Wierd diesel smoking issue

[dodgerover]

Odd one this, a friend has a modern Hiace van with a turbo diesel in it. It has started to randomly smoke badly on occasion on start up, dense white smoke BUT it doesn't smell like the usual normal unburnt diesel caused by low compressions.
It starts pretty much instantly, sounds lovely (to my old fashioned ear it actually sounds a little retarded but I don't do modern diesels so that doesn't necessarily mean anything) and is running on 4.

Will randomly clear after a little while then it doesn't do it again until maybe when it's been turned off.

No other unusual symptoms other than he says he has to top the brake fluid up occasionally but has had to do this for the last 3 years and it does look a little damp around the reservoir.

He's had it in for a garage to look at it and they've said no fault codes are recorded which is odd as we had the MAF sensor disconnected to see if it was working, they've also had the down pipe off and said to try a turbo at £1100 as it's a bit oily in there but no guarantee it will fix it.

Any ideas?

[zoompod]

Could it be brake fluid being drawn into the servo, I seem to remember reading something like this before. Clutching at straws as like you I'm old Perkins diesel era.....

[Phil H]

Common rail with a weeping injector? Leaks after stopping the previous time then has a load of unburnt diesel to get rid of?

Clutching at straws - just like the guy who just plugs it in and reckons there’s nothing wrong..

Could be pooling oil in the intercooler too - TBH many possible reasons but white smoke from failed servos is normally from ones in the fluid line, not the indirect ones since the mid 70’s (where they fit between the pedal and master cylinder).

[drseg]

synthetic oil is white smoke as is brake fluid as is water start it with inter cooler pipe off see if it is same do same with servo maybe try see if they give any pointers try intercooler clean out how much oil in it
hard to guess without dismantling

[mk2cossie]

Modern diesel with white smoke on start up could be a duff glow plug as well as the injector fault mentioned above

[dodgerover]

The oddest thing about the smoke is it doesn't smell of either unburned diesel or burned oil, it does stink though and really hangs about!

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see if I can get him to have a check what the state of the inside of the intercooler is and find out about getting a leak down test done on the injectors.

[carat 3.6]

It wont be anything to do with brake fluid so tick that one off. If it was the turbo it would do it every time it was parked overnight.

Without knowing exactly which engine it is I wouldn't want to guess, but the injectors are the favorite culprits for that sort of thing.

[v8ian]

My Tiguan used have odd smoking sessions, turned out to be the EGR valve was misbehaving, and the price for a new one was criminal plus fitting, I sold it quickly,

[welshpug]

on a diesel engine the servo is not connected to the inlet, they use a vacuum pump, given there is very little vacuum, and usually lots of boost.