Diesel engine blowing white smoke under load and loss of power

[sparksy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sparksy]

Ok. This isnt my Prado, happy owner of an 04 120 V6, but my mates 2007 3.0L is having issues. Not sure is the facts are correct as he isnt any way mechanically minded and Im just a baggy arsed sparky with a petrol Prado so what would I know.
He bought this 120 about 12 months ago and is now in WA from Sydney towing a caravan. He noticed issue with the engine coming through Adelaide hills where it started blowing smoke, loss of power and he thinks it went into limp mode but not sure if the 120s have limp.
He made it into Handorf where he got a local mechanic to look at it who I was told at the time diagnosed a faulty turbo boost controller. 4 days later and I think it was $5K lighter he was on his way again but still noticing that it seemed to lack power on hills and strong wind.
He made it across to WA and arrived in Albany today and rang me to say its just started blowing the smoke again and lacking power mainly when towing. He has found a mechanic who can look at it on Friday but on initial inspection doubts that the replaced parts were to blame for the original problem. It appears from the photos he sent me the mechanic in SA replaced the whole turbo unit with a "Jrone" CT12CV turbo unit. I think he was ripped off by first mechanic as the fault is still there but admittedly It wasnt as bad after that work but has now come back.
Hes asked me for my advice as Ive had Prados for forever but as I told him Ive only had V6s and apart from my old mazda diesel ute Ive had no problems or experience.
So question is , could the fault have been with the original turbo and for some reason it raised its head again OR could there be another reason for the smoke and no power that the first mechanic misdiagnosed and his work somehow hid the majority of the problem only for it to raise its head again.

[Daniel150 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Daniel150]

I’d be starting with a compression test.
White smoke in a diesel is raw fuel, as opposed to over fueling which is black.
My first guess is cracked pistons, not unheard of in the 3.0 diesels.
The 1kd started in Aussie prados in 2006 which means he probably has the early model d4d.
Typical signs of cracked pistons are knocking, low power and white smoke.
I hope this isn’t his problem, but there is a good chance.
Obviously very hard to give advice without looking at the car!
Let us know what the diagnosis is.

[sparksy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sparksy]

Thanks Daniel. I hope for his sake it isnt. I have to pick up the wifes car from our mechanic today so will ask him. And if he still hasnt got it sorted maybe he can look at it for him. I know how he feels with a car playing up and being away from home. We broke down just outside of Port Hedland a few years back, and couldnt get anyone to look it for a week. Rang my mechanic and between video calls and checking things he worked it out to be the venturi fuel pump having a blockage or crack. We got home that trip by keeping the second tank full.

[ptommo59 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ptommo59]

Hi Sparksy,

If he can't get a compression check done easily, the other quick way to check if it is a cracked or holed piston is to take the oil cap off and see if its choofing excessively due to blow by. There are a few videos on youtube of what it looks like.

If it's a 2007 did it ever have the original injector seats replaced? As that could be another source of compression loss which also leads to the blocked oil pickup issue that eventually causes piston failure. If he can get access to Techstream or a Scangauge or similar the cylinder injector feedback values will tell him if a cylinder is lacking compression as it will be showing greater than +3.0 on that cylinder. X-Gauge codes to set up for measurement of the feedback values are in this thread. Scangauge II (SG2) Injector Feedback Values (1KD-FTV) - FOUND - Toyota Prado How To's, Technical Information & Reviews (pradopoint.com.au)

Another possibility is a head gasket leaking coolant into the one or more of the cylinders but he should be seeing some coolant loss if that is the case.

As Daniel said let us know what it ended up being when sorted.

[Daniel150 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Daniel150]

Any updates??

[sparksy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sparksy]

I havent heard back from him but was due to pick up car yesterday.

[sparksy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sparksy]

Any updates??

