Diesel smoke? Advice needed!

[lightning]

My friend has a VW Golf 2.0 diesel only 15 months old.
If you drive up a hill in fourth gear at low RPM (about 1500rpm) it produces a fair bit of smoke from the exhaust. You notice it more at night in the headlamps of the poor sod behind being choked with fumes. She's taken it back to the dealer a number of times but they say it is "normal as the engine is under full load and unable to increase speed" They advised her to change to a lower gear.

I need to know if this is correct, is it acceptable for a modern turbo diesel to smoke when under load at low RPM like this?

My Transit Connect tdci put out an impressive smoke cloud when flat out. Although again you could only see it at night.

[bertiejaffa]

Has she not seen the news? Its a Volkswagon and they are (very recently) renown for having bad emissions, killing wildlife and generally pumping out more crap than the entire industrial revolution... tell her to get a Z3.

In all seriousness, 1500 revs in a 2.0l is borderline for pulling away in the wrong gear on a hill I would say - have you had a go in it to get your feel for it?

[Del]

I drive a modern Audi CR diesel with a DPF etc and it pumps out no smoke whatsoever - the inside of the exhaust tips remain completely clean. If the owner is sure this is smoke (and not condensation) I would go back forcefully to the dealer and ask if they have conducted a full emissions test. The torque on these modern turbo diesel engines is such that they are not under particular load at 1500 rpm on an incline. Most are producing their max torque below 2000 rpm.

[tfp]

We have a 2.0 Tdi Tiguan, probably the same engine, ours is 23 months old.

Give me a couple of days and I'll try and replicate it.

Although as said above, 1500 revs going up a hill in fourth? I'd probably change down a gear myself if the engine was labouring.

Still waiting for VW to recall ours for emissions cheat, going to be just a software update apparently.

[Boosh]

Reminds me of an episode of Watchdog in which they reported fiat 500s' total lack of power on steep inclines, some owners being unable to reach their houses atop a hill! Fiat's response was to blame emissions restrictions being detrimental to performance...
Boosh.

[lightning]

I have driven the Golf and it's happy to sit at 1500rpm going up a hill, although it seems to be at the beginning of the turbo kicking in.
It does smoke if you do this. As soon as the turbo spools up the car accelerates and the smoke seems to clear, although it's hard to tell as you can only see it if a car is following you at night.

She bought it 12 months old. I wonder if it has been "chipped" as it seems to perform very well. Don't cars smoke more if they are "chipped" ?

[tfp]

I have driven the Golf and it's happy to sit at 1500rpm going up a hill, although it seems to be at the beginning of the turbo kicking in.
It does smoke if you do this. As soon as the turbo spools up the car accelerates and the smoke seems to clear, although it's hard to tell as you can only see it if a car is following you at night.

She bought it 12 months old. I wonder if it has been "chipped" as it seems to perform very well. Don't cars smoke more if they are "chipped" ?

Depends on the remap but yes they often do.

It's unlikely it's been remapped at under 12 months old as it would invalidate the warranty for any related claims, I'm sure the mapping service would have told the owner that.

Which bhp is it?

I only ask as some of the Golfs do go rather well.