Black smoke from a Hyundai Santa Fe

For a couple of months now, I've had an intermittent problem with black smoke from the exhaust coupled with a reduction in power. Recently it's become less intermittent. Motorway driving is fine as even with the problem happening, I can gradually get the car up to 60mph, put it in cruise control and gently get home. However come off the motorway and try to get up and down steeper hills and it really struggles. My local garage (here in France, and not a Hyundai dealer), did a diagnostic test and identified a "problem" with the Air Mass Sensor - so we replaced it. All was well for a couple of weeks then the problem came back. Garage said new diagnostics test showed "No Faults". They suggested perhaps a problem with dirt in the fuel (diesel, by the way). This weekend, I changed the air filter and the fuel filter under the bonnet and, although I did a 100 mile round trip on the motorway yesterday with no problem, today the problem has reared its ugly head once again. Unfortunately my local garage are closed for hols at the moment so I'd be grateful for any thoughts.

Asked on 21 August 2015 by AndrewR

Answered by Honest John
With a diesel, black smoke and lack of power usually means that the turbo oil seals are failing because the turbo is getting too hot because the oil feed pipe to the turbo bearing and the oil return pip back to the block are choked with carbon. The other reason with an old engine, of course, could be failing valve stem oil seals.
Similar questions
My 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe, 125,000 miles, recently suffered catastrophic engine failure. Around 18 months ago, a new engine was fitted under guarantee. The cost of a replacement engine is higher than the...
I have a 2011 FIAT 500 1.3 MultiJet diesel purchased in March 2016. I've had a problem with sporadic engine noise, vibration and black smoke coming out of the exhaust. I've been told there is nothing wrong...
My wife's Fiesta was slightly lagging a bit on take off so I gave the car a service, the usual like oil air filter plugs. After installing the plugs the car was misfiring. So I have done a full check on...
Related models
Pleasant, relaxing drive. Kitted out generously. V6 makes a good sound. A lot of 4x4 for the money.