Lexus IS220D blue smoke from exhaust

[JamesDavidMcAuliffe]

Hi all,

I’m new to LOC so apologies if this has been covered by somebody already.

i purchased my Lexus IS220D 2011 roughly 6 months ago and unfortunately it has had an issue since my first week of ownership that the dealership I purchased it from are refusing to take responsibility for.☹️

The car looks flawless and drives flawlessly however as soon as the car hits optimum temperature it begins to emit heavy white/blue smoke. Absolutely nothing at all until it hits optimum temperature though. (The mid-point on the temperature gauge.)

When hooked up to a diagnostics machine it flags no faults at all. 

The dealership I purchased the car from changed the air filter, as if that would make any difference, which it did not.

I took the car to Lexus themselves who charged me an extortionate amount to replace the Battery and reset the ECU. They also believed that the issue was caused in part by the dealership overfilling the oil an excessive amount and also using the wrong grade of oil so they also did an oil change and changed the oil filter. I now have the car back and it still omits this smoke as soon as it gets to optimum temperature. 

Has anybody had this issue before? Or have any ideas on what the cause may be? Any help would be very much appreciated.

many thanks,

James

[NemesisUK]

Is the car performing a DPF regen?

[JamesDavidMcAuliffe]

7 hours ago, NemesisUK said:

Is the car performing a DPF regen?

I don’t think so, smoke is continuous as soon as the car reaches temperature 😞 

[Shahpor]

Welcome James,

Can you not take the car back to the Lexus dealer since their diagnostic isn't correct?

Failing that, it certainly does sound like DPF regen, especially if it is pumping out a lot of smoke.

The car won't perform the regen until the DPF is up to temperature, so that might explain why it is only happening when the car is warm.

Having said that, the main dealer should have been able to tell you the block percentage of the DPF and determine if the car was trying to clear it.  It should also be noted that an error code will only appear if it is excessively blocked and 'unrecoverable'.

Have you tried taking it for a long, hard run?  If not, it is possible that the car is not being given enough time to do the regen.  Take it for a run of at least 15 minutes at over 2000rpm which should get it nice and hot.

Let us know how you get on.

[JamesDavidMcAuliffe]

On 3/5/2019 at 11:22 AM, Shahpor said:

Welcome James,

Can you not take the car back to the Lexus dealer since their diagnostic isn't correct?

Failing that, it certainly does sound like DPF regen, especially if it is pumping out a lot of smoke.

The car won't perform the regen until the DPF is up to temperature, so that might explain why it is only happening when the car is warm.

Having said that, the main dealer should have been able to tell you the block percentage of the DPF and determine if the car was trying to clear it.  It should also be noted that an error code will only appear if it is excessively blocked and 'unrecoverable'.

Have you tried taking it for a long, hard run?  If not, it is possible that the car is not being given enough time to do the regen.  Take it for a run of at least 15 minutes at over 2000rpm which should get it nice and hot.

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks for the response. 🙂 

I think that will be the next step unfortunately. 

I’ve just taken the car for a 60 mile blast making sure to keep the revs nice and high and the smoke is no less evident than it was before.

The car only seems to emit clouds of blue smoke under acceleration. 

There’s also no lights on the dashboard to suggest any issues.

Any other ideas?

[Shahpor]

Hi James,

Have you checked your oil level recently as blue smoke normally indicates it is being burnt?

[JamesDavidMcAuliffe]

21 minutes ago, Shahpor said:

Hi James,

Have you checked your oil level recently as blue smoke normally indicates it is being burnt?

Hi Shahpor,

when I took the car to Lexus they said that the dealership I bought the car from had overfilled the car with oil, so I would suggest that it doesn’t seem to be using excessive oil as they wouldn’t have noticed that the engine oil had been overfilled I would imagine? 

[Shahpor]

It is hard to judge at this point really.

The standard thinking for smoke is white for water, black for fuel and blue for oil.  This is not necessarily a hard and fast rule, but it seems to be pretty accurate.