Ok, they arrived at our place in Perth today, mechanic in Albany had to replace the new turbo with another new turbo unit , this time a genuine toyota one. the chinese one lasted 3000km's.
What my mates mechanic in Sydney , the mechanic in Adelaide who replace the first turbo, a mechanic in Pt Lincoln who checked the car over before they drove over the Nullabor all missed was a $50 small filter which apparently filters the oil into the turbo bearings. Called a turbo MAP filter, its about 25mm round 25mm high and had a small crack in the side which leaked oil thus not full oil pressure into the turbo bearings. first replacement turbo failed due to lack of oil as did the original one. Albany mechanic noticed the oil on side of engine bay and noticed the oil weeping out of small crack. So this little filter costs about $50 ( genuine toyota) and all up caused $9k damage.
Mate has contacted the first mechanic but dont know how he will go Re warranty.
Car drives great with heaps of power now and no smoke.

[ptommo59 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ptommo59]

HI Sparksy,

Good to hear all is fixed.

Your mate was told a bit of a furphy on what that filter does. It doesn't filter turbo bearing oil, what it does is prevent oil and other contaminants in the inlet manifold getting to the MAP sensor and damaging it or making it give incorrect readings. In his case the crack would have prevented pressure build up in the path to the MAP sensor giving a low reading and potentially causing the ECU to get fuel to boost ratio wrong hence power loss. The cracking and/or blockage of that filter is from the many reports online a pretty common fault on older KD engines.

If both the original and replacement chinese turbos suffered bearing failure due to oil starvation then he needs to find the cause for that or it may have already been sorted with whatever the last mechanic did.

The other thing that may be an issue is the amount of oil getting into the inlet manifold if it was dripping from the filter, where is it coming from? Could have been a failed seal on the old turbo or the crank case ventilation system.

Cheers Phil

[ptommo59 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ptommo59]

Sparksy,

My last post started me thinking could a leak in that little filter cause the failure of one or both of the replaced turbos? I do not claim to be an expert so the more wise members here may be able to correct or add but the answer I came up with is yes and it links to your mates specific driving case when the turbos failed i.e. Highway towing a caravan under high load (hills and headwinds).

The issue is that the 1KD did not have any form of monitoring of temps or air fuel ratio in the exhaust so has no failsafe for conditions that would cause EGTs to exceed safe levels for the turbo.

The filter crack would have caused the MAP sensor to read low which in turn would potentially have caused the air fuel ratio to lean out reducing power and spiking the EGTs. Your mates response to the lack of power would have been more right boot which would make the EGT over temp issue worse until eventually the turbo oil seals could have failed and starved the bearings and put oil into both the exhaust and inlet manifolds so lots of smoke and more loss of power as the turbo shutdown as he described. So for me at least it now makes sense.

The follow on now for him to consider is what the large amount of oil spat into in the inlet and exhaust can cause sometime in the future i.e coking in the inlet when mixed with the EGR gasses and blockage of the catalytic converter due to the oil directly put through it from the turbo or soot particles from the oil from the inlet being burn't. There is info online on what these can cause but reduced power output and increased fuel usage are amongst them. Hopefully it wasn't that much and not an issue in his case but at least you can tell him to watch out for these symptoms and what may be causing them.

Cheers Phil

[sparksy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sparksy]

Thanks Phil.
Hopefully this problem has been fixed for him. As he has minimal knowledge of mechanical he really was at the whim of the previous mechanics. I'll tell him to keep a eye on any changes to fuel usage etc . Found this video which explains what you mentioned I think. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMimoxyn4Ms

[xliney Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close xliney]

Hi, I have a similar issue,. Engine loudly sucking air thru snorkel when placed in R or D, early RACQ idea is turbo waste gate . Towed to local mechanic who is scratching his head. Good luck

[sparksy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sparksy]

Hi, I have a similar issue,. Engine loudly sucking air thru snorkel when placed in R or D, early RACQ idea is turbo waste gate . Towed to local mechanic who is scratching his head. Good luck

Not a similar issue at all. The turbo failures were attributed to a small filter that is in the line from plenum to the MAF sensor , called a MAP filter. $50 part that cracks or blocks up and destroys the turbo by making it overwork. Evidenced by oil staining on passengers side of the engine.