300TDI Stutters and hesitates...

[radiooli]

Hi all.

I've just found the forum, and so far it's been really helpful! Now it's time for me to pose a question.

N reg 300 TDI Disco has started to hesitate just recently at around 2800-3000rpm. Driving today I noted that when it hesitates/holds back there's a puff of white/blue smoke from the back. It only does it in gear ie; foot on clutch and it rev's fine (No stutter/hesitation/holding back). It only appears to be when it's pulling. Obviously it's causing an issue on the motorway because when I want to do a whole 70mph it just won't do it, espicially up hill! lol

If any of you have any ideas to help out, then cheers in advance. My local garage plugged it in the other day and it wouldn't talk back to them...DOH!! It might be that my scart socket is ******ed as well. But they said it really could be a number of things. I've read about others experiencing similar things but there's never really been any concise return answers. Might just be coz it's one of those "Up in the air" faults?!

Just to add, i've been using a biodiesel/dino-diesel mix for the last 2 months.

Happy holidays all,

Oli. :0)

[ComicalEngineer]

White / blue smoke sounds like head gasket. From your description, starting to blow under pressure. When you are pushing the engine, one or two cylinders are losing pressure on the power stroke because of the release of combustion gases from the gasket. This would cause your stutter. On no load, the blow might not be noticeable.

Check for oil in the water, water in the oil or emulsion under the oil filler cap. Any / all of these could mean a head gasket problem. Check also for oil leaks around the head gasket.

[TEMPL4R]

Run it on straight diesel and see if it improves.

Chris

[radiooli]

Chris. I've been running it on diesel this week, but unfortunatly no improvement. Thanks for your reply...

Oli

[TEMPL4R]

Check the Turbo hoses for small splits. It will sense the boost and put more fuel in, but air could be leaking out before it charges the cylinder.

Chris

[radiooli]

FYI, the other possibilitys i've read about include faulty lift pump, rubbish in the sedimenter, waste gate issues and someone evan suggested the other day that it may be the potentiometer? Does a 300 even have one? (Way out of my depth here ;0) )