Excessive white smoke from exhaust Is220D

[Cordog]

I recently bought my Lexus is220D 09 and was very happy for first couple days

im getting about 30mpg which I knew was poor but hey old car so what can you do

anyway after a couple days I noticed plumes of white smoke coming from my exhaust. This usuallly happens after I’ve been idling, or driving slowly through town. On the motorway, once up to a reasonable speed, it doesn’t really smoke at all. 

I don’t believe it to be the head gasket as it doesn’t have the usual signs (milky oil, losing coolant etc)

I have since learned through my own research that this is a quite common problem with these cars, but I still haven’t been able to get a definitive diagnosis. I plan on doing a test to rule out the head gasket, but after that, I’m not so sure. Should I replace the 5th injector? Clean out the EGR? Map out the dpf and 5th injector entirely?

I’ve seen so much conflicting information about this topic and I really don’t know where to begin. It’s a shame because I love the car but it’s almost undriveable with the amount of smoke it sh*ts out

and before anybody says it… yes I know I’m a moron and I should have bought the IS250

although in my defence the tax for those here in Ireland is fairly oppressive

[DavidCM]

I've just come back from a week in Ireland,both North and South.I have never seen so many IS series Lexus, especially in Southern Ireland.

It is apparent from many posts on here that Lexus are missing a huge gap in the market for small(ish) saloons to compete with 3 series/C class/A4.

[Las Palmas]

A diesel is not a drive slow through town car. Diesel engines need to be really warm if they are to perform like they are built to.

[Cordog]

3 minutes ago, Las Palmas said:

A diesel is not a drive slow through town car. Diesel engines need to be really warm if they are to perform like they are built to.

Be that as it may, I drive 2 diesel vans for work and they don’t suffocate half the the people in every town or city I drive through

[Linas.P]

58 minutes ago, Cordog said:

I recently bought my Lexus is220D 09 and was very happy for first couple days

im getting about 30mpg which I knew was poor but hey old car so what can you do

anyway after a couple days I noticed plumes of white smoke coming from my exhaust. This usuallly happens after I’ve been idling, or driving slowly through town. On the motorway, once up to a reasonable speed, it doesn’t really smoke at all. 

I don’t believe it to be the head gasket as it doesn’t have the usual signs (milky oil, losing coolant etc)

I have since learned through my own research that this is a quite common problem with these cars, but I still haven’t been able to get a definitive diagnosis. I plan on doing a test to rule out the head gasket, but after that, I’m not so sure. Should I replace the 5th injector? Clean out the EGR? Map out the dpf and 5th injector entirely?

I’ve seen so much conflicting information about this topic and I really don’t know where to begin. It’s a shame because I love the car but it’s almost undriveable with the amount of smoke it sh*ts out

and before anybody says it… yes I know I’m a moron and I should have bought the IS250

although in my defence the tax for those here in Ireland is fairly oppressive

Well... so if it doesn't clear after a while and when engine is hot, then it will be head gasket issue. Now without seeing how much smoke it blows it is hard to say. But I would say if it blows it until engine get's to temp then stops... it will be just water condensation (sometimes it is surprising how much of it comes out on cold morning). But if you drove for 30 min and slow down and it is still blowing white smoke that can't be condensation.

You only going to get milky oil etc, if it is the part between oil and coolant that is blown, but if passage between cylinder and water jacket is blown then it would would blow white smoke. 

DPF, 5th Injector etc would result in black smoke not white smoke, burning oil would be blue smoke. So you are only left with diagnosis of coolant burning. I mean last guess - maybe you get some old diesel and it has absorbed loads of water? Especially now when they put ethanol and biodiesel in everything it can go surprisingly bad and surprisingly quickly. 

I am pretty sure that programming out EGR, DPF or 5th injector would be illegal in Ireland, same as it is in UK.

I do consider Irish vehicle tax stupid and unfair, clearly counter productive in this case, but that is not justification for pollution either.

[Cordog]

On 4/24/2023 at 9:53 PM, Linas.P said:

Well... so if it doesn't clear after a while and when engine is hot, then it will be head gasket issue. Now without seeing how much smoke it blows it is hard to say. But I would say if it blows it until engine get's to temp then stops... it will be just water condensation (sometimes it is surprising how much of it comes out on cold morning). But if you drove for 30 min and slow down and it is still blowing white smoke that can't be condensation.

You only going to get milky oil etc, if it is the part between oil and coolant that is blown, but if passage between cylinder and water jacket is blown then it would would blow white smoke. 

DPF, 5th Injector etc would result in black smoke not white smoke, burning oil would be blue smoke. So you are only left with diagnosis of coolant burning. I mean last guess - maybe you get some old diesel and it has absorbed loads of water? Especially now when they put ethanol and biodiesel in everything it can go surprisingly bad and surprisingly quickly. 

I am pretty sure that programming out EGR, DPF or 5th injector would be illegal in Ireland, same as it is in UK.

I do consider Irish vehicle tax stupid and unfair, clearly counter productive in this case, but that is not justification for pollution either.

I checked the head gasket with a combustion leak test and that came back negative so I’m still trying to diagnose. Going to take it to a Toyota guy nearby so hopefully he can shed some light