Fecking weather

move south aint been to bad down here

Been doing quarry work today. As I drove out, one of our tippers stopped me. "Missed the rain then", he said. "Yup". Apparently up to the roundabout 500 yards from where the quarry was, it was raining so hard you couldn't see 20ft down the road.

Well I still didn't manage to get the glowplug out yesterday so earlier today I did what I chould have done in the first place and bought a deep hexagonal socket. The little bastard came out no problem. Replacement fitted, no more smokey starts! Just got a bit wet this time, no hail today lol

Next job, sort the exhaust out...

And it's still smokey. It must have been ok yesterday because the engine was still a bit warm. Just tested it now and the smoke was back. I know it's not oil; it's light in colour and I can smell the chip fat lol

So that's all four glowplugs changed. I suppose one could have failed in the meantime, is there any way of testing them? Is there anything that could be causing them to work inefficiently?

Get the injectors leak tested. Your symptoms are exactly the same as lorries when the injectors leak. We don't use glowplugs unless it's like -20C and you have to manually put them on so that excludes them being a possibility in a lorry.

You know, I'm thinking more that this could be worth looking into. I've just turned it over from cold a couple of minutes ago and no smoke at all. So it's possible that they leaked overnight and accumulated enough fuel to produce smoke when I tried first thing this morning, but not enough has built up between now and then to smoke on the second start.

In fact now I've typed this... When it first started smoking I'd have a smokey start first thing in the morning, drive the 130 miles to Lytham, do a day's work there and not have a smokey start when I set off for home. After a while I was getting smokey starts when I left Lytham, that's why I've started messing about with it again, the guys I work with were starting to take the piss...

Well that's pretty much what happens with lorries. When they get a lot of miles on them, they'll smoke a bit on first startup in a day until the excess diesel is burned off. The smoke you get is a white/grey in colour. Either the springs go weak or the needle seat wears.

If the glowplugs check out, that's where I'd be looking next and a diesel specialist should be able to test your injectors for you although they'll need removing from the vehicle.

Cheers mate, I'll go down that route when I get chance...

Ok, a quick check in the Haynes manual says the injectors will last about 60k miles. Car's done 94k so I guess they've done well.

Googling sugests replacements aren't cheap :(

What part of the injectors wears out? Can they be reconditioned?

They seem to be £35 or so a go from GSF, although they list one type at £148 each

Yeah, reconditioning is common; I bet that £35 is for a recon...