At start-up my car ALWAYS smokes, and it smells pretty bad, like something is burning. As far as I know they have never been replaced, but im also the 4th or 5th owner. Id really like to start doing some maintance on this car, I checked the antifreeze in it, and it looked way dirty and ive heard that makes your car perform pretty crappy. Living in Nevada, with 115 degree summer days, you gotta make sure it runs cool. I did the oil with mobil 1 not too long ago, as well as spark plugs and wires. What other kinds of stuff can I do?

 

That smoke on start up doesn't sound like an o2 sensor problem. Sounds more like you are burning some oil.

If your exhaust fumes smell like pure gasoline, then you probably have an o2 problem.

You can always pull your spark plugs and look at them. With that much trouble though, I would just change them since you would go that far.

Try Zerex G-05 coolant...good stuff.

 

If your Check Engine light isn't coming on and staying on,...then it's probably not the O2 sens.But it sounds like you have a few miles on your ride....so it would be a good idea to replace'em anyways. There are 2 you'll need to replace. Disconnect the battery before you do it so after you replace'em the ECM will reset itself.

 

an 02 sensor is not going to cause smoke. especialy on cold start up when the 02's are not used. shee what color smoke it is and if it has a smel to it. that will give you a better idea as to the source

 

The smoke is white, it smells somewhat burnt, and sometimes has no scent at all. Its really weird, my garage will be engulfed in the smoke, and not one thing smells.

 

Mine was doing that, but you could smell the smoke. Anyways, does the car idle pretty crappy? Start it up, and let it run for about 15-30min with the radiator cap off, and see if there are any bubbles coming up, but make sure that it's cold when you do this and obviously put the cap back on before you shut it down. Are you're temperature ratings going up pretty fast? If it's doing all of this stuff, you probably have a blown head gasket, as I do right now. Take it from me, it sucks! Either you have to work on the engine straight up for two days (unless you have a garage to work in, you could work whenever you want then), or you can pay about 600 for service on one side alone (if you're going to fix one, why not do it to the other, it's probably going to blow soon too if the other is blown). It costs about 120$ for the head gasket and head bolts.