I have been Stealthed, but...

an2rey

an2rey

A2OC Donor
Hi guys,
I am in need of your advise and expertise here. I have visited Stealth today for a long wanted remap and all was going well up to the point when I came back to pick up my car. Vince told me that my car is a very unusual one as he has found a difficulty to control the excessive smoke levels at higher revs. And indeed, the workshop was full of black smoke when I turned up. He said that even on the standard map the car was given a lot of smoke, and the post remap smoke can not be controlled. What can be causing the smoke issue on my car is still unknown, Vince told me that he is not very happy how it went and even offered to take the new map off and install the factory one back on the car. In order to trace the smoke issue he has suggested to change the fuel and air filters first to see if there any improvement and take it from there. Also guys had asked me about my driving style, suggesting that it just needs some good blast to clear out all the nasty build up in the exhaust system. Well.., I do not drive like a granny, the car is in everyday use and done 12k in one year of my ownership, mixed driving of A roads and London's traffic.
Before the remap I did notice excessive smoke only when I step down on the accelerator while overtaking or taking off quickly, smoke is visible in the rear view mirror, especially in the dark while somebody's headlights following you. I thought it was normal for a diesel.

I am in a bit of a dilemma now, what to do, especially when Vince had offered to take the new map off and leave it as it was, I can tell he was not happy. I don't know whether to leave the new map on and do the filter's change to see the difference or go back to Stealth to take the map off as per Vince's advise.
My car is a 55 reg and on 42k at the moment, always was serviced by Audi in accordance with service schedule.

On the different note, my figure are:
Before: 80.7 bhp @ 3647, torque 167.0 @ 2389
After: 100.4 bhp @ 3705, torque 198.3 @ 2256

I would much appreciate guru's view on my situation.

an2rey
 
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Mine was very smokey when he mapped mine but he did nock it down a bit which has kept it under control, i would change the filters give it a good blast and see then. I've been doing alot of miles of late well the last couple of weeks done over 1500miles and last night some chav in his little Paxo tried under cutting me at a set of lights so i just give it a little boot to put him in his place and mine belched out a big cloud of soot. Think thats due to the fact that even though i've done a lot of miles i've kept it low revs so it does from time to time need a good clear out

Phil
 
Hi i would also add some millers injector cleaner to the tank then see if that helps---it may be that the injectors are not atomising the fuel properly and causing excess fuel going down the exhaust and smoking. The power ant tourque figures are still good so i cant see it being a major issue. With the remap you will find the engine revs to the red line so use the increase in revs to clear it out.
nice to see vince being very customer concerned--a nice bunch of guys at stealth cheers mike
 
Thanks for your suggestions Phil and Mike. I just finished a bottle of Millers injector cleaner last week, that I used on the long runs, so it is a bit of a puzzle all this smoke issue. As Vince said the figures are all good and what he has expected, the turbo is intact too. Could it be poor quality of diesel (Sainsbury's) in last fill up? I have always noticed increase in smoke from Shell diesel, which I stopped using a while ago.
 
Hi an2rey,

Sorry to hear this. Personally I'd have the factory map re-applied until the issue is found and rectified. As you were having some "smoking" issues prior to the re-map, diagnosis should be just as easy and you'd be employing a little caution.

One thought on possible cause:

If you drive at a steady 60mph, does it smoke (may need someone to follow you)?
If not.....drive at 60mph for about 1 minute, take your foot off the accelerator until at 50 mph (do not brake, just let the engine slow the car down) and then plant your right foot hard until 70MPH.
If you notice smoke while accelerating you may have worn valve-stem oil seals or worn valve guides.
The smoke in this case would be caused by engine oil leaking past the valve-stems and into the combustion chamber, and then being burnt.

Not to wanting to scare, but one of the worst things you could do to a poorly engine is give it more usable power, as something is likely to break sooner rather than later.

Hope you get it sorted.

Cheers

Jeff
 
Mustang-owner said:
Hi an2rey,

Sorry to hear this. Personally I'd have the factory map re-applied until the issue is found and rectified. As you were having some "smoking" issues prior to the re-map, diagnosis should be just as easy and you'd be employing a little caution.

One thought on possible cause:

If you drive at a steady 60mph, does it smoke (may need someone to follow you)?
If not.....drive at 60mph for about 1 minute, take your foot off the accelerator until at 50 mph (do not brake, just let the engine slow the car down) and then plant your right foot hard until 70MPH.
If you notice smoke while accelerating you may have worn valve-stem oil seals or worn valve guides.
The smoke in this case would be caused by engine oil leaking past the valve-stems and into the combustion chamber, and then being burnt.

Not to wanting to scare, but one of the worst things you could do to a poorly engine is give it more usable power, as something is likely to break sooner rather than later.

Hope you get it sorted.

Cheers

Jeff
Click to expand...

i would just like to add that oil smoke is very different from over fueling smoke or poor combustion---i would think that if vince had found blue engine smoke he would have not have let you leave with the re map. Agree it needs to be looked into to find the cause. cheers mike
 
Mustang-owner said:
Hi an2rey,

Sorry to hear this. Personally I'd have the factory map re-applied until the issue is found and rectified. As you were having some "smoking" issues prior to the re-map, diagnosis should be just as easy and you'd be employing a little caution.

