TDCI Injectors Refurbished, Now Medium-Smoke On Acceleration (over 1000 miles driven)

[portalman]

Hello gents and ladies

I had an odd problem with my 2-litre diesel for a while, it took a few mechanics to finally figure out I had a leaking fuel pump.

I made a massive mistake by buying a used fuel pump to replace it with, which ended up messing up all the injectors on the spot, causing them to clog up and fail. I was annoyed at the mechanic for not warning me in regards to Delphi fuel pumps and injectors on their sensitivity to prolonged or exposed storage, but whatever, damage had now been done (pump had dried, or dirt built up whilst in storage)

It turned out later that the original fuel pump outer gasket simply needed replacing, and that the pump itself was fine (apparently). On went the original pump with a new gasket for a grand total of £8. Along with a cost of new injectors… see below.

I called a reputable injector refurbishment place not far from me who offered rebuilt injectors for £120 each (£480 for the set) which although a lot, was cheaper then the £625 quote for new injectors. As I went to collect them, they told it was £480 + VAT which worked out just shy of £600 so I was gutted I never went with the new set to begin with. The plus side to this is, the fuel rail and lines were also refurbished/cleaned.

Onto the actual problem I’m having. (Just a note I had NO white smoke problem BEFORE we touched the fuel pump or injectors. Also, it is definitely NOT condensation.)

After refitting the refurbished injectors in the correct order they were taken out, one of the injectors was causing injector knocking between 1,500 – 2,250 RPM’s.

I phoned the injector place immediately who told me they may simply need recoding. After a call out the a ford specialist who bought his gear and charged me £100 call out to plug in and reprogram the injectors, he informed me they probably didn’t need programming anyway, and that the injectors go through a learning curve for around 50 miles. - I’m not sure if this is true.

After driving for around 20 miles on the motorway, the sound had completely disappeared so it was happy days for at least the first 100 miles of driving (or the first 24 hours)

On the second day I noticed a slight bit of smoke when accelerating. Assuming it was just burn off, I ignored it, however, by the third day I had covered just shy of 500 miles (took a round trip) and the smoke has now intensified and is there constantly when accelerating anywhere between 1,500 and 2,500 RPM.

Even if you slightly tap the peddle to regain a little pace between 1,800 and 2,000 rpm you see a good amount of white smoke trail (but not heavy or super thick) especially if there are cars behind me with headlights on. It is not pleasant at all and not normal for sure.

Could the fuel pump be faulty? We put back on the original pump with a new gasket. Or better yet, would a faulty pump (with no visible leaks) cause white smoke?

As I am strapped for cash for a few weeks, I need to know what the best course of action is here? Do you think I need to get the injector specialist involved, or is it something my mechanic may have done wrong? What is the first thing you guys would look at in this circumstance?

Any clues on where to start? Trying to keep costs of diagnostics and repairs as low as possible due to Christmas 🙂

 

 

[portalman]

anyone 😟

[portalman]

Hey, the problem is getting significantly worse.... Now its at full rev band, especially at take off.

Please, any suggestions would be a start.

[nicam49]

White smoke is either due to unburnt fuel due to excessive overfuelling by a leaky injector, or, something I learnt recently on another forum, a worn turbo. This you can test by removing the air intake pipe and checking the rotor for excessive play. The injector fault, you'll have to remove 'em and take them back to be tested. Though if it's only one at fault, then perhaps if you unplug the electrical connectors one at a time and rev the engine (with only 3 cylinders working at a time) you might isolate the fault to a single injector. 

[portalman]

1 hour ago, nicam49 said:

White smoke is either due to unburnt fuel due to excessive overfuelling by a leaky injector, or, something I learnt recently on another forum, a worn turbo. This you can test by removing the air intake pipe and checking the rotor for excessive play. The injector fault, you'll have to remove 'em and take them back to be tested. Though if it's only one at fault, then perhaps if you unplug the electrical connectors one at a time and rev the engine (with only 3 cylinders working at a time) you might isolate the fault to a single injector. 

 

Thanks for the reply!

I will ask the mechanic to take a look at the turbo and then take it back to the injector place, I just hope it is injectors otherwise that's a £200 bill to just test and refit them. The Turbo is an interesting theory, I mean, I know its high mileage, but right after injector replacement? seems odd but not improbable.

