Possible Causes Of White Smoke From Exhaust

[mikeylexus]

I have white smoke emmissions coming from car particularly evident when changing gear. I don't appear to be burning oil, or coolant and there is no smell or impact on the driving of the car. Being a diesel, I'm thinking that its something to do with the catalytic converter but wondered if members have a better idea?

[ColinBarber]

Potentially a blocked ERG valve and/or DPF. As you aren't losing coolant the head gasket should be okay. The Cat won't be the cause of the smoke.

[Shepherd]

white smoke from IS220d is usually unburnt diesel being thrown out. When the car detects that DPF filter is clogging up, it send a lot of diesel to burn the soot of. Some times this works but if the DPF is really clogged up, or pipes leading to your differential pressure sensor are clogged up then its just plain unburnt diesel being thrown out which comes out as white smoke.

When I had my IS220d i cleaned the EGR valve, used BG244, gave car some heated running at high reves, and pressure opened the differential pressure sensor. But still I got white smoke and an average of 33mpg.

[Guest bigbullhead]

Mine has come back with no loss MPG only when it's frosty and cold though I think it will clear in the spring but like people say keep on top of your egr cleaning mine was machined cleaned by Toyotech in salfords Gatwick alot better than doing it yourself and lasts till next service!!!

Hope that helps

[mikeylexus]

Thanks everyone. I'll ask my local garage to get the EGR valve cleaned.

[Rokamunky]

Hi all, first time posting. I am about to embark on cleaning up the egr valve but wanted to ask a couple of questions first.

When disconnecting the Battery, apart from the auto function of the windows is there anything else I need to be aware of when reconnecting it?

And when cleaning the manifold out of carbon, is it best to hoover it out, or does it matter if a little fall's inside?

Thanks in advance

[Rokamunky]

Don't worry about it now. Cleaned the egr, hoovered of the manifold and rebuilt.

Reconnected the Battery and the only thing was the windows that needed resetting

[zoran]

Was it badly coked up?

[Rokamunky]

Yeah it was pretty bad, gutted I didn't take photos but the appeture in the manifold was around 3-4mm in diameter! The egr itself was pretty bad too, probably 5mm thick at its worst parts

[zoran]

Mine was like that when i first got the car,i cleaned it out and i now clean it every 5k miles,never very dirty now when i clean it,i use VPower diesel which seems to help keep things cleaner

[Rokamunky]

I use vpower too, and probably going to use bg244 as suggested by others on here. When you clean it out do you clean the metal pipe too? I tried as best I could although it wasn't that bad

[zoran]

Yeah,i have a pipecleaner type thing,sorry i dont know proper name for it.its what the mrs use to use to clean out my flask!!

I give the pipe a good spray inside it with oven cleaner,leave it half hour then shove the pipecleaner in to scrub it.

Theres never a real lot of muck in that pipe to be fair.

I use the bg244 ,good stuff it is,i normally use a can every 10k miles

[Rokamunky]

Which oven cleaner do you use? I went at it with a small screwdriver and a cab of carb cleaner.

[zoran]

I use to use carb cleaner then brake cleaner then i used wynns egr cleaner and the last time i did it i used mr muscle mousse oven cleaner and it was just as good !!

[Rokamunky]

Cool, I'll give it a go next I think. Do you notice a big difference in performance as you get close to clean period?

[zoran]

I used the mousse type purely because i thought it would cling to the inside of the pipe better while it was left for half hour before i scrubbed it

[zoran]

Not really noticed any change in performance as it approaches cleaning time but when i first got the car and cleaned it my mpg went up from 32MPG round town to 36 straight after cleaning but it was really badly coked up

[Rokamunky]

After I cleaned the valve I took it for a quick drive to see whether the was a difference and I noticed that great changing was smoother, mpg seemed a lot better although I need to take it for a longer run and it also pulled off a lot smoother too

[zoran]

Yes it affects it badly if the EGR is badly coked up,have you cleaned your MAF meter as well?? i normally give mine a clean as same time as i clean EGR

[Rokamunky]

What is the MAF meter?

[zoran]

Mass airflow meter ,its a small box screwed onto the air intake box,unscrew it and give it a good spray with a good electrical contact cleaner..i use the one made by WD40 with the yellow nozzle available from Halfords..then leave it for a while to dry completely and screw back on.

If the MAF is dirty it can cause poor running/mpg

[Rokamunky]

Cheers, I'll take a look at that tomorrow and give it a blast.

[zoran]

Yeah its well worth doing,only takes a few minutes to do but it has to dry completely,if you unscrew it then look down the side of it you will see the tiny wires well down inside it ,a good blast with the cleaner and the pressure alone brings any dirt off

[ColinBarber]

similar to the following:

http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/tutorials/article/103-rx300-series-i-cleaning-maf-sensor/

[mrr1]

I've just sold my 220 to my dad a week ago. He's just had the Lexus white genie appear and asked me about it. It did the same to me about a month ago and I assumed it was simply a regen, but now I'm wondering. The cars got 133k on the clock (2007) with a new short block put in by Lexus F.O.C. at 85k (usual head gasket issue). I had dpf issues at 110 k and ended up getting the dpf hosed through. I cleaned the egr at the same time and promised myself I'd make egr cleaning a regular thing (another resolution down the pan..........)

Car appears to have lost a little coolant but the front of the engine isn't spattered like before - so I'm praying its not the hg on the replacement engine. I'm not sure how long its taken the coolant to drop.

I'm guessing

1 - egr blocked and desperate for a clean and a dose of dpf cleaner

2 - leaky turbo seals

3 - leaky injector seals

4 - dreaded hg again

The white smoke has only happened twice in about a month so hardly regular, which I hope rules out 2 and 3. Car runs OK but mpg a little low.

Questions;

Is there a diy sniff test for the hg?

How do you remove and clean the inlet manifold? Is is a big job?