Engine smoke when parked downhill

[charliebrown]

Hi All,
Has any one had a similar experience where if a 3l D4D is parked facing downhill it starts rough and smokes.If left for 3 hours facing downhill the engine hydraulics, then starts with a lot of smoke and runs very rough for a minute or so.
The fuel filter and injector 4 have been replaced and Diagnostic checks do not show a fault.Otherwise economy and power are consitent since new .The vehicle has done 160.000k's and doe's not smoke when driving.Any feedback would be apreciated.

[9W6VX]

Moving to drivetrain components section.

[oldrev]

Hi All,
Has any one had a similar experience where if a 3l D4D is parked facing downhill it starts rough and smokes.If left for 3 hours facing downhill the engine hydraulics, then starts with a lot of smoke and runs very rough for a minute or so.
The fuel filter and injector 4 have been replaced and Diagnostic checks do not show a fault.Otherwise economy and power are consitent since new .The vehicle has done 160.000k's and doe's not smoke when driving.Any feedback would be apreciated.

mate the symptoms your describing about the engine " HYDRAULICS" and then runs ok later dont make sense.
basically if you have hydrauliced the engine by the cylinder being full of liquid then you have some serious issues.
its a wonder its still going
you need someone experienced to diagnose the problem

[tasibrett]

Its quite possibly oil built up in the intercooler or piping thats running into a cylinder or two as its only when angled . Most likely caused by blow by or it could be turbo seals. Earlier Toyota turbo diesels always have blow by due to tapered rings and over fulling the sump gets oil droplets dumped into the intake piping with similar symptoms except its a left or right angle.

[Gulfstream8]

Hello charliebrown
I need to know a little more information.
• What colour smoke just after it fires. Very important
• How many klms on your vehicle
• What sound is the starter motor making before it fires, “does it struggle to turn the engine over”
• How old is your battery
• How many CCA`s is your battery
• After it starts could you let it idle until it’s warm then rev it hard and tell me again what colour smoke and how bad it is. This is important again but make sure you make a note of the colour from the start smoke and the idle smoke
• And lastly, not a real issue but what oil and viscosity are you running

[Gulfstream8]

I also forgot to mention

Turbo`s don’t have “Seals”, depending on brand and manufacture they run oil rings that are made out of a similar material to the piston ring in your engine.

The reason for this is that there is no “Seal” material that can handle the temperatures or the speed that a turbo generates. For more information about Turbo`s go to http://www.turbofast.com.au

Also of interest to your situation is that most manufactures are concerned about “Hot Shut Downs” which will damage a Turbo. To reduce this effect they place a very large oil intake pipe for lubrication above the Turbo and a small return line back to the sump. What this does is after shut down the oil continues to trickle through the Turbo not only trying to keep it cool but also to prevent the oil from “Coking”. This is when the oil gets so hot it turns to carbon. Remember the Turbo is operating at around 600 degrees.

So in your case if your parked on a very steep incline the oil might be leaking into the compressor of your turbo giving a very “Rich” start mixture and completely confusing your ECU, hence the trouble starting.
Don’t be too concerned about it leaking a little bit; the cheap solution is to find another place to park it.

[charliebrown]

Thanks guys I really appreciate the feed back .More information as requested;
The smoke is light blue
Its done 160,000 k's
The noise it made on the worst occurrence sounded like it cranked against a partially seized or hydraulic engine ,it cranked over twice like this then started with plenty of smoke.
The battery is a 660 cca which is 12 mths old .cold start on an incline blue smoke,warm no smoke. When parked flat it starts perfect with no smoke. The oil is
Standard Toyota service issue. Also I compared the blow by to a mates at 80000 k's .in comparison mine chuggs a bit more
chugg

[charliebrown]

Also I'm off to toyota tommorrow afternoon to put the diagnostic equipment on for an inclined start after an hour or so rest.
Will report back on the results , tipping they will show nothin again...they are going to upgrade the ecu flash also to address the cold start knock.

[Gulfstream8]

Hello charliebrown

With what you have described the light blue smoke is unburnt engine oil and if the truck is serviced regularly and not flogged every day I’m willing to bet its nothing sinister, just oil leaking past the Turbo into the compressor then getting sucked into the engine because of the angle you are parked on.

The engine struggling to start is a combination of the engine getting a very rich mixture (engine oil) and the “hard to crank” sound I think is in relation to how the Turbo sits on the D4; if enough oil leaks into the Turbo it would be possible to create a small puddle of oil in the compressor housing causing a small blockage at start up.

You will have to park it somewhere else.

[charliebrown]

Thanks Gulfstream8 ,
sounds like a good cheap solution to me...I will get the boys at toyota to have a look tommorrow and if there is no other response parking up hill it is .
Cheers

[tasibrett]

If you get the bad news from Toyota, I would get a quote then ring around. I did one on a 2007 Rodeo about a month ago, genuine was $3,400 after market was $1,350 .It was too far gone to repair.

[getgoin]

G'day all,

Just wondering if this issue was resolved at all, or if any one else has similar issues. I am experiencing the exact symptoms.........rough running at start up and blowing smoke then comes good. Only occurs when parked on a downhill slope??? Leaking injector maybe??

Any feedback or ideas would be great. Cheers

[lester1968]

Hi,
I have had the same thing with my 2006 D4D, Toyota had a look for two days and parked it on an angle.
they agreed that i had a problem told me to park on a flat and sent me on my merry way

[Stevo]

Hi,

I think I'm suffering the same problem. Rough idle and smoke on cold starts, sorts it's self out after a stab on the loud pedal and then runs fine. Just had a 110000km service on the 05 SR5 at Toyota and they said they were unable to reproduce the problem. Wondering if anyone was getting closer to a cause? (or diagnostics advice) as this has me a little worried with the price of repairs to the d4d.
Cheers,

[rustys]

Just had a mate ring me with the same problem he just bought a 05 3l D4D with 110,00kms on it and it is blowing smoke on start up after it is parked for about 1 hour .
Just had it to Toyota and they could not find any thing wrong with it $500, so took it to a turbo Diesel specialist and they charged him $1600 and said it if all fine but it still blows smoke on start up after 1 hour of sitting.
I was thinking valve stem seals or turbo any help would be appreciated as I am not up to speed on these late model Diesel engines.

Thanks Garth

[Jack S]

Well is the smoke black meaning excess fuel or blue meaning oil in the cylinder. I guess depending on the colour might help narrow down the problem....

[rustys]

No it is defiantly oil smoke and clouds of it.

Thanks

[Jack S]

The oil compression rings on the pistons could be rooted, need to remember that a diesel engine will actually run on oil as the compression will burn oil, yet it's not good for engine at all because the burning of oil is uncontrollable!
And like you said it could be the valve stem seals, they may be cracked, perished...

[tasibrett]

No it is defiantly oil smoke and clouds of it.

Diesels that have a weeping injector will blow clouds of white smoke at startup which many people say is oil.

sort of like a dripping tap out the injector, and all dripped fuel gets caught in the piston and goes out the exhaust pipe unburnt as white smoke on start up.

[seanr72]

a mate of mines hilux has just started doing this , clouds of white smoke on startup then clears it self after a few seconds, only when it sits for 4 or more hours and it worse when it sits over night, done 170000ks.
is it worth doing the faulty injector or do them all???