Assuming its white/grey smoke and smells a bit acrid it's unburnt diesel. The advice i got from the forum was relay then glowplugs. I've changed the relay and the smoke is hardly noticeable on start up. I got a new set of glowplugs but haven't fitted them yet.

The glow plug relay (on a 2005 2.8crd auto) is the grey one (there are 5, 4 black and 1 grey) they are located on the inside edge of the front panel on the right hand side.

My relay still worked when you check it for open/close but it showed signs of heat damage. The large cable connectors which are inside a plastic housing also had heat damage, I couldn't replace them so I cleaned them up. Cleaning the connectors and a new relay cured my white smoke problem, hope this helps.

If you want to check your glow plugs, the new ones I have all have a resistance of 5 ohms.

 

As a matter of interest, what did the relay and glow plugs cost?

 

The relay was about £35 from Chrysler, plugs were £80 ish for 4 from a factor in Hemel Hempstead (£80 each from Chrysler) they are I think a redline brand, not too sure of the quality.
If I were to do it again I think I would consider a higher rated relay, 100amp continuous, you would have to change the terminals to ring type. Or I might piggy back another relay into the circuit, I understand the older vans (mines 2005) had two relays (one relay per pair of glowplugs), personally I don't think the single relay is quite upto the job.

Do you happen to know if you have to remove the coolant elbow that goes to the radiator hose to replace glowplug number 3? Space looks very tight.

 

Thanks for the info on prices etc.

Can't help you on replacing no 3, but I'm sure there are plenty on here who can.

 

Water hose? Is it not the air intake hose? But yes air intake pipe you do take off only 4 bolts.

 

Errrrrrrr.......lots of humble pie stuck stuck in my teeth....your absolutely right Merlin. I should have gone to Specsavers!

 

Morning all, im in the UK and i own the 2007 2.8 litre diesel Grand Voyager Executive XS automatic with the stow and go seats. Weve had the car about 8 months and its been faultless up until about 3 weeks ago when the battery started going flat if the vehicle hadnt been used for about 2 days. Up until this point it hadnt been a problem at all. I looked thru the forums and spoke to various people and no one, including my local Chrysler dealer could give me an exact answer as to the cause of the overnight battery drain.

Im luckly enough to have a friend who is a VW main dealer mechanic, i gave him a call and he took the car into the VW dealers and had it for 5 days. It turns out the problem is a faulty rectifier in the alternator.

He replaced the alternator last week and low and behold the car is back to normal holding its charge overnight perfectly.

I hope this helps some of the other ladies and gents out there who like me have been tearing my hair out when trying to take the kids to school in the morning and having to jump the car off your neighbours car!!!!!

All the best

Matt.

 

Hi. A couple of days ago I have purchased a 2001 Voyager 2.5 crd lx.
The battery went flat at night. I've managed to jump start the car and ran it for about 30 minutes to charge it, but it did not. So I put the battery on a charger and in about 30 mins it was able to start the engine. Let it run for a while and the battery charged up and I was able to start the car for the rest of the day.

This morning The battery was flat again. I've put it on the charger and in about 15 mins the car started up. I was suspecting the alternator being bad and disconnected the the alternator cables to measure the voltage which came in 14.2-14.5.

Next, I put the cables onto the battery and measured the voltage again and this time it showed 13.8 and didn't go higher even when I was revving the engine.

I've changed to another battery and did the same thing 13.8 volts and nothing more. Took the alternator cables off of the battery measured the alternator voltage and 14.2-14.5.
Put it back onto the battery and 13.8.

Any ideas what causing this with both batteries? The second battery was taken out of a working car.

Thanx a lot, John

 

Hi John

Following on from my earlier post it also appears that Voyagers have issues with above average battery drain on the radio/cd player/satnav unit. I'm not sure if yours will have the same unit as my 2007 model but I've bad to have a kill switch fitted to the radio. If I leave the kill switch on by mistake about 4 hours after I get out the car the alarm will sound because it's sensing a battery drain. This keeps happening until the battery goes flat. With the switch off the battery stays charged without the car being used for about 2 weeks

 

After much searching and trial and error here are a couple of things that might cure the battery problem.

The gel batteries are naff and they need 14.4 volts to fully charge them (it says this on a label on the top of the battery) if they are not getting 14.4 then they will only charge to 80% and after a while that is all that they will take. The battery can be changed for a standard lead acid battery, there are 2 or 3 ones about that will fit, but you might have to search for them.

Now this is the new bit that I have not come across anybody else reporting, under the battery tray there is a temperature sensor, if the battery gets to hot (or the sensor is faulty) then the charging rate is reduced to 13.8 volts from 14.5 volts. This ****s up the gel batteries. I found this out by looking on ebay for a volt sensor which plugs into the charging socket in the car (it was about £4) and watching it as a drove about.

The terminals on the sensor was corroded and need replacing but I am looking to fit a new sensor, I believe that they are only about £7 from the dealers.