Morning start rough/white smoke

Started this tough winter, thought just the cold. Spring and still morning rough start/white smoke. Took to TDI mechanic spent $600 on oil leaks gaskets and other. But still tough start. May not be relevant:1. replaced gas cap with generic when lost mine?compression?. 2. Has new battery but having electrical short on rear tail still problem solving kinda feels tough battery juice/short could be draining (should not give white smoke on morning start only?)3. Feels like not getting fuel (fuel pump? recently been letting it get really low. Dad always told me not to do that as it wears fuel pump. 4 This is second 2005tdipassat/owned one 6 years. Thanks in advance for your brain.. to point me in possible right direction.

First, you need to verify the correct software for the glow plugs are in the car.

There was a change in the glow system on these, which resulted in a LOT of poor cold starts (or no starts) that had to be fixed.

Car left the factory with Bosch 7v ceramic plugs. These were obsoleted, so if any of them failed, they ALL needed to be replaced with a 5v Bosch steel plug and the software updated.

However, these quite often didn't start correctly. So they changed again, this time back to a 7v ceramic plug, but by NGK, and the software had to be changed again.

If you have the original software in the car, you can swap the newer 7v NGK plugs in, and the ECU won't know the difference, and it'll start up just like it did from the factory (which was superb).

But if you have 5v plugs in there now, you need to swap to the 7v NGK plugs AND have the software updated.

That would be the first thing to check on.

Did this get resolved?

OH

my wagon in the last six months intermittently has a difficult start and then rough idle for 10 to 20 seconds then smooths out. sounds like misfiring but smooths outs quickly. doesnt happen all the time. glow plugs and software were done years ago too. happens in warm and cold weather. i was worried about the starter and battery but they check out ok. Any thoughts?

1. fuel injection quantity OK on VCDS. all similar +/-.45 to .9
2. resistance of lift pump 2.8
3. I hear the lift pump when i turn the key.
4. I change the fuel filter once a year.
5. Is the fuel check valve in the lift pump or the tee piece connector on the fuel filter top?
6. Torsion value at 0
7. No codes with VCDS

so i switched out the thermostatic tee on top of the fuel filter and the starts are back to normal and less vibration in the engine. dont know if the o ring seal was bad or what.