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Smokeless moan

I own a 2002 Mercedes C220 CDI automatic, regularly maintained, still good to drive and still giving over 50mpg on motorways. Oil consumption is also very low. When accelerating hard, which I don¹t do very often, there has long been a puff of smoke visible in the rear view mirror. In the last year or so that has become more of a cloud though only for the first few seconds of the acceleration. Even so, rather embarrassing and possibly a brief annoyance for those behind me. Normal acceleration in town or at speed causes no problem; it's just that foot hard down moment and goes within seconds. Should I worry about this? The car has done about 64000 miles. As I do
only about 8,000 miles pa there is no good reason for me to change the car unless the smoke is a pointer to something serious brewing so I¹d appreciate your comments. In case it¹s relevant, I usually buy Tesco or Sainsbury diesel fuel.

Asked on 19 June 2010 by M.A., Watford

Answered by Honest John
Lightly used diesels that don't have particulate filters simply accumulate a lot of soot in their exhaust systems. When you accelerate hard, that is blown out. Best to use a fuel system cleaner and take it for a blast at high revs before each MoT to pass the smoke opacity test. If you always get black smoke when accelerating hard then the most likely reason is failed turbo oil seals.
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