White smoke from the exhaust

[lancerevo]

Hello. I have a question about white smoke from the exhaust. It only do it when the engine is running at idle for about 2 minutes and when come back to drive the car and rev the engine a little bit it smokes for about 10 seconds then it stops again. Is it normal like, some little extra fuel while idling?

Thanks

[perucho]

White "smoke" is actually water vapor so no extra fuel involved. Does it on;ly do it when it's cold or in the mornings? You may be collecting water in your exhaust system from condensation. Or you may have a very samll coolant leak into the combustion chambers at the head gasket. Try to re-torque the head bolts.

[ShagFestiva]

if you smell the white smoke and it smells sweet, its coolant into the cylinders like perucho said

[lancerevo]

It does it even when it's hot. But it smoke just after it's been idling for a while. On the road it never smokes. And the coolant level never drops.

[perucho]

Do you have an unusually large exhaust pipe or a very large muffler? Do you usually drive for less than 5 miles? If the exhaust is not getting hot enough, you will get condensation in the exhaust system, especially when idling since the velocity of the exhaust fumes slows down dramatically. Then, when you start going again, the exhaust heats up and you vaporize the water in the system.

[qroger]

My Cressida with the leaky valve guide seals smokes at startup, smokes in the McDonalds line, especially when I move up a little. Doesn't use much oil. If the inside of the tailpipe is oily, or if your hatch is black, could be oil getting past the rings. If your car is fuel injected, you shouldn't be running rich enough to smoke, and I think that would be black.

[perucho]

burning oil = blue smoke
too rich = black smoke
water = white "smoke"

of course, you can have a combination

[ShagFestiva]

my truck does the same thing you are talking about and it only started after I ran some injector cleaner through it. Dont know if that was the cause but it was the only thing I could think of.

[cubstiva1]

my festy also does this. sometimes in the morning and sometimes after i've drivin it all day. one big poof of white "smoke" and then its done. idk why