Diesel advice required before I pollute the world!

[Rich]

Hi all, am hoping another Diesel owner can give me some advice here.

I brought J508 MUE back to Fareham yesterday, and came through the new forest from Lymington. This van has been faultless, and I have done 400 miles on the iow with her, and has been fine, but yesterday was her first on a Motorway (with me anyway). She performed adaquitly well, but, the smoke was cronic! When she got to 80mph she did it, and if going up a hill with my foot down at about 70mph. I looked out the back window and it was just a soup of thick dark smoke. I could smell burning and thought she was on fire for a moment, the cars behind were pulling out to avoid it!! Also the temp gauge rose to half way. I eased right off and all was normal again, apart from getting up hills. Is this normal?

She had had a new cambelt fitted that morning, and a new fuel filter. She had a good service oil, filters a few days before. The coolent level was about a litre short as I forgot to top it up again after the cambelt when it was drained, could that be the reason? Also the level on the dipstick has dropped a little.

One other thing, the gear change is so sloppy, when in any gear the lever will move about left to right with ease, I suspect a linkage somewhere, has anyone had this happen before. I can get all the gears, but 1st and 2nd are a bit awkward as is 5th.

Thank you, Rich

[G Force]

Hi Rich If the van has not ever had a good open up on the motorway for many a mile, it is not unusual to see 007 style smoke screen in the rear view mirror. A few more good hard runs should see an improvement as it is ususally an accumulation of soot in the silencers that is the main culprit. Burning smell? well that could be perhaps an oil leak onto the exhaust perhaps, the vacuum pump O ring seal or lift pump may be something to look at. I reckon you are right where the gear linkage is concerned a worn U/J or roll pin hole may be the cause, just need to get under car and watch while somebody moves free play.

Cheers Gary :)

[tony]

hi if the van was ok before, recheck the cam belt ,to me it sounds like its a tooth out on the diesel inj. pump

[E_T_V]

My van too smokes like a trooper and has a gear stick that you could stir porridge with whilst driving so don't worryu you aren't alone.

If you are worried about the smoke then stick some injector cleaner in the fuel tank and that might helkp a little. Also what does help a lot is to half fill the fuel filter at a filter change with injector cleaner and red-line it when it starts for 20 seconds. That makes it smoke a lot!

I know it seems a really horrid thing to do but thrashing it can be good for it once in a while as it dislodges all the carbon build up. When it is warm open it up in say second gear up a hill and floor the throttle. leave your foot flat on the floor and eventually you'll fell the engine governer cut in when you'll stop accellerating. hold it opn the goverener for a few seconds and you'll leave a lovely smoke trail behind but it'll help in the long run. My diesel just passed its emmissions at 1.48 (limit is 2.5) and it has 200k on the clock.

Also as tony said it might be worth checking that the cambelt was lined up with the right mark (there is two, one for the turbo engine and one for yours)

[Ricky]

I don't know if it applies here, but our old Escort was a couple of teeth out on the injector pump, and you could feel it when driving, cos it was as flat as a pancake until the turbo cut in, but i've a sneaking suspicion it would only apply to the turbo ones as my dad had a 220D and that was also as flat as you like (?!?) until the turbo kicked in, when it did good golly miss molly!!! :horror: :laugh:
Can't wait to get a diesel, but I think it will have to be NASP, turbo's just seem to complicate the issue.....!

Ricky.

[E_T_V]

yuck no.. I have to confess that I'm looking forward to ripping the NASP engine out of my camper and replacing it with a turbo one. Turbo diesels rule as they are so much more drivable! I reckon if they'd ever made a turbo diesel van as standard they'd have been very popular instead of just fairly popular.

[MGTurbo]

Nout wrong with a damn good thrashing on the Diesel's, they are governed so as long as your not in 4th or soemthing you wont be doing any damage.

Gareth

[Jack]

When I was looking into a car which would be very cheap to run I bought a copy of "Diesel Car" magazine which had an article on how to check the condition of a diesel engine. It said a couple of times in the article that Montego / Maestro Prima diesels are "infamous" and "notorious" for smoking and it is a perculiarity of this engine and so not necessarily a cause for concern.

Mavis smokes quite a lot but not really so much that you can see it in the rear view mirror (except at night with a vehicle behind when their lights show up the smoke better).

Having said all that, the MOT man, who has a Maestro van, said at my test a couple of weeks ago that if his van was as good on emissions as Mavis then he would be very happy. Clearly, it depends on the engine and perhaps how well it has been maintained.

You can have injectors ultrasonically cleaned but it'll be cheaper to try the injector cleaner first to see if that helps.

[Rich]

Thanks everyone for the advice, seems I might be worrying about nothing. She was fine on the way to and from work today, even coming up the hill at about 80mph out of Portsmouth!

