[Vwdiesel] 200 Jetta TDI - Low power/stalling

[Doyt W. Echelberger]

When my 1982 Jetta na diesel did the white smoke/loss-of-power thing, it 
was discovered to have skipped a notch on the timing belt.  That made it 
out of time.

It blew a huge plume of white smoke out the back the entire time the engine 
was running.  We were 150 miles from home and it was dark.   But the car 
ran, and I dropped down to a gear that kept it going at a safe road speed, 
and we got home without anything breaking.

I have heard others say that white smoke means coolant getting into the 
combustion process.

Maybe it was due to an improper injection of fuel, and maybe it was due to 
the improper timing stressing the head bolts and allowing a slight warp, 
with coolant leakage into the combustion chambers.

If your coolant level is dropping as the car runs, I'd suspect the warped 
head explanation for your white smoke. I'd also look for black oil sludge 
in the coolant overflow tank, as a sign of some connection between the oil 
passages and the coolant passages. Oil can get into coolant other ways, but 
if the coolant level is dropping, it is escaping somehow, and white smoke 
could be the way it is doing that.

Doyt Echelberger
85 Jetta TD


 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
At 01:17 PM 8/15/2006, you wrote:
>We have a TDI that started slowing down, producing white smoke and 
>stalling when driving at times. Our repairman is stumped.... Any ideas?
>
>   GW