[nicam49]

Can you do any mechanic stuff yourself? a code reader and injector coder is sub-£20 (if you've got a Windows  laptop) and means you're not at the mercy of all and sundry and can analyse problems in your own time. 

[portalman]

7 hours ago, nicam49 said:

Can you do any mechanic stuff yourself? a code reader and injector coder is sub-£20 (if you've got a Windows  laptop) and means you're not at the mercy of all and sundry and can analyse problems in your own time. 

Hey, wait your telling me an injector coder is £20???? 😡

Yeah, I'm okay with cars, I usually do my own servicing... usually.... its just with this one, I was really lazy and just paid my mechanic to sort it this time around, its cold outside 🙂

On a serious note, I'm really pee'd off the guy charged £100 call out to reprogram the injectors. I thought you needed a specific Ford software to do that?? He was gone in under 5 minutes.

[Albert27]

1 hour ago, portalman said:

Hey, wait your telling me an injector coder is £20???? 😡

Yeah, I'm okay with cars, I usually do my own servicing... usually.... its just with this one, I was really lazy and just paid my mechanic to sort it this time around, its cold outside 🙂

On a serious note, I'm really pee'd off the guy charged £100 call out to reprogram the injectors. I thought you needed a specific Ford software to do that?? He was gone in under 5 minutes.

I believe you can re code injectors using forscan which is free. You just need an elm27 usb and a laptop 🙂

[nicam49]

If its not too late to ask Santa..UK based  www.tunnelratelectronics.co.uk 

do a guaranteed to work on Fords code reader. The software Forscan is a free download if you buy the USB version. Email 'em for details. 

[portalman]

On 12/18/2019 at 6:33 PM, Albert27 said:

I believe you can re code injectors using forscan which is free. You just need an elm27 usb and a laptop 🙂

 

On 12/18/2019 at 8:46 PM, nicam49 said:

If its not too late to ask Santa..UK based  www.tunnelratelectronics.co.uk 

do a guaranteed to work on Fords code reader. The software Forscan is a free download if you buy the USB version. Email 'em for details. 

 

Thanks guys, this is much appreciated. I've already ordered the reader just waiting for it to arrive. 👍

[portalman]

Guys I just want to follow this up as it has progressively gotten worse to the point that I get scared to take off from lights.

Just some observations over the last few weeks:

1) It only happens under LOAD. So if I take off with my foot at around 30% throttle, I see white hazed smoke thinning the air behind me. If I floor it, I cover the whole road with a STREAM of white smoke! I usually observe the cars behind me slowing down to avoid the steam show!!!

2) If I gently take off, I barely notice anything. If I "coast" along, its fine, no smoke. HOWEVER, If I am coasting along at say 40mph and need to climb to 50 quickly SMOKE EVERYWHERE.

So 100% I'm confident it is under heavy load and not regular driving.

The question is, what causes this? If you read the first post, you will see that it only started after the injectors and fuel pump was replaced.

I'm seriously lost here. All the help is appreciated.

[portalman]

The closest I got to an answer was this thread, but sadly, the guy stopped posting so obviously he found a solution in the end but didn't post back! I'm so gutted!!!

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/65170-focus-18-tdci-smoking-when-accelerating/

[nicam49]

So, reading back your posts, you were going to ask your mechanic to check the turbo for play.... did you? If he did an it was OK, then its 1 or more injectors overfuelling. But wait!why did you get the injectors refurbed in the 1st place?  If its only 1 injector causing it, and you can see white smoke when revving when stationary, then perhaps disconnecting each injector in turn and revving to see which disconnected injector results in NO smoke. Obviously engine won't rev very well on 3 cylinders

[portalman]

  

4 hours ago, nicam49 said:

So, reading back your posts, you were going to ask your mechanic to check the turbo for play.... did you? If he did an it was OK, then its 1 or more injectors overfuelling. But wait!why did you get the injectors refurbed in the 1st place?  If its only 1 injector causing it, and you can see white smoke when revving when stationary, then perhaps disconnecting each injector in turn and revving to see which disconnected injector results in NO smoke. Obviously engine won't rev very well on 3 cylinders

Yeah all checked and nothing note worthy he said. Cleaned it up and put it back no play.

We refurbished the injectors because they got clogged up due to the fuel pump gasket needing changing then leaving it exposed for weeks (for other reasons) when everything was reassembled the fuel pump must of dried out at some point and ended up wasting the injectors in no time.

