Sr180 Puffs Of Smoke, Egr Or Summat Else?

[NickSw]

Hello folks,

early a.m. today I made a fairly rapid journey in wifes well laden SR180. (2008, 47K miles, recently serviced).

After about one and a half hours fairly constant 80-90 mph (2300rpm'ish) I was very worried to see puffs of white smoke in the rv mirror about every 3 to 5 minutes.

Eased back to 60-70mph and the puffs of smoke continued. Water temp normal, no lights on dash, no other symptoms. Pulled up when I could just to have a quick look under the bonnet. Engine left idling and it idled correctly. Also checked the back of the car for any deposits, none at all.

Having read advice in this forum, I clean the EGR about once a year.

Continued to destination at a more sedate pace on smaller roads and no sign of any smoke. Engine oil level a smidge below top mark.

Still running well and there seems to be no difference in performance.

IIRC white smoke is unburned diesel.

Is this likely to be the EGR doing what it is supposed to do, or something else?

If so, any way for me to check?

Many thanks, Nick.

[Mistermena]

Hi Nick,

Whats the coolant level like? Any drop or black tinge to it?

[cabcurtains]

Monster Re-Gen Cycle?

[Daveyonthemove]

It sounds to me like it could be the DPF regenerating (Burning off excess soot).

I have never seen this on my SR180, but that could be because most of my journeys are long distance.

Does your wife do slow or short journeys mostly? If she does then the DPF may have accumulated a lot of soot, and your long journey at good speed could have been what it needed to start regeneration.

If coolant and oil levels are good, and the car drives the same as it should do, I wouldn't worry too much, but try and give it a good stretch from time to time.

[NickSw]

Hi Nick,

Whats the coolant level like? Any drop or black tinge to it?

Thanks very much Taff. Just had the chance to check. Coolant is up to level and pink as a baby's bum.

No sign of black, oil or sludge. Wll keep an eye on this.

Nick

[Mistermena]

Hi Nick,

Whats the coolant level like? Any drop or black tinge to it?

Thanks very much Taff. Just had the chance to check. Coolant is up to level and pink as a baby's bum.

No sign of black, oil or sludge. Wll keep an eye on this.

Nick

Thats very good to hear mate! For a moment I thought you were on the start of a HG failure!... Sounds like it could be a re-gen like Davey and cab's said. I try to do as many long trips as I can in my T-180 to get the engine and cat nice and hot to limit the amount of re-gens. V-Power derv helps with this as well as BG244 in the tank I've found once every 10k... I'm going to be trying 2T oil in the fuel soon to see if it makes as much difference as I've heard people saying on the forum, as well as others.

[NickSw]

It sounds to me like it could be the DPF regenerating (Burning off excess soot).

I have never seen this on my SR180, but that could be because most of my journeys are long distance.

Does your wife do slow or short journeys mostly? If she does then the DPF may have accumulated a lot of soot, and your long journey at good speed could have been what it needed to start regeneration.

If coolant and oil levels are good, and the car drives the same as it should do, I wouldn't worry too much, but try and give it a good stretch from time to time.

Thanks Davey,

most of her daily journeys are relatively short. Average say about 20 miles. Shortest about 10 miles. All can be slow and she's not heavy footed, but will cruise at 80-90 where poss on longer journeys.

Coolant/oil levels are spot on and there is no sign of contamination in either.

I made the identical journey last Friday, less laden, at similar speeds. I saw no sign of smoke on that run.

Perhaps I should just take it for a blast every now and again

I don't drive a great deal but received some bumf on the GT86 a while back and like it. Perhaps the wife should have a new car. Subaru/Toyota mix sounds good but totally new platform doesn't.

Thanks for your message,

Nick.

[cabcurtains]

Perhaps I should just take it for a blast every now and again

This is exactly what you should do but not occasionally, a motorway/dual carriageway run for 20mins, ideally weekly to get the DPF Re-Gen completed.

[Daveyonthemove]

I tried to replicate your 'smoke' in my car last night by siting at 70mph in 5th gear on the motorway for 10 miles, keeping the car at 2,500 rpm.

I didn't see any smoke or other signs of a regeneration, so I can only assume this was because...

A) Mine had one recently but it went un-noticed

B) The Shell fuel I use is cleaner and produces less soot so the DPF isn't getting blocked

C) The 2 stroke oil I have been adding to the diesel is producing a cleaner burn than usual and there is next to no soot over the last tankful/ 500 miles.

I really wish manufacturers would build in some form of alert when a car goes into regen mode, as you are supposed to let it complete the cycle in order to keep it working properly. Most people panic if their car produces excess smoke, and pull over and turn the engine off, thus creating a problem. Surely a light on the dash would be easy enough, and save people stress and money.

[Mistermena]

Thats a good point about a re-gen warning light! I'd expect 99% of people to pull over and stop there engines if they saw excessive smoke from the tail pipe! so some kinda warning system to inform you that a re-gen is happening would be a very welcomed addition to my dash board lights!

[Daveyonthemove]

Exactly.

If the DPF warning light can come on when the DPF is full, why can't a green light illuminate the same symbol when it is being regenerated?

Alot of drivers are unaware what a DPF is, or how it works, so expecting them to feel comfortable when smoke starts pouring out of the back without warning is ridiculous.

Before DPF's came along, a big black cloud of smoke out of the back of the car usually pointed to a gasket problem or turbo failure etc etc. Without some sort of info on the dash to let drivers know that the car is doing what it is meant to do, people will assume the worst and panic.

It would be nice if manufacturers did something about this in the future.

[Mistermena]

Totally agree with you my mate. Maybe forum member "DevonAygo" will take a look at this thread and suggest this to Toyota as he works for Mr T

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Monster Re-Gen Cycle?

My thoughts as well, however it really is a monster regen - our agricultural stuff at college just jets one beast of a flame through and that's it.

[Aurissimo]

Hi there... I have had this white puffy smoke since 20k and now at 130k miles it still does it quite regularly. I do ( as you probably imagine from mileage) a lot of motorway cruising so giving it a good run on the motorway does not seem to solve this problem.

In theory the regen should be near enough invisible, but like you say , and in my case the cloud of smoke coming out of the exhaust freaks the living daylights out of people driving behind me... :o

I would guess there is a bit of a mis-match between the signal sent by the pressure sensors detecting the DPF clogging and the level of fuel injection used to burn the particulates off... which means that in some instances it will inject fuel to burn off small or non-existant amounts of particulate, hence the extra fuel passes through the exhaust and straight out as white smoke...

It also, like you point out, seems to happen after crusing for a period of time with constant or little load on the engine... ( like it is waiting for a "quiet moment" to do the regen...)

bottom line, I have had mine (T180) now for 130k miles and engine still running really nice. ( Note egr did clog up at around 110k, but got replaced under toyota extended warranty) . Would not worry about it... other than the sudden embarrasment when you cover drivers behind you in a cloud of smoke...