Hi all,

my wife has just started telling me about an annoying little problem with her 2006 Z. It has very few miles on it, about 46k and this issue only does what its doing every now and then.
So I've been watching and the other day as she started the motor a huge puff of white smoke came out both exhausts for a few seconds and then as fast as it appeared it disappeared. I followed her for a mile or two and there were no signs after that even when she floored it.
Then yesterday we decided to drive the car to brunch and see what's going on and wouldn't you know it I couldn't make the darned thing do it no matter how hard I pushed the motor so we parked up and had some fun, forgetting about the car for a few hours.
We came out after a while and started the car and it was immediately engulfed in white smoke and because we were backed in against a wall it literally covered the car and I should add that there is no smell, it just looks like steam and once the initial few seconds it is gone and not a sign of it on the few mile drive home and once home I stopped and started the car a few times but of course nothing occurred.
I am thinking that water is getting into the exhaust somehow but I'm not a mechanic and of course taking to the dealer will mean that they want to keep it until it does what it does and that could be days so I'm hoping that someone in here can point me in a direction to find out what's going on so that my life can go back to the quiet one that I like and only have the wife bother me when she needs tires etc.

regards,
Doug.

 

Doug- white smoke is usually a sign of water getting into the combustion chamber. It wouldn't smoke as much (if at all) if were only the exhaust on startup. Take a close look at your radiator level to see if your water/antifreeze level is going down. Also a good idea is to do a UOA to determine whether antifreeze is contaminating your engine oil.

Causes? Could be anything from a blown headgasket to a warped head. It does sound like you've got something seeping into the engine when it's off.

 

Headgasket is a little more common, but it could be a number of things.

 

Pressure test every cylinder . . . only way to obtain peace of mind.

 

Sounds like your wife is driving the h*** out of it! Lol, I drive mine hard and over 100k now and nothing like that's happened...

I agree that it sounds like a blown headgasket.. but who knows could be any little thing.

Also I agree with checking to see if water/antifreeze is getting in your oil.

 

Hi guys,

I will definitely top up and check water levels and also may take it in now that I'm hearing phrases like head gasket and warped head.

Oh and FOOKHonda, I wish that it was her thrashing it but on the rare occasion that I get to drive it I tend to bury the pedal into the carpet but we'll keep this to ourselves and make her think that she did it. I see problems, headaches and no lovin' if I fess up, so mum's the word.

regards,
Doug

 

Oh no worries lol. I do the same its hard not to.
But this is like AA except for cars. This is all our addiction none of can stop and every post makes our addiction worse. What happens here stays here, unless otherwise stated... Like Dugan or Anthony gambri or whatever the name is. That is too embarrassing to stay just between us members lol.

 

As others have said, usually the most common is head gasket. Only thing that sounds weird is no smell, as usually burnt coolant has a pretty distinct smell to it.

For future reference, you can usually guess what is burning by the color of the smoke:

White - Coolant
Black (Or dark gray) - Oil
Blue - Unburned fuel

 

I was thinking the exact same thing, about the smell. The only thing i could think of is its full of water and not coolant...

Water may give off a very slight smell but I doubt it would be noticeable..

 

Sounds like head gasket. I would know because I owned a Subaru.