White smoke pouring out exhausts
Discussion
Got a bit of a problem that I hope is something simple that I can quickly fix myself.
What with being on holiday and being ill recently, the Chimaera hasn't been driven for about 4½ weeks and has been sitting on the driveway for the last 2 of those weeks.
I went to drive it today, checked all the fluids, and started her up. Very quickly noticed white smoke coming out of the bonnet vents and when I popped the bonnet back up discovered it was coming from around the glorified jubilee clip / clamp thing (technical!) round the passenger side pre-cat exhaust manifold near the lambda sensor. Very shortly after that thick white smoke started pouring out of both exhaust pipes in a smoke generator stylee.
I switched off at this point.
Can anyone shed any light on this and suggest what I can do to fix it?
Thanks in advance
Jon
What with being on holiday and being ill recently, the Chimaera hasn't been driven for about 4½ weeks and has been sitting on the driveway for the last 2 of those weeks.
I went to drive it today, checked all the fluids, and started her up. Very quickly noticed white smoke coming out of the bonnet vents and when I popped the bonnet back up discovered it was coming from around the glorified jubilee clip / clamp thing (technical!) round the passenger side pre-cat exhaust manifold near the lambda sensor. Very shortly after that thick white smoke started pouring out of both exhaust pipes in a smoke generator stylee.
I switched off at this point.
Can anyone shed any light on this and suggest what I can do to fix it?
Thanks in advance
Jon
Well, it is still doing it and it is getting embarrassing now. 
Car had been running for several minutes at this point and was showing no signs of improvement.
(Click here for bigger picture)
Getting a little embarrassed as I started to smoke out the entire neighbourhood.
(Click here for bigger picture)
Smoke also escapes from the sealing ring on the exhaust manifold / pre-cat downpipe.
(Click here for short movie [176kb])
I think I'm going to have to get this looked at, especially since the swirl tank and other nearby components are getting black from the exhaust gasses escaping in the engine bay.
Car had been running for several minutes at this point and was showing no signs of improvement.
(Click here for bigger picture)
Getting a little embarrassed as I started to smoke out the entire neighbourhood.
(Click here for bigger picture)
Smoke also escapes from the sealing ring on the exhaust manifold / pre-cat downpipe.
(Click here for short movie [176kb])
I think I'm going to have to get this looked at, especially since the swirl tank and other nearby components are getting black from the exhaust gasses escaping in the engine bay.
joospeed said:
yeh that looks a lot more than condensation 
if it's greyish and stinks of fuel it's overfuelling poss from a sticking injector.
if it smells of anti-freeze it's head gasket or simlar coolant / combustion chanber probs
Anti-freeze has a "sweet" smell when burnt IIRC....
jonRB.... YHM
>> Edited by pebbledash on Monday 31st January 10:35
Smells strongly of exhaust with an overlay of a 'burnt' smell. The smoke is very white although I suppose you could say it was greyish-white but it's difficult to say.
I suspected that it was more than just condensation, to be honest.
I think a trip to Mr. Batty and corresponding cashectomy may be on the cards.
(Please don't read that as implying that Dave is expensive, I just meant that any visit to any specialist is going to result in a lightening of the wallet)
>> Edited by JonRB on Monday 31st January 10:54
I suspected that it was more than just condensation, to be honest.
I think a trip to Mr. Batty and corresponding cashectomy may be on the cards.
(Please don't read that as implying that Dave is expensive, I just meant that any visit to any specialist is going to result in a lightening of the wallet)
>> Edited by JonRB on Monday 31st January 10:54
Loose exhaust clamps are bad news as the exhaust will slowly poison you. Looks rather like a major head gasket failure, but why on earth would it just go while the engine was switched off. Has the car frozen in the mean time? How is the anti-freeze? Do you have water in the oil or vice versa, or exhaust bubbling out of the header tank? Maybe (bad news hat on) you've got something worse than a head gasket failure there.
JonRB said:
Pete - if it were a head gasket failure, why would the smoke disappear when the car came up to temperature? 
If the head gasket has failed, then water and/or oil would enter the cylinder(s). As this is burnt up, then the smoke would reduce. Nothing to do with coming up to temperature, but is to do with the stuff being all used up.
You could try removing spark plugs (once the car's cooled down a bit) and checking to see if there's any moisture or obvious clues from their appearance. You mentioned the smoke came from around the n/s exhaust clip - it could be work checking the left side set of plugs first.
Good luck.
Paul
>> Edited by wolosp on Monday 31st January 12:45
JonRB said:
Pete - if it were a head gasket failure, why would the smoke disappear when the car came up to temperature?
I had missed that snippet (and looking back at your posts I am still missing it!). If it clears up when the car has thoroughly warmed up and doesn't come back on the next cold start, I'd be inclined to think it is just water collected in the exhaust and around the engine bay, nothing wrong with the car. Double check for water/oil contamination and loss anyway just to be on the safe side. And do get that exhaust manifold sealed up, a leaking exhaust can make you quite ill.
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Monday 31st January 13:15
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Monday 31st January 13:16
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