Blue Smoke On Diesel Start Up

[Tafia]

Hi folks,

Wife's Corolla D4D T3 has started to emit blue smoke on start-up after it has been standing overnight. It goes after perhaps 30 seconds and the car has just passed an MOT. Warm starts, no smoke.

It was also difficult to start in the very cold weather and would also emit a lot of smoke when it did start. Anyone suggest what the cause may be. Valve stem seals? I am guessing diesel smoke is black and engine oil smoke is blue.

Cheers

T.

[Corrolla18]

Hi folks,

Wife's Corolla D4D T3 has started to emit blue smoke on start-up after it has been standing overnight. It goes after perhaps 30 seconds and the car has just passed an MOT. Warm starts, no smoke.

It was also difficult to start in the very cold weather and would also emit a lot of smoke when it did start. Anyone suggest what the cause may be. Valve stem seals? I am guessing diesel smoke is black and engine oil smoke is blue.

Cheers

T.

Not worked on any of these but have you tried checking for mayo under the oil filler cap. Also have a check for cloudy coolant - if either of these are present could be a problem with the cylinder head gasket.

[dervdave]

Wife's Corolla D4D T3 has started to emit blue smoke on start-up after it has been standing overnight. It goes after perhaps 30 seconds and the car has just passed an MOT. Warm starts, no smoke.

It was also difficult to start in the very cold weather and would also emit a lot of smoke when it did start.

Most likely culprit is all or some of the glow plugs not working and the engine isn`t firing the diesel straight away.

Unburnt diesel is emitted blue (its only light oil after all)

The other and worst scenario is bad compression.

[Tafia]

Wife's Corolla D4D T3 has started to emit blue smoke on start-up after it has been standing overnight. It goes after perhaps 30 seconds and the car has just passed an MOT. Warm starts, no smoke.

It was also difficult to start in the very cold weather and would also emit a lot of smoke when it did start.

Most likely culprit is all or some of the glow plugs not working and the engine isn`t firing the diesel straight away.

Unburnt diesel is emitted blue (its only light oil after all)

The other and worst scenario is bad compression.

Hmm, interesting. The car starts very quickly in hot weather but during the cold times, it was very poor. So I had better get the glow plugs and relay checked.

Thanks for your response

[CorollaD4D]

glow plugs are not too expensive and you can change them yourself if you're half decent at using a spanner and have 15mins free. change all 4 and see what happens, ngk ones are better than the toyota ones and are a few quid cheaper also. :)

[Tafia]

glow plugs are not too expensive and you can change them yourself if you're half decent at using a spanner and have 15mins free. change all 4 and see what happens, ngk ones are better than the toyota ones and are a few quid cheaper also. :)

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Cheers

T.

[Tafia]

Wife's Corolla D4D T3 has started to emit blue smoke on start-up after it has been standing overnight. It goes after perhaps 30 seconds and the car has just passed an MOT. Warm starts, no smoke.

It was also difficult to start in the very cold weather and would also emit a lot of smoke when it did start.

Most likely culprit is all or some of the glow plugs not working and the engine isn`t firing the diesel straight away.

Unburnt diesel is emitted blue (its only light oil after all)

The other and worst scenario is bad compression.

Well folks, we took the car to the Toyota dealer to have the fuel filter replaced and to check the glow plugs. Filter was quoted at £45.

As we sipped our coffee in reception and waited,I wondered why the 20 minutes plus check the glow plugs was taking longer than I expected.

Pretty lady said: "They are preparing your paperwork now" Out comes the service advisor with a bill for £163 or so. "We have replaced the glow plugs, they were running hot" he said. ???????

I had a moan and asked why they could not have checked the glow plugs individually to find the faulty one ( if indeed that was the cause of the blue smoke) and was told they could only check them all together. Clearly not true. I asked why no one had come to us to discuss the extra work before changing all the plugs. " I'm trying to do five things at once" said the chap. "If that doesn't cure the smoke we may need to strip the engine down"

WHAT?????

So we paid up without a smile. Just started the car from cold and lo, the blue smoke did not appear. So, it seems the problem was glow plug related but I really don't see why they were all replaced, especially as we were not told of their intentions. Is it a mileage thing or a let's get more work thing?

Thanks again to all for pointing me in the right direction.