my OM602 is puffing smoke at start up and idle.....

[56speedster]

I have noticed recently that my car puffs some smoke everytime I start it and sometimes even after running errands. After dark this evening, the car's (behind me) headlights allowed me to notice that my car was smoking----puffing smoke at the redlight after making about an hour commute. This is my first diesel so I was wondering what could be the problem.
the car is a '91 300d with 79200 on the ODO.
it has been meticulously maintained (all scheduled service, and synthetic oil changes every 3000-3500 miles).

any thoughts and thanks for reading......

[barry123400]

If you are pretty sure it is something new with your car. I would change the fuel filter and wait till it gets easier to identify. It probably is going to get worse if it just started. A marginal fuel filter can cause strange effects.


If it is smoking steadily at idle though. You could loosen one injector line at a time and have someone watch the tailpipe to see if smoking stops with any injector off line.

If it does stop the smoking just pull it and have the injector checked out. Unless it is the number one injector. For that swap two injectors and retest the number one and swap donar cylinder as it could be the head gasket failing.

Since the car has been maintained I would not expect to see a partially plugged air fiilter blocking air to the engine. I have purchased one example with a seriously restricted air filter. A 617 engine though.

[56speedster]

thanks for the info