I've always known white smoke to be condensation in the exhaust which usually means water is seeping into the system somewhere, but over the past 6 months, my car has been puffing out pretty white smoke, however the coolant level never goes down at all! I had a compression and leak down test done professionaly, and everything was well within spec.

Any ideas as to what it coule be?

Thanks,
Chris

 

Help...anyone?

 

Does the exhaust have a bluish tint to it? If so, could have bad piston rings. How much white smoke is coming out? How many miles are on the engine?

 

72k miles, definitely not blue at all. Doesn't a leak down test also test the piston rings?

Chris

 

Does the white smoke come out constantly or only at start up for a little while?

When you start your car go to the back and hold your hand about an inch away from your exhaust pipe for a few seconds.

You should have no problem telling if the liquid on your had is coolant or not because it will smell exactly like coolant.

 

Its always there, but its definitely worse at start up. I will try starting it up in a few days if it warms up, windchill is hitting -35 right now, so outside is the last place I want to go at the moment. However the exhaust does not smell like coolant and I have smelled coolant from exhaust before....this just stinks (no converters). I have been told that its possibly a rich condition, but I thought that would lead to black smoke not white.

Chris

 

If your getting white smoke due to an extreme rich condition it would be obviously that the vapor was fuel due to smell.

Did it just start when the temp went way down?
If the coolant sensor in the front of the engine, just above the water pump, goes bad the PCM reads the outside temp as -40 deg. The PCM compensates by adding more fuel.
I broke mine one time and believe me it is very obvious that the is an issue with the engine.

The subzero temps may be causing the water that is present in the fuel already to be visible...since you have extra fuel there is more water to be seen.

If you have a scanner, take a look at the log and see if the temp is really low.

 

Nah, it was even putting out the whiteish smoke this summer. When I start it up next I will try to determine if the smell is fuel, which would make sense...ever since i got the tune from pcmforless my gas mileage went down about 7-8mpg, so it might just be pig rich.

Chris

 

If it only started after the tune then I would say its a tunning issue. I may just be picturing the cloud that accompanies a head gasket leak and leading myself down the wrong path.

Are we talking a huge cloud out the exhaust (one you could get lost in) or just a noticable amount of white vapor?

If it is the second...give PCMforless a call and see what they say.

 

Definetly not lost in LOL.

it is enough so that I can see it rising up past the spoiler when idleing (sp?) at a stoplight, but its definietly not incredibly thick.

Chris

 

OK...now were getting somewhere...lol

Yeah I'd say your running rich.
Give PCMforless a call and see if they can knock your Air/Fuel ration down a little.

Make sure you don't have any other problems like an exhaust leak before the O2 sensors that may be causing a rich condition.
If you can scan your car I would so that they can see what your sensors are saying.

 

I don't have any way of scanning the car, as far as an exhaust leak I am pretty sure there is not one.

Thanks for the help........waiting to hear back from pcmforless....

Chris