Even with dodgy injectors, there was no visible smoke. Only a day after they where refurbished it progressively appeared and worsened. The injector shop told me over the phone that if its only happening at night time and if you can not see anything during the day/when stationary/revving, then it can't be injectors.

Totally lost.

[Kevin#95]

I would first try putting a double dose of injector cleaner in the fuel and see if there is any improvement.

Possible check the pressure in each cylinder. Might be sucking in water due to a head gasket leaking. 

If you have a diesel, white smoke may be unburned fuel passing through the engine, or it may be coolant. Some white smoke is normal following a cold start, especially during extremedly cold weather. But if you see continuous white smoke while driving, you have a problem: incorrect injector timing or a loss of compression in one or more cylinders.

also might be worth having the injectors checked at another place.

 

[portalman]

Hey, why would the head start leaking randomly however? From my observations, my coolant levels are spot on. The amount of miles I've churned out in the last few months would have burnt a hell of a lot of coolant by now.

No this is not regular smoke, or cold conditions. However I need this to be clear, it only happens under LOAD fully warmed up, I don't see anything on cold starts. As in regular cruising there is NO smoke! Only when I put my foot down to gain some speed, and the engine is on the lower side of the RPM's, it CHUCKS out white smoke in a nice stream.... I know cars slow down to avoid it its sad really.

[TomsFocus]

Tbh it sounds like injectors, refurb is only as good as the people doing it, I've seen some awful refurb jobs.

However, you mention the old HP pump was refitted...was it stored with diesel inside in the meantime?  It really doesn't take much for damp to get in and ruin them if it was just dry stored.

Have you done any MAF tests?  A faulty MAF generally allows overfuelling to avoid engine damage.  They don't always bring up fault codes unless they go way out of tolerance though.  

[Kevin#95]

I would try disconnecting the maf sensor and drive it and see if the white smoke goes.

Then I would get a garage to pressure test the cylinders. Or you could buy a guage and do it.

Logic points to the injectors as that was the last thing changed before the problem started.

 

[portalman]

3 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Tbh it sounds like injectors, refurb is only as good as the people doing it, I've seen some awful refurb jobs.

However, you mention the old HP pump was refitted...was it stored with diesel inside in the meantime?  It really doesn't take much for damp to get in and ruin them if it was just dry stored.

Have you done any MAF tests?  A faulty MAF generally allows overfuelling to avoid engine damage.  They don't always bring up fault codes unless they go way out of tolerance though.  

2 hours ago, Kevin#95 said:

I would try disconnecting the maf sensor and drive it and see if the white smoke goes.

Then I would get a garage to pressure test the cylinders. Or you could buy a guage and do it.

Logic points to the injectors as that was the last thing changed before the problem started.

 

Regarding the HP pump, yes, that was kind of my fault but my mechanic should have been the wiser one to be honest. I simply took it off, took it to a diesel specialist, who said it was fine, then I went back to the car and left it in a box.... in the boot. We later found out that the Delphi pumps/injectors are super sensitive to even microscopic dust so no surprises when the injectors got shot the second we refitted it. That's why they were refurbished in the end.

One thing to note regarding this, whilst trying to diagnose why the car was having a hard time starting/staying on after everything was put back together (injectors clogged) the mechanic did use a mighty amount of diesel start down the throttle body... He must have gone through a few cans trying to diagnose each and every thing, by starting the engine trying to get it to stay running, using the diesel start spray.... Could this have damaged something?

I'm going to disconnect the MAF sensor tonight then take it for a spin. Could you clue me in on why I would need to try this? Does it retar-d the timing or something?

Thanks fellas!

 

[TomsFocus]

It's not just Delphi injectors tbf, all common rail injectors are very sensitive to dirt and damp, they need to be stored in diesel when out of the car really...at least you'll know for future!

Essentially the MAF sensor allows the ECU to 'fine tune' the fuelling to give you the power you're after while also using the least amount of fuel possible to keep emissions down.  If you unplug the MAF, the ECU will just use a standard failsafe map which will overfuel to avoid any potential engine damage from too lean a mixture...so it should drive worse and look smokier...if it's either better, or no different, with the MAF unplugged then the MAF is likely to be faulty.  Some engines go into limp mode with the MAF unplugged though and I'm not sure if the Mk3 2.0TDCi is one of them.  If it does go limp then the test obviously doesn't work and you'll need to check flow rate using live diags instead.

