Diesels & Exhaust smoke

knackered turbo or blocked air filter most probably?
Or he had the handbrake on
Or maybe that "engine disease" has spread to the Pathy from the ZD30!!!

G'day and welcome, more than likely you'll find it may have been the injectors that were knackered, has been thrashed and driven into the ground!
Happy hunting!

andy

Thanks for the replie so far.

Hopefully just a once off.

Just have to make sure when having a test drive to look out for it as I won't be buying brand new maybe a year or two old models.

Hi One4 (or should that be "Mr Dirt"?),

Welcome to the forum.

"Surely there must be something wrong" - surely there is! No modern electronically-controlled diesel should "billow" black smoke (or even noticeable smoke, for that matter) unless something is seriously wrong. Thick black smoke means serious over-fuelling and will lead to engine damage sooner or later (probably sooner).

Rather than knackered turbo (which would more likely produce blue oil smoke due to failed bearing seals) or knackered injectors (these generally have a long service life [but then, I must admit I don't know what sort of injection system the new Pathfinder 2.5 has]), I think some failure of the injection control system would be more likely.

If the Pathy uses a hot-wire mass air flow meter-based system like the ZD30 Patrol, then perhaps this might be a suspect? The ZD30 air flow meter is well documented on this forum for causing major upsets to that engine's operation...

Maybe one of the diesel servicing specialists who frequent this forum can let us know if they've encountered any particular problems with the new Pathy's injection system?

I just re-read you post and noticed the "Even when this thing was coasting at 80kmh it was puffing it out" bit. That's very odd, as it should be near impossible to have over-fuelling when the throttle is backed off. Perhaps a severe airflow restriction? Or maybe what was in the tank wasn't really 'diesel' at all? All very strange! - and definitely not typical at all for modern diesels.

If you look after a diesel (service regularly) they won't smoke. My cruiser has over 300,000 kms and blows no smoke. I think what you saw would have to be a "one off", or as the other contributors have said, it has been trashed to within an inch of its life.
Jack

A good friend of mine bought the new Pathy about 8 months ago. I was following him the other day and his too was chugging out a bit of black smoke... I was suprised but but didn't think much of it. He drives his around town only buit definately doesn't thrash it. Curious...

My hilux has just clicked over 300,000 and no smoke yet!

All Japanese diesels blow smoke from new. Get used to it.

could have been a manual and the owner dosen't know how to change gears?

Nothing unusual at all mate. Its a Nissan thing as th dude above said - get used to it.

If driven around town mainly - the black smoke problem will occur. I found that if you push the engine hard (after the engine has warmed up) most of the smoke will disappear after a few weeks. I believe this action "cleans" some of the cr*p off the injectors and the intercooler/pipework.

Nothing wrong with my 20 yo. diesel cruiser with 560km on the clock. Mates got one and it don't blow no smopke unless worked beyond the point of normslity, Ie 4000rpm.
In all seriousness it is probably a 'high tech 4-cyl euro disel' commonly known as crap on its way to the wreckers.
4.2 it and you will get there slower, but this is better than not getting there at all. IMHO.

Patrol Ben