Alot Of Smoke Coming From My Exhaust When I Accelerate

[Eug123]

Hi, just joined the forum. Not good with introductions, so just going to jump in with a question that I hope some of you may be able to help me with.

I have a 2004 MK1 Ford Focus 1.8 TDDI LX. Recently there has been alot of smoke coming from my exhaust when I accelerate. I checked my oil today and it is half full. When checking the oil, I noticed a lot of oil in around the intercooler pipe. Do any of you know what might be causing the smoke? Should there be oil in the intercooler pipe?

Any help with this would be great

Eugene

[alexp999]

Hi and welcome to FOC.

Have renamed and moved your thread to Focus section so you get more help with your Q. :)

In answer, has it only started recently or long term? Diesels without DPFs (as yours will not) will produce a reasonable amount of soot/smoke when you accelerate (especially when pushing hard). Also when did you last check the oil, has it gone done considerably in a short space of time?

[dezwez]

Hi welcome :)

[Emma727]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

1st off how do you drive the car? If you don't drive it hard or hang it out in the rev band it could just be build up of soot that gets kicked out when you accelerate.

2nd what kind of mileage has the car done?

[Eug123]

Alexp999 - It has been happening for a couple of months now but it has been gradually getting worse. I serviced the car about 2-3months ago. The oil has went from Full to just over Half Full in this time.

Emma727 - I would drive the car quite hard but not overly hard at the same time. There is 120,000 miles on the car.

A few weeks ago, I happened to put a bad fill of diesal in the car from a service station that i had never been to before. The car started getting more smokey after putting it in. Since this, I have been putting good diesal (2-3 full tanks) in but the smoke remains.

I was taking a quick look on the net last night and I came across a page talking about the EGR valve getting blocked up by soot. Would it be possible that this may just need cleaned out?

[alexp999]

I'd be a bit concerned it has "drunk" nearly half its fuel in 2-3 months.

Cars will get more leaky as they get older, my old 1.8 TDDI focus had around 110k on it and leaked around the turbo, but only slightly.

Have you checked for leaks, as otherwise the drop in oil and smoke could point to something like a leaky seal letting oil into the cylinder.

[Eug123]

No, I don't have a plastic guard on the bottom of the car and there doesn't seem to be oil leaking because it would show on our backyard where I park the car all the time.

I noticed yesterday that there seems to be quite a bit of oil around the intercooler pipe and spraying onto the outside of the coolant tank. I think it may be coming from the ribbed rubber connector pipe coming out of the intercooler. Would this cause smoke?

[wase16ll]

a split pipe will cause a lot of black smoke, so carefully check where you see the oil residue.

[Eug123]

Thanks for that wase16II.

I will have to take a look to see if there are any split pipes.

Has anyone ever used the spray for cleaning out the EGR valve? If so, is it any use or would it be better taking the valve out completly and cleaning it?

[wase16ll]

if you mean the egr cleaner spray, then if its the type im thinking of, they are expensive and no better than a cheaper can of carb cleaner,

better off removing, scrape as much gunk out as possible before cleaning it with a carb cleaner, a few cotton buds and old toothbrushes or the like will help get it nice and clean too

[Eug123]

wase16II

Is there much work involved in the removal of the valve to clean it?

Can you recommend a good carb cleaner that would be useful?

To stop the valve from clogging up again, is a blanking plate of any advantage to the running performance of the car?

[FOCA]

wase16II

Is there much work involved in the removal of the valve to clean it?

Can you recommend a good carb cleaner that would be useful?

To stop the valve from clogging up again, is a blanking plate of any advantage to the running performance of the car?

Yes, a solid blanking plate will prevent the build up of soot from you EGR valve, your TDDI is a euro3 so you can blank the EGR with no problems - you can get them online for about £5

Super-dooper cleaner is a waste of time & money, as is cleaning the EGR valve with spray (the effect/ benifit is limited), just fit the blanking plate. If you really want to clean the "system" out, you should completely remove the EGR valve, inlet manifold and associated components from the car and clean it properly

You could fit a crankcase breather catchtank to your breather hose, any oil vapor/ spray from your crancase would be "caught" instead of going into your inlet

your crankase may have become pressurised from the turbo via the bores, valve guides or seals, or the head gasket (thus throwing out the oil) this is not good, but the breather catchtank may be enough to keep the car going, avoiding costly repairs

PS - you should never let the oil drop below the min. level on the dipstick - if you top it up to full (to give it a longer time before it goes down) or halfway (because it may drink less oil than full) and keep checking it, you could keep oil in the car, you can use the cheapest (new) oil you can find, oil can get expensive if you are using a lot of it, its ok if its 20-40w in the summer, 4 or 5 liter tubs can be very cheap in thritht stores etc - its not "perfect" but better than letting the oil run dry, new 20-40w is better than old 10-30w, anyway