Smoking Diesel This the norm?

[surrey_man]

Hi all my lovly TZD when first started in the morning seems to smoke for about 30 sec when i start it up is this the norm or have i got a old smoker??

Ive never had a Diesel before so i have no ideas saying that ive never had a car with LHM in it either

[cauchoiskev]

It's the norm when one of your glow plugs is shafted .

Is the idle rough for the first minute ? If so, it's a glow plug.

[Way2go]

Hi all my lovly TZD when first started in the morning seems to smoke for about 30 sec when i start it up is this the norm or have i got a old smoker??

Ive never had a Diesel before so i have no ideas saying that ive never had a car with LHM in it either

What was it like when you test drove it at the dealers?

Was the engine already hot when you tried it?

[CitroXim]

What colour is the smoke?

A puff of black smoke is pretty much normal on initial startup but it should clear well before 30 seconds have elapsed.

White/grey smoke is produced by unburned diesel and is usually what you'll see with duff glowplugs. No combustion = white smoke and it will last until the cylinder(s) affected get warm enough to fire. The engine will run lumpily.

Good glowplugs are essential on these engines. They're near impossible to start without them.

Black smoke is partially burned diesel, usually a lack of air or too much diesel injected.

Blue smoke is oil being burned. Poor ring seal or valve stem seals.

Another cause of white/grey smoke/lumpy startup is the XUD quirk of the valve clearances being tightest when the engine is stone cold. A bit of heat and the clearances widen a tad and all runs OK. It can be that the clearances are so tight that when stone cold the valves are just being held off their seats and reducing compression sufficiently that combustion is very poor and white/grey smoke and lumpy running results. 1.7 engines suffer this moreso than the 1.9; they hammer their valves into the seats and the clearances close up over time. It usually makes them hard to start when cold if it affects more than one or two cylinders.

This happened on my father's 205D. All was fine until the cold weather set in and then it would not start, clouds of white/grey smoke. I reset all the clearances and from then on, instant start at any temperature and no smoke.

Resetting valve clearances on an XUD is fun due to the use of shims...

[mat_fenwick]

Resetting valve clearances on an XUD is fun due to the use of shims...

Hmmm...that's my job for this weekend, after putting in a new camshaft kindly supplied by David Rutherford. Fingers crossed it's not too fiddly!

[CitroXim]

Hmmm...that's my job for this weekend, after putting in a new camshaft kindly supplied by David Rutherford. Fingers crossed it's not too fiddly!

Mat, I've a little Excel spreadsheet I devised to do the shim calculations if you want to save a bit of brain-ache doing the job. Enter in the wanted clearances and the measured clearances and it'll calculate the new shims you need to achieve those clearances. It even has a chart of the part numbers for the shims.

Download here:

http://www.eastment.net/xushimc.xls

It's not too bad a job Mat. The cam only has to come out once. A useful tip is to use a valve lapping tool (a stick with a rubber sucker on it) to lift out the followers. Be careful to keep them all in order.

A good set of feeler gauges with lots of very thin feelers to read accurately the existing clearances is useful.

If you need any shims, I may be able to help. I have quite a collection here.

[mat_fenwick]

Thanks Jim, that's very useful! Especially the part numbers as the nearest dealer does not seem to especially knowledgable/helpful.

I'm hoping that I can get away with re-using some of the shims at least.

[surrey_man]

yea its grey/white smoke lasts about 30 secs and a jumpy lumpy start for about the same time

Ill get some money and replace the plugs

Never tock it for test drive needed a car it was not leaking out oil/lhm from what i could see paid £250 came with a few spares and roof bars so thought it would do as a pos temp if it failed on mot in 3 months or while i fixed my ax but i like this car so will prob fix her up and keep her

never replaced glow plugs these easy to do ?

[nstarmore]

In theory they're no harder than a set of spark plugs but they can be fiddly to get at. I've only ever done them on my Xantia, which was a nightmare and involved removing fuel pipes to gain access but I believe it is a lot easier on the bx.

[CitroXim]

You're right Nic, the Xantia is a nightmare

The NA Diesels and Turbo Diesels with the Lucas pump are much easier due to No.4 glowplug not being so obscured by the injection pump

Get a good 12mm cranked ring spanner for the glowplugs and a good 8mm ring for their electrical connection nuts. Be careful you don't loose the 8mm nuts as new glowplugs don't come with them. use Blu-Tak to get hold of and keep them.

You might see a "special" glowplug spanner advertised. These don't work as well as the blurb suggests.

Stuff loads of rag down behind the injection pump as glowplugs love to drop into that space and are difficult to retrieve. I've seen loads of engines with old glowplugs lurking here when the pumps come off

Douse the glowplugs in Plus-Gas and if they seem tight coming out, take great care. Sometimes a lump of head casting breaks off if you are not careful.

Don't do the new ones up too tightly.

Some people cut slots in the electrical connection rings so that teh 8mm nuts can be loosely fitted to the new glowplgs before fitting and then the electrical connecion can then be just slotted in without fiddling with the nut.

Note that NA and Turbo engines have different specification glowplugs. the NA use fast heat ones whereas the Turbos use ones suitable for post-heating. I find BERU ones as available form GSF very satisfactory. GSF offer both types.