Exhaust Smoke

BLake · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:40 pm

When driving at night, I notice that my CRD put out a pretty good smoke cloud with moderate to lead foot acceleration. The headlights of the cars behind me really highlight the smoke. It's harder to see it during the day but it's there. Does your CRD burn clean when accelerating? What concerns me is that it doesn't do it every time. Sometimes, the exhaust is perfectly clean.

I have a 6.5 diesel Suburban and I can't get it to make nearly as much smoke as the Jeep. Time for a trip to the dealer?

kjfishman · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 2:45 pm

I think its normal behavior. Your probably just have to push your Suburban harder to get it to smoke because it is a V8.

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:01 pm

That's normal. All diesel engines smoke some. Some more than others. When you drive lightly for a while some oil residue builds up inside the various parts of your engine. When you then accelerate pretty hard the engine heats up and blows all that burn oil out your tailpipe. Sometimes the exhaust is clean like you say because you've been driving pretty actively and there is no oil build-up inside. But if you put around for a while it'll build back up and then when you get on the throttle it'll smoke more. The smoke is only temporary and once the excess oil is burned and blown out the tailpipe it'll quit smoking again. Just a normal characteristic of diesels.

dog_party · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:09 pm

I just leadfoot it out the driveway and keep 'er there the rest of the day. I leave one big smoke cloud at 6AM and don't see another one all day. :wink:

Actually, I see the cloud whenever I get stuck in traffic. As soon as things are unstuck the throttle's on the floor and everyone behind me gets to surfin' the black cloud. It does it more from fuel station to fuel station. When I fill up with biodiesel, it's not there (ahhhh, that's lovely). I got a HUGE cloud after filling up at an off-brand fuel station. Won't be going back there again. As far as #2 dino diesel goes, Shell has been the most consistent in developing less black smoke behind me.

RTStabler51 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:26 pm

I love 'smoking' people..... :-)

BLake · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:06 pm

Hey dog_party,
Where do you get biodiesel in Va Beach? When I first test drove this thing, it still had a few gallons of Bio in it from the factory. Man, it ran so smooth. The smoke could be because of Crown's finest fuel. It got worse with the last tank.

Most of my diesel experience is with the GM 6.2 and 6.5TD. If my Chevy belched as much smoke as this thing, I would be looking for problems. Foot to the floor, all 6 lbs of boost, and up to redline, my 6.5 TD barely smokes at all. My Dad had an old VW Rabbit diesel. That sucker could lay down a cloud of black smoke like a tractor pull rig. Tailgaters, and there were many with that car, paid dearly. As soon as that thing hit about 3000 RPM, the smoke started. It could have been because my brother tweaked the injection timing, he says he set it right to specs :twisted:

I would think that these engines would be cleaner than the old Chevy.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Thu Feb 09, 2006 9:10 pm

I hate chevy, id say burn it. :evil:

Wait youre talking about it smoking, yea i wish my 3.7 did that.

KJbob · **Posted:** Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:05 am

I get exhaust smoke about every other day. I make it a point to accelerate fairly heavy at least once a day(when it's fully warmed up), and that's when it'll smoke. Like others have said, it's characteristic of a diesel.

dog_party · **Posted:** Fri Feb 10, 2006 11:20 am

BLake wrote:

Hey dog_party,
Where do you get biodiesel in Va Beach? When I first test drove this thing, it still had a few gallons of Bio in it from the factory. Man, it ran so smooth. The smoke could be because of Crown's finest fuel. It got worse with the last tank.

Most of my diesel experience is with the GM 6.2 and 6.5TD. If my Chevy belched as much smoke as this thing, I would be looking for problems. Foot to the floor, all 6 lbs of boost, and up to redline, my 6.5 TD barely smokes at all. My Dad had an old VW Rabbit diesel. That sucker could lay down a cloud of black smoke like a tractor pull rig. Tailgaters, and there were many with that car, paid dearly. As soon as that thing hit about 3000 RPM, the smoke started. It could have been because my brother tweaked the injection timing, he says he set it right to specs :twisted:

I would think that these engines would be cleaner than the old Chevy.

Holy monkey plop! Another CRD in VAB?!?! We gotta start a club, I think there's three of us now! HA!

Closest Biodiesel I've found (as the unladen African swallow flies) is on the Eastern Shore. Little BP (I think it was a BP) up on Rt13 (it's on the right as you're heading north). The dino diesel pump is solid black and there's a big sandy black stain all around it (kinda place I would never fill up), but they have a pristinely clean above-ground B20 tank just sitting there alone (not under the awning). It's got a big green leaf and an American flag on it. There are a couple more Eastern Shore bio stations listed on biodiesel.org retailers chart, but I haven't looked for any of those. But we have to pay a heavy toll to get over there and get it. Not the best solution.

There WAS one retailer listed on biodiesel.org as being on Rt58 just west of Chesapeake, but they're disappeared from the list before I could try them.

There are a couple listed on 95 between Richmond and DC, but I'll only fill up along that corridor if I'm forced to drive up that corridor. Personally, I prefer to stay here and wait for bio to spring from the Earth in a gusher instead of driving that route.

My brother lives in Raleigh (and has a CRD KJ too). There's a bunch of bio options down there, so I'm probably going to invest in a trailer and some fuel tanks to just truck it up here. It's only a three hour drive (tour?). Maybe the three of us could get together and start our own supply chain or something. It'd be easier for three of us to use up a bio supply in 6 months than just one. PM me if you're interested in something like this.

