White smoke after cold start

Hello everyone,

This morning it was quite cold, below 0°C. As a result, my car started relatively poorly, feeling sluggish. I gave it a little gas after it started, or while it was starting, and then it ran normally, like always. After that, I scraped off some of the ice from the rear window and then moved on to the windshield.
After I had some free time, I wondered what was suddenly smelling so strong. I saw that the back of my vehicle was completely engulfed in white smoke, so it was a pretty serious situation!

I immediately drove off, and the smoke was gone; it didn't smoke at all during the drive. Lately, since it gets dark early, I've noticed that when I accelerate quickly from a stoplight, I can see white smoke in the headlights of the car behind me. I also see it when I'm overtaking, so basically every time I rev the engine. In the rearview mirror, it looks similar to the white smoke you sometimes see coming from the exhaust of gasoline engines when the catalytic converter is cold, so it's a very white smoke.

Do I need to worry about that now? While similar symptoms were described in online searches, they usually involved the car immediately stalling upon starting or generally smoking while driving.

The car now has 170,000 km on the odometer. The starting problem might also be due to a bad battery, as the status indicator suggests it's not in the best condition.

How about water vapor at the current temperatures?
What does your neighbor's car do when it starts cold?

Hello,

White smoke indicates incomplete or poor combustion of fuel.
Faulty glow plugs could be the cause of the poor cold start.
Have the injection nozzles been checked for their spray pattern and any potential dripping?

How about water vapor at the current temperatures?
What does your neighbor's car do when it starts cold?

is of course also possible!

Well, I've never owned a diesel before. None of my gasoline cars have ever smoked like that when idling. Standing still, the entire rear of the car was completely enveloped in white fog, making it very difficult to see through. I could barely see my brother's car, which was parked directly behind me.
While driving, the smoke could be coming from steam or condensation. But that's not how it was, um... I highly doubt it.

I'll check the injectors and glow plugs, thanks.

Hello,

There is one or more faulty glow plugs.
If it gets even colder, the engine will run roughly for the first few seconds and produce a lot of white smoke, or it might not start at all.
The best way to check the glow plugs is with a 55W light bulb and the temperature sensor disconnected. I think there's a technical article about that somewhere by Ulf.
I think you can skip the nozzle check.

Best regards,
Albrecht.

This morning, it started up well again after I replaced all the glow plugs.
Normally, I didn't have time to replace them myself and wanted to have it done at ATu, but after they told me it would cost 50 euros, I managed to find 15 minutes and replaced them myself. It actually doesn't take that long.

Here's what the old ones look like, in case anyone is interested.
[img][/img]http://www.henriks-home.com/car/tdi/gluehkerzen/old.jpg{MARKER}

Is that the fuel injector spray hitting the third spark plug from the left, or is it just an illusion in the photo?
If that's the case, I would then check and possibly adjust the alignment of the corresponding injector in the cylinder head to prevent it from happening again.

Regards,
Alex.

Thank you for the information. You're probably referring to this brownish spot? The nozzle isn't corroded or damaged there; it's perfectly round, and all the material is present. But it's clearly brownish in color, like it's "burnt".