Steamy Toyota

[Futuramic]

I have just bought a new car, a 1998 Corolla for my sins, with the 4A-FE under the bonnet. Those who appreciate such things will know that it is a powerful (for its size and class bracket) lump with a weird cam drive mechanism and likes to rev. Those who don't will like to know that it is a 1.6 Corolla liftback; painted purplish blue.

My issue is this. The exhaust pipe is pumping out clouds of white steam that I deem excessive. Most cars will stop doing this once the exhaust pipe is warm so the vapour within the emissions doesn't condense instantly. My car steams consistently at idle, though the quantities lessen, even after an hour or so of continuous running. It produces visible steam when accelerating and even more when reversing or revving hard.

This could be down to the cold weather.

Others will cry "Lo but your head gasket has failed. Scrap the car forthwith"

My investigations have revealed no sign of head gasket failure whatsoever. The car warms up quickly; indicating a healthy thermostat. When hot the heater blows out warm air. The engine runs sweetly and is not down on power. It revs cleanly to its limits and exhibits no other symptoms of mechanical trouble.

Finally I have checked the coolant for oil contamination and have found none. I have been performing regular checks, over the past few days, and the level has not dropped. This indicates that none is getting into the cylinders and being burnt.

Am I concerned about nothing? If the car isn't burning coolant then I can offer no other reason for the steam.

[V88Dicky]

Your car is merely converting petrol into steam, CO, CO2 and various HydroCarbons. Mine's exactly the same, especially on these cold days. It uses neither oil nor coolant, and is in excellent health (1AZ-FSE)

[Defcon5]

Some of my cars have done this, dont worry about it.

[andy-xr]

I had a BMW 5 series that used to do this as well, especially idling in traffic, I'd just see a small cloud of steam appear in the rear view mirror. Thats when I really wanted a temperature gauge, BMW

Anyway, there wasn't a problem with coolant or oil use, so I presumed it was normal. Stainless exhausts can sometimes make this worse

[J4CKO]

98 Corolla, hmm, a common fault on these and it is usually traced back to the several large brown paper bags of Curry, Naan and Rice, sometimes Pizza awaiting delivery around the interior generating heat and moisture, thus steaming the windows up.

HTH

[Defcon5]

I think part of it with mine was the positioning of the exhaust, it was a Lupo GTI with a center exhaust that pounted upwards, so whenever it rained it would collect water, which would then turn to steam when the exhaust was hot

[EDLT]

If it has done a lot of short journeys the exhaust can fill with water, maybe you are slowly boiling it off. Give the back box a shake you can usually hear it sloshing around inside.

[Futuramic]

EDLT said:

If it has done a lot of short journeys the exhaust can fill with water, maybe you are slowly boiling it off. Give the back box a shake you can usually hear it sloshing around inside.

It hasn't. The car is used for, in the main, journeys in excess of 20 or so miles and has a normal, backwards pointing, mild steel exhaust. I'll just have to put it down to "one of those things". And it does have a water temperature gauge. This never moves when warm and the electric fans work properly. Though not much at the moment.

[twazzock]

My car does the same and I've kept an eye on levels too, pretty sure it's not the head gasket. I've put it down to not having a cat, but who knows.