So I stopped and switched off !
Hi All
I have my Discovery III TDV6 S 2006 'on tour' in Europe and she's been fabulous as a tour vehical, until 1) the virus stopped the touring; 2) I had a reconditioned gearbox fitted by a Greek garage.

200 miles after picking it up after the gearbox work, she's running very well, no loss of power, smooth idle and running; but a plume of white mist, smelling strongly of kerosine drifting out of the gap between fuse box and LHS injectors (LHS looking forward).
There's too much obstruction to see where it is coming from while I'm at the side of the road, so I'll start dismantling the wiring loom, etc that obstructs the view, after I've checked with you good people.
I suspect a leak from the high pressure rail or an injector, but I'm surprised by the fine mist, rather than a spurt of more liquid fuel. Also, the car is running well??

I was confident in the Greek garage who seemed professional (and btw very expensive), until I checked under the bonnet and found an oily rag lodged at the side of the fuse-box. I'm hoping that perhaps there's another oily rag causing the mist - but I think not!

I've searched the forum for anything similar, but drew a reletive blank, so maybe not a common problem (or my search capability is uncommonly rubbish).
Any initial ideas on what I'm facing. Any pointers to previous posts that I should look at?
I can't drive as the mist is likely to be very flamable, so any thoughts would be very welcome.
Best
Paul

 

Hi Paul

Just a thought, is it being produced by the vehicle heater which I think is located thereby ? Although if you are in Greece I presume the air temp would prohibit the heater starting, maybe during the gearbox work something was disturbed, surely if you have just paid for the repair, the technician should investigate the cause, if it is their fault then rectify it FOC

DRW

 

Whatever it is, it isn't kero. Agree with the above post; if the smoke appears when you've just started the vehicle or have just turned on the ignition before starting it's the fuel heater. (A separate heater fitted to diesels that uses diesel to warm up the coolant and circulate it around the engine to reduce wear). It will show as white smoke coming from the front left of the vehicle; you'll also hear a short of whooshing noise when it's running. Perfectly normal and sounds like what you're describing. It kicks in from memory when the ambient temperature is at about 5 degrees C and lower.

 

Hi DRW,
It will be great if it is the fuel heater - its between 12 and 22 degrees C here - and crawling underneath today I can see fuel dripping onto the exhaust; just can't quite see from where.
Would love to get it back to repair shop, but they are 200 km away, back in Athens. If it comes to it I could load it onto the car ferry and get it back across the Saronic Gulf to Athens. I just don't want to deliver a fireball!

 

Hi Pagoda and *555
I have a fuel burning heater, and any problems with it would certainly sound a whole lot cheaper to fix than maybe a leak from an injector or high-pressure rail which I thought I may be facing! Its just that the cloud of fuel vapour was coming from the gap between the fuse box and engine when the hood was up. There was so much of it that its probably overflowing into the wheel arch. The FB heater is forward of the fuse box, and looks like its nicely and tightly fitted. Its also between 14Co-25Co here in Greece.

Now that the engine's cooled I can get my hand down the side of the engine. With the engine running, I can feel dripping fuel onto the LHS exhaust manifold. Crawling under, I can see where the drips (lets call it a 'spurt') is coming from, but its certainly wetting the exhaust manifold. Would this, when hot, have caused the cloud of fuel vapour?

Access isn't great down that side, but perhaps I could get a camera down there.

Perhaps the area took a knock when they dropped the engine for the gearbox change . . . ? However, 'persuading' a Greek technician its his fault maybe a challenge just using my limited linguistic skills !

Can I post a photo as a newbie?
P

 

 

If the temp is that high you can discount the heater I suspect.

 

I have a video of leaking fuel. Still some doubt as to where it is coming from. It <<looks>> like the end union of what looks to be the common high pressure fuel-rail for the left three injectors. There is a screw-on union that might have blown its seal.

The other option <might> be the inside injector that is spurting high pressure fuel over that end union assembly, making it look like the fuel-rail union is at fault.
Of course, that inside injector is a legendary inaccessible unit. Is changing out the fuel rail fittings any better?

I've got a pretty clear video of the tinkling fuel, which then drips down onto the exhaust manifold, which would account for the steaming fuel vapour I first saw

 

Just to close this off, I eventually found that on the low pressure fuel return piping (5 tube sections, with 5 push-fit connectors), one connector had perrished sufficiently for fuel to "tinkle" like a lawn watering system over the exhaust manifold. This produced the fuel vapour rising on the LHS of the engine and LHS wheel arch when stationary.
A replacement of the whole 'part' (that's 10 elements of the whole tube-connector chain) was difficult, but once done solved the problem. That's EU340 for the part, and an hour's labour with some ingeneous tools made by my local garage.
This also 'caught' a bolt holding the high pressure fuel rail that had loosened, so bonus points for that !
Thanks to everyone for their help. It was a real bonus just having some knowledgable minds on this, that helded me get to the solution.
Great stuff !
Paul

 

They are a bugger to get to, only just saw this post and my first thought was the fuel cooler on the RH side near the starter motor, they are known to leak on occasion.
I had a metal injector line that wouldn't seal on the LH bank and diesel ran down onto the exhaust and produced clouds of smoke.