Rough idle and white smoke...it was the fuel filter

[RKinkead]

My truck with 39K miles was starting rough with a billowing cloud of white smoke. I was sure I had a leaking bad injector. I described the symptoms to my dealer service advisor and he told me to bring it in for a new set of injectors. This weekend I changed the fuel filter just to see if that would help. The previous filter had only 5K miles on it and didn't "look" dirty when I removed it. I buttoned up the truck with the new filter and all the problems are gone! It runs beautifully!



This was a Fleetguard 7m filter with only 5K miles on it!!! I guess I'll start carrying an extra filter and a 1 1/8 socket in the truck from now on. Whatever was clogging that filter was too small for the eye to see.



This is my first common rail diesel. I had a '99 CTD and a couple of VWs with rotary pumps. I have a VW Passat with cam-driven pump injectors. Would a clogged fuel filter cause low pressure on the rail? Would this translate to poor injector performance?



Anyway... all is well now.

 

[B.G. Smith]

Did you see any evidence of water in the fuel filter? I could see water causing rough idle and smoke , mine was doing it with less than 10,000 miles on it, got so bad the dealer picked it up on a flat bed wrecker. They never did any repairs to it though, added some injector cleaner, didn't change the fuel filter either. They said I had some bad fuel but I had 125 gallons of it at the time and have since burned it through a couple of times. Is running ok right now. bg

 

[RKinkead]

I drained the fuel filter cannister into a catch pan. There was no water that I could see.

 

[ChrisKringle]

I was told every 5000 miles from a Chevy guy where injectors are a known nemesis.