One thought on possible cause:

If you drive at a steady 60mph, does it smoke (may need someone to follow you)?
If not.....drive at 60mph for about 1 minute, take your foot off the accelerator until at 50 mph (do not brake, just let the engine slow the car down) and then plant your right foot hard until 70MPH.
If you notice smoke while accelerating you may have worn valve-stem oil seals or worn valve guides.
The smoke in this case would be caused by engine oil leaking past the valve-stems and into the combustion chamber, and then being burnt.

Not to wanting to scare, but one of the worst things you could do to a poorly engine is give it more usable power, as something is likely to break sooner rather than later.

Hope you get it sorted.

Cheers

Jeff
Click to expand...

Hi Jeff, re: your test, if i accelerate from 50 to 70, put my foot down, it would choke some black smoke out for sure, as Mike have suggested the smoke is not blue (oil burning) and most likely caused by poor combusting or over fuelling.
The guys at Stealth were very helpful, no doubt, but unfortunately, could not pin point the possible cause. At the end I had to take it and see how it goes... Of course it could be just a soot built up or a serious underlying problem....?
 
A road driving is not the same as a good motorway blast, sounds to me like you need to do the filters, add injector cleaner, use a few tanks of premium diesel, and give it the full beans in the lower gears ocassionally to blow out the crud. If you can't get a good hard drive at 80+ then drop a cog or two and drive at high revs for a good few miles on a journey that gives the engine a good workout. pretty sure that will suffice. Are you using supermarket jungle fuel? If so switch to premium brands such as Shell/BP/Esso. I have been driving diesels for 25 years averaging 20k miles a year and have found supermarket diesel is generally false economy.
 
I agree with the general view that Stealth would have identified smoke from burning oil.
Also the suggested test for oil drawn into the cylinders due to valve guide or seal wear does not really apply to diesels. As they don't have a throttle butterfly there is virtually no vacuum in the cylinders to suck oil down the valve guides on the overrun.

Cheers Spike
 
Black smoke = fuel
Blue smoke = oil
White smoke = coolant

replace all filters with OE or good quality aftermarket parts.
use a fuel cleaner in the fuel
change to high cetane diesel fuel - V power/Optimax
refrain from using "supermarket" fuel and only "to get you home"
give the car a good run
monitor smoke as best you can, and also fuel consumption

your car may be over fuelling or have dirty/defective injectors

keep us posted

blue skies
tony
 
I think people today are driving steady to conserve fuel and in doing so will not drive like they would normally. I give mine a good blast on the way to MOT to make sure it never fails on smoke as a couple of years ago i had been doing a couple of months of just town driving and forgot to give it a blast and so the first part of the test black smoke and the reading went well high but over the test the smoke came down to normal levels, where last year i gave it a good blast before hand and the smoke reading was very low and no smoke. I'm due a service so all filters are due for change (well K&N a clean) so hopefully will calm my smoke down. Deffinatly change the filters and see how you get on, just echo others Stealth would not of let you leave with the map on if they thought it was and engine issue causing the smoke

Phil
 
Different car but funny story. My wife has a Mk5 Golf 1.9tdi, only 4 years old with ave mileage. We took it on holiday last year as it only get driven the 4 miles to work and back normally. Nice long drive down to York in that heat wave we had last Sept, was great, didn't miss a beat and averaged over 60mpg, was well impressed.

Anyway, was pootling about near York off the M1 and there was a guy behind me in a BMW acting the fool. It's only the 105bhp Golf so thought I'd drop a cog and give it the beans. Anyway of it rockets (all that it can). So I looks in my mirror and the world has literally gone black! I've put out so much soot that the guy in the BM has cacked himself and almost gone off the road. Didn't mean for that to happen at all, but I did have a chuckle once he straightened his car back up, think he thought our Golf was going to self destruct ;)

Just goes to show you that a lot of sedate driving really does build up crap in these cars. I now give it a boot every month when I can and it's never bad but you do get a good puff of smoke.
 
I put a generous dose of Millers into the tank and went for a good drive on the motorway in 3rd and 4th, revs were in the red zone, 10-15 min hard revving, hopefully cleaned all the nasty soot build up. There was some black smoke at times but not a cloud.
I would definitely change the fuel and air filters or might do a major service at Stealth as Vince has suggested and see if there any improvement.
I tend to drive more carefully these days considering the price of diesel and trying to watch my mpg figure as you do, so it might well be the soot build up.
Thank you guys for your prompt input I have taken all of it on board and will keep you updated on the development.
The car is much lively after the remap it nice to have that kick when you need it, accelerates rapidly in 5th and engine is much smother. Overall Happy.

an2rey
 
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I've never had a soot buildup problem in the A2, but I used to get it all the time in my old Passat. I found that booting it in 4th uphill at full throttle on the motorway about once each 2000 miles would clear it out in a minute or two.
 
Here's a thought, My Mercedes V Class Diesel, it has 'twin' cats on it. Anyway middle of last month the exhaust decided to make a clean break from one of the cat ends. Before the exhaust decided to fall apart, the car would belch out a cloud of smoke upon hard acceleration.

I decided to replace the entire exhaust system from the manifold to the tail pipe, including the twin cats, and guess what? ....yep no smoke when accelerating hard any more! :)



Cheers
Sarge
 
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