the midnight oil! I shall have a good read about the DPF. Like you say, does raise a few eyebrows! I'll contact the garage in the morning. I'm guessing software (or firmware) on these cars could be restored to a previous version... bit like on a pc? The investigation continues, does indeed seem like a coincidence though. I'll let you know what I find out. Thanks again for your help and kind words.