I haven't found any place local that has anything above 40+ craptane, bottom-of-the-barrel, dino diesel. No where is better than any other from my findings. Although, I filled up at a station over by my fiancee's parents house that I'll never go back to again. Immediately after filling up, when I pulled back out onto the road, I left a plume of black smoke that kept going for 1/2 mile. It was INSANE! I can't think of the station name right now, but I'm going to post it soon. It's at the corner of Kempsville and Volvo Pkwy. Nasty!

Ranger1 · **Joined:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:40 pm **Posts:** 1137

Might be the fuel. I don't see smoke on mine, even at night with lights behind me, on full acceleration. I have yet to see another CRD in my city, other than one in a parking lot, so I don't know what they look like. I have seen a very light haze once, behind me on full throttle, at night, but I had to look close and it was barely visible. Doesn't seem likely that one CRD would burn much cleaner than another.

spottyrecordkj · **Posted:** Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:20 pm

Mine smoked like crazy until I had to have my MAF sensor replaced, since they replaced the MAF sensor I don't see any smoke even at night.

Guest · **Posted:** Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:29 am

spottyrecordkj wrote:

Mine smoked like crazy until I had to have my MAF sensor replaced, since they replaced the MAF sensor I don't see any smoke even at night.

Things that make you go hmmmmmm...

(Yes, we are all reading this but I'll come out and say it - do we all need a new MAF sensor????)

BLake · **Posted:** Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:36 pm

Ranger1 wrote:

Might be the fuel. I don't see smoke on mine, even at night with lights behind me, on full acceleration. I have yet to see another CRD in my city, other than one in a parking lot, so I don't know what they look like. I have seen a very light haze once, behind me on full throttle, at night, but I had to look close and it was barely visible. Doesn't seem likely that one CRD would burn much cleaner than another.

If mine is the only one making smoke, something isn't right. It could have been a tank of crummy fuel. I filled up with Amoco and it is not as bad now.

I had to take it to the dealer to fix the brake switch, CEL code 0504. The engine runs very different now. It is smoother but less snappy. The Service Writer claims all they did was replace the switch. I suspect they flashed the computer with an upgrade. I have no idea why he felt the need to hide this. Also, the speedometer used to be 4MPH off compared to GPS, now it is 2 MPH off.

gsbrockman · **Posted:** Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:49 pm

Seems as if the wife's CRD smokes after I get behind the wheel.....must be the fact that she wimp*foots around in it for a few days consecutively then I drive it like I stole it. Previously blamed it on the OEM muffler but it still smokes pretty good even with the Magnaflow Exhaust System on it. Even she gets a grin on her face when I say "Look at all the smoke !"
Greg

Guest · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2006 8:41 am

BLake wrote:

Ranger1 wrote:

Might be the fuel. I don't see smoke on mine, even at night with lights behind me, on full acceleration. I have yet to see another CRD in my city, other than one in a parking lot, so I don't know what they look like. I have seen a very light haze once, behind me on full throttle, at night, but I had to look close and it was barely visible. Doesn't seem likely that one CRD would burn much cleaner than another.

If mine is the only one making smoke, something isn't right. It could have been a tank of crummy fuel. I filled up with Amoco and it is not as bad now.

I had to take it to the dealer to fix the brake switch, CEL code 0504. The engine runs very different now. It is smoother but less snappy. The Service Writer claims all they did was replace the switch. I suspect they flashed the computer with an upgrade. I have no idea why he felt the need to hide this. Also, the speedometer used to be 4MPH off compared to GPS, now it is 2 MPH off.

Mine smokes every day. For the first time ever I was passed by another CRD on a state road and it was smoking too! It was a silver CRD Limited with the cruise set at 1800rpm (I matched his speed to inspect the smoke). It was just gently wisping out the tail pipe in gentle swirling puffs in broad daylight. I'd say it's normal. Hopefully we won't pollute as much with ULSD coming online.

As for your CRD feeling less snappy... If they disconnected the battery to work on the CRD, you may have lost the "adaptive learned" information the transmission stores on your driving habits. It'll reprogram itself, mine did...

oldnavy · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2006 9:49 am

If you don't like having the battery disconnected and retrain all the windows, locks and tranny use one of these.

I showed mine to local techs at the dealer last year and now almost all the techs have one in their tool box. I got mine at Wal-Mart for $2, most automotive stores also have them in stock.

Now as far a smoke goes, the soot just builds in the engine & exhaust system from put-putting around and when you throttle hard it clears itself of the crap. I smoked another SUV that was riding my bumper last night, man does that ever make them back off. Best smokings I ever had was in my old 83 MB (non turbo) diesel, I think I managed to get 2 or 3 convertibles riding my butt.

As for as smoke and fuel goes, I use 49 cetane B10 fuel and still get smoke after the wife drives it a week to 10 days around town. I am the one to go fill it up usually and thats usually when I blow the soot out of the engine and exhaust. I do try to wait to the last minute before blowing it out, because I love to teach tailgaters about diesels.

spottyrecordkj · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:19 pm

the down side to the new MAF sensor is that since they put it in the liberty seems sooooooo sluggish! It doesn't have near the power it had before.

oldnavy · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:41 pm

spottyrecordkj wrote:

the down side to the new MAF sensor is that since they put it in the liberty seems sooooooo sluggish! It doesn't have near the power it had before.

Had our MAF replaced about 700 mile mark and it did not slow down our CRD. The ours is a rocket.

spottyrecordkj · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2006 12:43 pm

Hopefully it is like they said and it just needs to relearn how I drive. Which is like I stole it!

oldnavy · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2006 1:03 pm

spottyrecordkj wrote:

Hopefully it is like they said and it just needs to relearn how I drive. Which is like I stole it!

That's the only way to drive a modern auto diesel.

Exhaust Smoke

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