Black Smoke - help!

[gaspode]

Hi all

Looking for some help on a smoky van problem and you guys seem to know your stuff so how about some advice?

The van is a camper on a '55 reg transit 350 125ps which has hardly worn the polish off the tyres but 'cos I bought it in Germany Ford aren't too interested in warranty work. Not that the local dealer is much use anyway (except at running up big invoices).

We've just got back from a three week trip to France and on the third day over the water the van starts chucking out vast clouds of black smoke when I give it some wellie. The smoke is also evident at cruising speed, but not so pronounced. I put it down to a duff batch of diesel at first but it didn't clear after the next fill-up so checked in at the local French Ford Dealer. "Ah oui oui sir - leave it with us for a few of days so we can diagnose your problem" - fat lot of use when you're a few hundred miles from home! Anyway, they seemed to think it wasn't critical so we carried on with the trip and polluted half of France.

Back home now and need to sort the problem, preferably with minimal reference to the cash guzzling Ford dealer. Reading here I see lots of references to the EGR valve? is this a likely cause? What's the best way to diagnose and sort the problem, seems that crimping the vacuum pipe to the valve might help?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

BTW: I did check the air filter etc. for obstructions - and the van is performing well enough - better than usual if anything.

[madmark]

is the van not under ford waranty???? should be it isnt that old ,mine is a tdci and it will smoke when i put my foot down leaveing a big puff of sooty smoke!

[gaspode]

Hi madmark

No, the van is out of warranty, in Europe Ford only give a 12 month warranty (the lower prices are more than adequate compensation). The German Ford warranty is supposed to be EU wide but just try convincing a UK Ford dealer of that one if they didn't sell it to you!

The van has always given a quick puff when you put your foot to the floor, especially after doing a long downhill stretch on the overrun, I think they all do to some extent, but this is MUCH more than a quick puff, I've been causing dense fog warnings on the Autoroutes all last week.

Just been reading a few more posts on here and it seems that cleaning the EGR valve is also being recommended, can someone tell me how to go about it?

[madmark]

mate there is a possiblity our top man nighthauk will be on and maybe be able to answer your question as he knows everything there is is too know!

[joelp67]

I've got an 05 Rimor with a 350 135 transit cab, until our first service mine chucked out plumes of black smoke and was very noisy, since then it's been very quiet and no smoke at all. I think the the Italians at Rimor fiddle with the ignition or the injection system to try and get a bit more power out of them, I don't know but the problem cleared with the 15,000 mile service.

[gaspode]

Well, we replaced the EGR valve at great expense but guess what?

Spot on - still smoking.

The valve was pretty mucky but didn't seem to be stuck in any way.

Only difference is that the smoking now seems to be intermittent (maybe it was before anyway), sometimes it smokes and sometimes it doesn't.

Beginning to suspect the vacuum relays but it seems odd. Can anyone tell me what the two electrical plugs to the vacuum relay block do? Are they carrying signals from the EMU to the relay block or are they sending pulses from the block indicating the solenoid positions? When the front plug is pulled it seems to have an effect on the engine note but pulling the rear one doesn't seem to do anything.

[gaspode]

Well, you guys didn't seem to have an answer to my smoky Transit so I had to resort to the Ford main dealer. Being a generous sort I thought I'd update you with the solution.

After three days head scratching they came back with the answer - a split in the intercooler. The good news is that they did the repair FOC even though technically it was out of warranty. New intercooler fitted and no more black smoke.

Guess what - the day after I got the van back, someone on another forum posted exactly the same problem - and exactly the same cause. I wonder if Ford have a little problem with duff intercoolers?

[Altransit]

That's interesting

I have spent a lot of time and money trying to track down a similar problem on my sons Focus TDDi, including changing pump and injectors and all manner of sensors

Next stop ......................... check the intercooler Cheers