alright i started my car which hasnt been started in a few days but other then that it ran fine. it has been snowing and we hit a record low of 18 degress last night.. anyways.. i started my car let it warm most of the way.. ( the temp needle was above the line. ) but im driving down the road my car smeels like something is burning ,, so i stop and turn the car off and my car is smoking like a ******* chimney. looked like it was coming from underneath my car and it was coming out from my exhaust.. WTF just happend to my car..? i have my antifreeze 50/50 mix, but i was thinking the water in my car was frozen.. .. but isnt that what intifreeze is for? need help.. ASAP.


*edit* my main worry is that i just fried my motor..?

and my car did reach operating temp. before i shut her off.. so i know she didnt over heat.

 

was it white smoke? could be a coolant seal....if its tough to start like its flooded, and if its at operating temp and your overflow reservouir is overflowing, that is more signs of coolant seals....ask me how i know

 

couldnt really tell what color the smoke was due to it being to dark, but it did not smell like coolant though.. ? or does coolant have diff smells to it when it burns .. ? it wasnt a sweet smell at all..

 

yeah it smells sweet

 

it didnt it smelt like bruning rubber?? not sure the smell but it smelt like something was burning..

 

time to take a look in the day.

 

what should i look for..? should i take off some hoses and make sure the water wasnt frozen, and make sure the motor is even getting anywater? or what type of stuff should i look for?

 

was it out of the tailpipe or underneath near the cats?

 

well it was coming out from underneath my car and out of the pipes.

 

well if it's underneath, you could have a leaking tranny possible (or some dorkwad just overfilled it the last time they had it out), but if it is really both you could have an exhaust leak too though wind can sometimes make smoke seem like it's coming from different places.

 

well i know its not over filled just due to that ive been driving it for the last couple weeks and its been fine, but just started it this time went down the road not evven a mile and this happend.. just kinda think that maby the water froze inside the radiator or something and wasnt geetting any water to engine.. ?

 

exhaust leak. my car has a exhaust leak and everytime i drive into the garage, it smells like burning. im gonna get a new exhaust anyway so imma leave it . however ur temperature meter goes beyond half?? well 1st of all when ur car is cold, juss open the cap if the coolant lvl is normal. u know u have a blown coolant seal when ur coolant lvl is low and u see no drips and seems like ur coolant magically dissapears. hope this helps. i still think ur smoking problem is the exhaust leak.

jimmy

 

Well if it's smoking on warm that's a sign of a problem, since you're not smelling any coolant it shouldn't be the a coolant seal check your resevoir and see if it drastically drop or anything. I'd still check your tranny fluid levels to see if it's not leaking, the overflowed was from mine, apparently someone overfilled it when they took it out last time (smoked like hell when I first got it, and had an really annoying smell for a while).

Exhaust leak'll do that too, but it's not really a vomiting type of smell, it's more like nausiating the type that'll kill your throat and possibly give you cancer.

 

well the coolant level is fine. checked it and its fine resivior is like it always is. t

the temp level was not beyond half.. didnt even reach normal operating temp before i shut it off and noticed it was smoking..

this was not an exhaust leak becuae it was Horibly smoking, to much to be exhaust.

 

i am going to check it out tomorrow in the day light and check some hoses, and make sure the water wasnt frozen..

if the water was frozen and little watter was gettin into the engine. what would i have damaged ?

 

if you've got a crack in your seal, you're seriously screwed, either seal should drain your fluid down pretty fast. Only fluids I can think of that'll smoke'll be oil, coolant, or tranny. If you don't have an exhaust leak and smoke is coming from the exhuast pipe you've got some type of fluid on it. If it's just wind blowing than your problem's probably coming from your engine.

 

Check your fluid to see if its frozen in the morning. If you have anit-freeze i would assume its not. Then perform the coolant seal test: remove the radiator cap while the car is cold and start the car with the cap off. If you see bubbles coming out or 'old faithfull' decides to pay a quick visit then its your seals.

 

so if it bubbles or spits out im screwd?

 

It means that your coolant seals are leaking combustion gasses into your coolant system. There should be no bubbles or gysering of coolant out of your radiator unless your seals are leaking. But more importantly it means that your seals are leaking coolant into your motor

 

alright sweet, if there was no water running threwthe motor * if the water was frozen * ( which i dont see why it would have beeen because there was anti freeze in the radiator. ) would that of cooked a coolant seal?

 

Very well could have, but i would find your coolant freezing hard to believe

 

thats the only thing i could really think of that would have really done anything, sence the last time i was driving my car it was running like a champ.. then the next time i start my car it started doing this.

 

Tempermental automobiles i tell you...

 

HAHAHAHAHA iknow that is the only thing i hate about these cars...

 

alright well i checked the seals this morning they were OK. but it was kinda hard to start.. and when i did get her started she backfired. is that a clue to anthing bad>? ?