<<Nout wrong with a damn good thrashing on the Diesel's, they are governed so as long as your not in 4th or soemthing you wont be doing any damage.>>

Gareth, I have got used to a rev counter so dont know exactly what is good for the engine, and have to trust ear judgement. Am I right in saying I can really floor it in any gear apart from 4th?

I will try some additive to get the injectors cleaner, and will try and thrash her a bit more, she will get some good runs down the M25 this this week for work anyway I hope. If things dont improve I will suspect the timing on the injector pump, as the bloke who did it only marked the cogs with red paint before the old belt came off. I can always take it back to him, but dont want to if I dont have to!!

Rich

[E_T_V]

yes you can't over-rev a diesel by applying the throttle. The diesel pump has a built in rev limiter which only allows a certain rpm to be reached. Assuming the pump hasn't been altered and the cam belt is in good condition then it'll cut in and the car will simply stop accelerating.. I've been doing it today in readiness for its MOT on wednesday it is quite unnatural to do at first. Just make sure the engine is warm too.

[MGTurbo]

<<Nout wrong with a damn good thrashing on the Diesel's, they are governed so as long as your not in 4th or soemthing you wont be doing any damage.>>

Gareth, I have got used to a rev counter so dont know exactly what is good for the engine, and have to trust ear judgement. Am I right in saying I can really floor it in any gear apart from 4th?

I will try some additive to get the injectors cleaner, and will try and thrash her a bit more, she will get some good runs down the M25 this this week for work anyway I hope. If things dont improve I will suspect the timing on the injector pump, as the bloke who did it only marked the cogs with red paint before the old belt came off. I can always take it back to him, but dont want to if I dont have to!!

Rich


The higher the gear you go the more under load the engine is, so its best to keep it in the lower gears at first. The engine is governed to 4500rpm , in 1st and 2nd just keep it going until it stops. It will sound like it will blow up but it won't. Injector cleaner is a very good idea, i used Wynn's my last go.

Now i've driven my TD since September ish time and it used to smoke quite bad until i 'drove' the thing, i still see wafts even at cruise @ about 75mph, i find using Redex diesel treatment helps a little, as does using low sulphur fuel, Tesco and Sainsbury's seems the best believe it or not.

Engine had an HG change about 10k ago and it was very clean inside. Breather system could do with a clean out but there's no gunk in mine. Fresh oil, new air filter and fuel filter could make a difference too. But try not to worry about it too much. It's quite good fun smoking out other driver's when they are sitting up your boot, even better when you can pull away from them ;)

Gareth

[Ricky]

Turbo diesels rule as they are so much more drivable!
Every TD ive driven has been unpredictable to say the least, except the 406 which almost seemed to have a complete lack of turbo! I just can't get along with the turbo kick in, I like to drive a car that you can predict what is going to happen next, and all the nasp diesels I have driven have driven exactly as i expect them to, whereas pulling away from lights or joining a motorway in a TD always seems to be a task and a half, as it is either really flat cos the revs arent high enough or youre really having to concentrate cos its off on one! And on top of that, the turbo makes insurance more, and repairs more costly, I guess it is just a case of whatever floats your boat! :)

[MGTurbo]

Every TD ive driven has been unpredictable to say the least, except the 406 which almost seemed to have a complete lack of turbo! I just can't get along with the turbo kick in, I like to drive a car that you can predict what is going to happen next, and all the nasp diesels I have driven have driven exactly as i expect them to, whereas pulling away from lights or joining a motorway in a TD always seems to be a task and a half, as it is either really flat cos the revs arent high enough or youre really having to concentrate cos its off on one! And on top of that, the turbo makes insurance more, and repairs more costly, I guess it is just a case of whatever floats your boat! :)


Dunno about that... Diesels are slow off the mark turbo or not, the real difference is once moving between the gears and believe me it is a huge difference.

Yes it makes the insurance more but repairs more costly? Can't say i agree, as the driver of a turbo car for over 4 years i've not yet had a problem directly related to the turbo itself, both my car's still have their original turbochargers too, at 125k and 130k each.

A Maestro Van with a TD would get a move on, the ATMO would just annoy me, no offence intended to owners of Maestro Van's... Oh, the fuel economy is just as good too :)

[Rich]

Sorry if I am being dense here but what is ATMO?

[MGTurbo]

Sorry if I am being dense here but what is ATMO?

Sorry, ATMO is short for atmospheric meaning it's not turbocharged....

Gareth

[Quality]

If the problem only happens at 80mph then stick to the speed limit. :nonono:

[MGTurbo]

If the problem only happens at 80mph then stick to the speed limit. :nonono:

80mph on the clock in a Monty or Maestro is 70mph :laugh:

[E_T_V]

Unless it is our maestro, in which case I reckon around 90mph indicated is actually about 70mph. Either that or I have a 1.3 that'll do over 110 mph
Who says police speedos are accurate eh? :nonono: