Volvo XC90 163 D5 Smoke on Startup

[sarkie83]

I've got a 2003 163 D5 that is very smokey on startup. I was hoping that it was a blocked egr or dirty filters. However the egr was very clean, and air/fuel filters look to be very clean/new.

I took a clip of what it's like on startup. White/blue cloud that eventually clears. I had an old v70 p1 tdi that used to smoke on startup but that was only when it had been left overnight. The XC90 seems to do it whenever it's started up.

+ YouTube Video

I did scan the codes and get one that says the egr value flow was too low (but can't remember the exact code).

[47423]

My D5 185 (euro 4) has exactly the same problem, The EGR setup is the next thing for me to check too. It also smells a bit oily but doesn`t seem to use any oil. It also sounds a little rough as mine does when cold, i am hoping the pics of the euro 4 EGR are still on the forum as this system is alien to me.

[brickman]

Most diesels smoke a fair bit for up to 10 seconds, but then they start burning cleaner and it clears, but yours just seems to keep going!

[skyship007]

Originally Posted by brickman

Most diesels smoke a fair bit for up to 10 seconds, but then they start burning cleaner and it clears, but yours just seems to keep going!

The old pre ECU/common rails diesels did smoke a bit on start, but the modern ones don't!

@OP:
When were the air intake and EGR last cleaned ??
Have you checked the crank case vent system is not blocked ??

How much oil is this car burning?
Any coolant loss?
When were the oil & filter last changed and what did you use ??
Have you checked the oil level and done a finger rub inspection ??
,
The engine is also rough running at cold idle, so this does not look good. Wild guess, but HG failure, bad rings, blown turbo or wrong oil in use.

Seriously thin oil caused by gummed up injectors (It won't show a code) and too many short trips or time at idle and a poor quality 0 or 5/30 is in third place, along with a half blown turbo oil seal.

[sarkie83]

It doesn't seem to be loosing any oil or coolant. oil and filter were done ~500 miles ago 5w30 Mobil Semi-Synth. I've never done any cleaning of the inlet, and the EGR seemed clean.

I took it too an independent last week who said that it was injector no2 leaking, but he couldn't get any reasonably priced replacements in. They said it might be worth getting a 2nd hand one and seeing if it's any helpds. I did this the other day, and it still smokes (maybe a little bit less/not quite so lumpy, but still not great), but I don't really know how to validate if that one is just as bad as the one that i removed.

Originally Posted by skyship007

The old pre ECU/common rails diesels did smoke a bit on start, but the modern ones don't!

@OP:
When were the air intake and EGR last cleaned ??
Have you checked the crank case vent system is not blocked ??

How much oil is this car burning?
Any coolant loss?
When were the oil & filter last changed and what did you use ??
Have you checked the oil level and done a finger rub inspection ??
,
The engine is also rough running at cold idle, so this does not look good. Wild guess, but HG failure, bad rings, blown turbo or wrong oil in use.

Seriously thin oil caused by gummed up injectors (It won't show a code) and too many short trips or time at idle and a poor quality 0 or 5/30 is in third place, along with a half blown turbo oil seal.

[cheshired5]

I'm sure I've read that white smoke means unburnt fuel, so in my eyes that would point towards a poor injector spray pattern or faulty glow plug(s) which, as well as aiding very cold starting, also help to burn fuel shortly after start up.
The poor spray can be caused by carbon build up on the injector tips preventing a fine enough spray being produced.
Luckily, injector removal and glow plug testing are both very easy, as is an injector leak test.

[skyship007]

Originally Posted by skyship007

The old pre ECU/common rails diesels did smoke a bit on start, but the modern ones don't!

@OP:
When were the air intake and EGR last cleaned ??
Have you checked the crank case vent system is not blocked ??

How much oil is this car burning?
Any coolant loss?
When were the oil & filter last changed and what did you use ??
Have you checked the oil level and done a finger rub inspection ??
,
The engine is also rough running at cold idle, so this does not look good. Wild guess, but HG failure, bad rings, blown turbo or wrong oil in use.

Seriously thin oil caused by gummed up injectors (It won't show a code) and too many short trips or time at idle and a poor quality 0 or 5/30 is in third place, along with a half blown turbo oil seal.

The key question would be, is the coolant level going down or the oil level going up and does it smoke when started ??

If you want to know about the HG, one easy way is to send a 200 ml sample of used oil (Must be at least 3K miles old) to Blackstone Lab Inc. Their analyst will let you know if the HG or an injector is leaking. Volvo anti freeze contains both Sodium and Potassium compounds which are rare in engine oil (Castrol GTX and Valvoline Maxlife do contain Sodium), so they should both show below 10 ppm after 10K miles.
If the injection system has a fault, then the flashpoint of the oil will drop and a direct test for fuel will result in a warning.
Bad rings dump Chromium into the engine oil, but there is no easy way of checking an EGR from a UOA report. A blocked EGR or CAT can cause a check engine light.
A blown turbo will show up as a high Copper reading, as the steel bearings in a turbo are the only ones in a diesel that contain Copper.