Rust Damage: Is It Bad for Your Engine?

Hello, I have a new A3 2.0 TDI with a tuning box from www.kw-systems.de installed. The performance is great, really excellent, but one thing isn't so great: when accelerating hard at low RPM, it produces significantly more smoke than it does in its standard configuration. It's not visible from inside the car, it's not that bad, but a friend followed me and said he could see a cloud of smoke. However, at higher RPMs, it hardly produces any smoke at all. Now my question: Is this very bad? I mean, I've often seen diesels produce smoke, it's not unusual, but is it just unsightly and not modern, or could it damage the engine? It only happens when accelerating hard at low RPM; at higher RPMs, it's hardly more than the standard configuration, if at all.

Best regards,

Can you adjust the settings on the box?

Best regards, WarLord.

No, that was only the case with the older ones; the ones for PD engines are fully electronically controlled.

Best regards,

Alright then, I would definitely complain about that. Even if it's a tuned engine, it shouldn't be smoking.

Best regards, WarLord.

They say it's normal, because it already produces some soot from the factory, and it can't get better with the exhaust box, it might even get slightly worse. I just want to know if it's harmful.

Best regards,

For the environment: Yes. For the engine: Probably not. For the turbo: The variable geometry turbine (VTG) vanes can become clogged and thus difficult to move (as reported in this forum).

Best regards, WarLord.

For the environment: Yes.

Well, the environment... (not that I'm an environmental offender, please don't misunderstand), but I read somewhere that particulate matter from cars accounts for only 0.9%, and that the rest, including buses, etc., is actually the most harmful.
I'm relieved if it's not directly harmful to the engine, as I don't drive like that constantly, but occasionally. I think it's not bad if I accelerate gently, i.e., slower, but it only smokes when I accelerate directly to full throttle.

Best regards,

Passenger cars account for 4%, with the remainder being trucks, ships/rail (no standard, but high-sulfur heavy fuel oil), industry, and households.
I also find the discussion about mandatory filters to be unnecessary. It's not that I don't think environmental protection is a good thing, but right now, with a tenth of the money it would cost to retrofit cars with filters, we could at least halve the total soot emissions. Therefore, I find the whole thing to be superfluous, not to mention the increased fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Deleted upon request.

Hi,

Besides the problems described, you also have increased contamination of the engine oil with soot. This could, under certain circumstances, lead to a shorter service interval if your car's electronics can already detect it.
Regards,

Hello.

Deleted upon request.

diesel.gustav wrote:

... To the best of my knowledge, the soot load is not being recorded, or am I mistaken?

Hello Gustav,

The answer to your question is JEIN.

Currently, the engine control unit (ECU) only estimates the soot load of the engine oil in longlife applications. This is done, among other things, by recording the temperature increase in relation to the load, from which it is possible to infer or estimate how heavily the oil is "contaminated" with soot. Furthermore, the oil pressure at certain oil temperatures can be used to assess oil wear.

Sensors that can directly detect oil degradation are likely still in the experimental phase.

Anyone who has dynamic oil pressure and oil temperature gauges in their car can notice the changed behavior after an oil change (but it takes some practice to understand what these gauges are telling you).

Deleted upon request.

Hi diesel.gustav,

diesel.gustav wrote:

I just checked: According to my information, Mercedes CDI models have a sensor in the oil pan that can measure the oil level, the oil temperature, and also the "oil quality" (whatever that exactly is).

VW engines with WIV also have this feature. The new 2.0 16V TDI should definitely have WIV.
I've also seen that description somewhere before at VW.

Quote:

Could the amount of soot in the oil significantly affect its properties as a dielectric material?

Absolutely!

For this to work, the fresh oil must be a clear and precisely defined dielectric material, and the variations between manufacturers must be extremely small, otherwise the whole process will not function.