How long has it been since the Lexus dealer drained/replaced the oil?

[JamesDavidMcAuliffe]

Within the week. 😞 

[olliesgrandad]

Not an expert on modern diesels but if it is blue oil smoke could it be due to bore wear and oil burning as it bypasses the piston rings when hot. Carefully checking the oil level daily would certainly assist in deciding if the engine is burning undue amounts of oil. 

[Shahpor]

8 hours ago, JamesDavidMcAuliffe said:

Within the week. 😞 

Hmm, it might be worth going back to them and chasing it as a potential misdiagnosis.

Alternatively, it could be too soon and the excess oil is still being burnt off.

 

[JamesDavidMcAuliffe]

4 hours ago, Shahpor said:

Hmm, it might be worth going back to them and chasing it as a potential misdiagnosis.

Alternatively, it could be too soon and the excess oil is still being burnt off.

 

Thanks for your advice. I will be taking the car back to them this week. I will keep you posted with their diagnosis. 

[lexmadman]

Hi,

I have a 2006 IS220d and have a similar blue smoke issue, the DPF threw up an error 3 yrs ago so i took it out and got it cleaned by a company in Tyrone, no DPF issues since. it has never burnt a drop of oil since the day i got it. The smoke started maybe 5 yrs ago but very little at first and it progressively got worse, dont think it was anything to do with the DPF, there is always a smell of diesel now when i stop at a junction etc.and theres no smoke until it warms up, i think there is less smoke on warmer days. i had 2 injectors with large leaks so i replaced all 4 injectors with injectors from a scrap yard about 2yrs ago and ive no injector issues now. I also changed the DPF differential pressure sensor twice but no difference, other than the blue smoke the car runs well. There is over 415,000 kms on the clock as i was doing long commutes for years so i frequently gave it the high revs motorway dpf burnoff. It is passing the NCT also, i give it a dpf burnoff immediately beforehand just in case. I read in a seperate forum from one guy that his wiring from the dpf differential pressure sensor to the ecu was broken and when he fixed it is solved the smoke issue, but surely if the wire was broken the car would throw up a fault, i unplugged my sensor and it threw up a fault, i also swapped the pipes and it threw up a fault so that would suggest the sensor is working ok. Mine is the exec version, fully loaded and going well so id like to solve the issue and keep it instead of selling it as it. Anyone have any ideas. 

[is200 Newbie]

1 hour ago, lexmadman said:

Hi,

I have a 2006 IS220d and have a similar blue smoke issue, the DPF threw up an error 3 yrs ago so i took it out and got it cleaned by a company in Tyrone, no DPF issues since. it has never burnt a drop of oil since the day i got it. The smoke started maybe 5 yrs ago but very little at first and it progressively got worse, dont think it was anything to do with the DPF, there is always a smell of diesel now when i stop at a junction etc.and theres no smoke until it warms up, i think there is less smoke on warmer days. i had 2 injectors with large leaks so i replaced all 4 injectors with injectors from a scrap yard about 2yrs ago and ive no injector issues now. I also changed the DPF differential pressure sensor twice but no difference, other than the blue smoke the car runs well. There is over 415,000 kms on the clock as i was doing long commutes for years so i frequently gave it the high revs motorway dpf burnoff. It is passing the NCT also, i give it a dpf burnoff immediately beforehand just in case. I read in a seperate forum from one guy that his wiring from the dpf differential pressure sensor to the ecu was broken and when he fixed it is solved the smoke issue, but surely if the wire was broken the car would throw up a fault, i unplugged my sensor and it threw up a fault, i also swapped the pipes and it threw up a fault so that would suggest the sensor is working ok. Mine is the exec version, fully loaded and going well so id like to solve the issue and keep it instead of selling it as it. Anyone have any ideas. 

I don't have the diesel 220 version (have the 250) but have read owners on here changing the 5th injector on these to resolve issues - you say you have changed 4 .... could there be one you have missed?