 

[portalman]

UPDATE! SOLVED! FIXED! SOLUTION!

(Euro 5, Delphi, TDCI, MK2/MK3 Focus, MK4 Mondeo, MK3 Galaxy, MK1 S-Max, MK7 Transit, Volvo, Peugeot, Citroen)

 

I finally managed to get the car to the guys who refurbished the injectors, who kindly offered to remove them and take a look. The injectors were leak tested and no fault found. The injectors where then removed completely, and IMMEDIATELY the problem revealed itself!

A) The incompetent mechanics that re-fitted the injectors, failed to remove the two out of the four injector WASHERS from the engine before fitting the new injectors in (which had new washers fitted already by the re-furbishers) so two of the injectors where sitting elevated on top of two washers, forcing the ECU (I'm guessing) to overcompensate the fuel to keep the flow even across all four cylinders.

B) Furthermore, the injectors themselves where drenched with copper grease when being refitted - which with newer modern engines is NOT recommended! This is an old, outdated technique used for older cars. The injectors guys commented that even a tiny bit of grease touching the nozzles, coupled with the idiocy with the washers, may have been the reason for the absurd amount of smoke ploughing out of the exhaust.

I just came back from blasting the car down the motorway, not a spec of smoke to be seen!

Not sure if this is allowed, but I'm going to post it anyway. The guys that went out of their way to solve my problem where C.A.E Diesel in Waltham Abbey, North London.

PS: DO NOT FORGET TO BLEED THE AIR OUT OF THE FUEL SYSTEM! YOU CAN CHECK TO SEE THE AIR BUBBLES FROM THE CLEAR PIPE THAT RUNS TO AND FROM THE FUEL FILTER HOUSING!

Thanks Everyone!

 

 

[Kevin#95]

So the injectors were working but sitting too high and some of the fuel sprayed did not burn and came out as white smoke. Well done for sticking with the problem and getting it fixed. 

[Albert27]

2 hours ago, portalman said:

UPDATE! SOLVED! FIXED! SOLUTION!

(Euro 5, Delphi, TDCI, MK2/MK3 Focus, MK4 Mondeo, MK3 Galaxy, MK1 S-Max, MK7 Transit, Volvo, Peugeot, Citroen)

 

I finally managed to get the car to the guys who refurbished the injectors, who kindly offered to remove them and take a look. The injectors were leak tested and no fault found. The injectors where then removed completely, and IMMEDIATELY the problem revealed itself!

A) The incompetent mechanics that re-fitted the injectors, failed to remove the two out of the four injector WASHERS from the engine before fitting the new injectors in (which had new washers fitted already by the re-furbishers) so two of the injectors where sitting elevated on top of two washers, forcing the ECU (I'm guessing) to overcompensate the fuel to keep the flow even across all four cylinders.

B) Furthermore, the injectors themselves where drenched with copper grease when being refitted - which with newer modern engines is NOT recommended! This is an old, outdated technique used for older cars. The injectors guys commented that even a tiny bit of grease touching the nozzles, coupled with the idiocy with the washers, may have been the reason for the absurd amount of smoke ploughing out of the exhaust.

I just came back from blasting the car down the motorway, not a spec of smoke to be seen!

Not sure if this is allowed, but I'm going to post it anyway. The guys that went out of their way to solve my problem where C.A.E Diesel in Waltham Abbey, North London.

PS: DO NOT FORGET TO BLEED THE AIR OUT OF THE FUEL SYSTEM! YOU CAN CHECK TO SEE THE AIR BUBBLES FROM THE CLEAR PIPE THAT RUNS TO AND FROM THE FUEL FILTER HOUSING!

Thanks Everyone!

 

 

Great stuff!  Thanks for coming back and updating the thread 🙂 

[portalman]

No problems, thanks guys!

I know how annoying it is to read through a bunch of old threads that get so close to a solution, just to find out that the OP stopped posting. I spent 3 months going through thread after thread with the same problem. Seriously disappointing that most never return to update or follow up with some results to help others out.

For the record, for the first few minutes of giving it the beans I did see some black smoke, but that slowly cleared up, so I just assume it was soot and carbon build-up. The first thing I noticed when I got back home was how much more quieter the engine was idling. So that's a bonus. 🙂

Regarding air in the fuel lines, even though we bled the system, I checked after the test run and you can still see some air bubbles so it definitely needs a few bleeds to clear out the air.

You've all been great! Much appreciated!