Need some input! Cloud of grey smoke on startup

J.P.

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Location
Northern MI
TDI
Black 05 b5.5V/6spd w/274k miles (daily). Silver 02 Golf/5spd w/240k miles (fun 1). Mint Tornado Red 01 Golf/5spd w/440k (ALH still perfect!!!).
Out of curiosity, what is your injector balance with the maf unplugged?
I will check that!

Other car is a Rocketchip tune so I'm pretty sure it has immo delete. Swapping the ECU sounds like the best next step to easily isolate an EGR problem. Time to learn how to properly pull the ECU.....
 

jmodge

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 18, 2015
Location
Greenville, MI
TDI
2001 alh Jetta, RC2 w/.205's 5speed daily summer commuter and 2000 alh Jetta 5spd swap, 2" lift, hitch, stage 3 TDtuning w/.216's winter cruiser, 1996 Tacoma ALh
Remove wipers, plastic cowl cover, slide the locks out on the ECU electrical connectors and they pop off. The ECU slides out of its mount. Check the suffix, ‘03 and maybe late ‘02 are different
 

MattRabbit

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 12, 1999
Location
Orlando, FL, USA
TDI
2015 Golf SE TDI, 2014 Beetle TDI, 1981 Rabbit Diesel
The EGR in that car is brand new (well, it was in around November). I had a vacuum leak that was acting like a failed EGR. I replaced it chasing the problem down. I kind of doubt that's the issue now.


The injectors are definitely old, as it was 'next to replace' on my list. I didn't get around to it, so that's a definite maybe.


The MAF was replaced 5 times when the car was new. I finally got the 'C' rev of the MAF and the problems stopped happening. When I would get MAF failures in the car, it would cause a serious lack of power. Like, it couldn't get out of its own way. If you swapped MAFs and it smoked until warm, I'd run it for a few days like that just to see if the smoke stops completely.



Wasn't there something else in the system that could cause issues? The N75 valve or something like that? It's been a long time since I've read about smoke issues, as I never really had any in this car. It was seriously built like a tank.
 

jmodge

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 18, 2015
Location
Greenville, MI
TDI
2001 alh Jetta, RC2 w/.205's 5speed daily summer commuter and 2000 alh Jetta 5spd swap, 2" lift, hitch, stage 3 TDtuning w/.216's winter cruiser, 1996 Tacoma ALh
I read wires breaking at bends in the harness are common under the hood, one of the reasons I had everything I could deleted after an ECU failed.
 

J.P.

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Location
Northern MI
TDI
Black 05 b5.5V/6spd w/274k miles (daily). Silver 02 Golf/5spd w/240k miles (fun 1). Mint Tornado Red 01 Golf/5spd w/440k (ALH still perfect!!!).
Cloud of Startup Smoke Issue Resolved with a Tune

My apologies for not updating this thread!

Thanks to all for your help and input on this issue. I ran out of time / patience / ideas and had the car tuned - issue resolved. I did a TD tune through Whitbread that deleted MAF and EGR (left in place) No more giant clouds of smoke on startup!

I'm a bit bummed that it is no longer a totally stock tdi with over 400k miles on it anymore, but it sure scoots now!

Had an issue with the tune as there was some kind of power blip in the middle of loading and it bricked the stock ECU. Had to use a spare ECU that was not a perfect match, and just found that it looks like I can't adjust IQ via VCDS anymore :-(

Still chasing some pesky oil leaks (oil cooler, valve cover gasket) and have an outer CV joint on the way out :-(

JP
 
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MattRabbit

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 12, 1999
Location
Orlando, FL, USA
TDI
2015 Golf SE TDI, 2014 Beetle TDI, 1981 Rabbit Diesel
I toyed with tuning the car for years, but I'm too much of a wimp to try it. It ran so well with everything stock that I just left it alone. It'd be fun to see how much power it gained! Good luck with the car. I miss it quite a bit!
 

J.P.

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2007
Location
Northern MI
TDI
Black 05 b5.5V/6spd w/274k miles (daily). Silver 02 Golf/5spd w/240k miles (fun 1). Mint Tornado Red 01 Golf/5spd w/440k (ALH still perfect!!!).
The car is a little ripper now!

We have had a bunch of car issues so cars have been rotating and my wife is driving it now. Super clean red mk4 with an attractive woman driving it has 20somethings in tuned japanese cars pulling alongside regularly! :-o

I did upgraded injectors as well. With the upgraded injectors the car had a really nice boost in power. Adding the tune made the car really fun to drive.

I followed IndigoblueWagon's guidelines for solid reliable performance upgrades keeping the stock turbo and exhaust (just do nozzles, tune, clutch).

JP
 
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