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white smoke coming outta the catalyst converter

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Old Jun 16, 2006 | 01:02 AM
  #1  
sintri's Avatar
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white smoke coming outta the catalyst converter

So originally my clutch started making some noise, took it to a shop and they ordered a new one and placed it in for me, but after like 40 miles of driving I see white smoke coming out from under my car, along with some sort of burned rubber or tar or some sort of weird burned smell. So I pull over to the side, look under the car, and see white smoke pouring out of my catalyst converter, either that or my transmission, can't quite tell without jacking it up but I'm pretty sure it's the catalyst converter. So right now my car's sitting at a gas station nearby my house. So couple things, I put in some fuel injection cleaners into the tank a couple weeks back, was pretty sure it couldn't harm it so might as well, could that be what's causing the smoke, cause up till now my tank hasn't runned near empty yet and not sure if the injection cleaner mix with the gas that well. Plus I've been smelling a bit of gas on startup sometimes recently too. So if it is the cat, is there really any harm in driving around with a leaky cat asides from polluting the crap outta the air? Thanks for any input.

In short:
-There's white smoke coming out of the bottom of my car, I'm 90% sure it's coming from the catalyst converter.
-I've smelled gas before when starting up, pretty sure the engine's not leaking.
-I had placed some fuel injector cleaner in there a couple weeks earlier (heard it doesn't really help but heard it doesn't really harm it either) and the tank's near empty so I'm not sure if all the injector cleaner's just floating at the top being burnned right now.
-And if the cat is leaking and the smoke really is from the injector cleaner, would it be okay to drive around with a leaky cat?
-thanks

Last edited by sintri; Jun 16, 2006 at 01:07 AM.
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Old Jun 16, 2006 | 02:13 AM
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If the cat was leaking, you'd hear it.

What does the smoke smell like?
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Old Jun 16, 2006 | 07:39 AM
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smoldering rubber or tar or something along those lines.
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Old Jun 16, 2006 | 02:47 PM
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Well apparently there was oil that had gotten to on the cat and precat which was causing the smoke and the smell. As to weather it was leaking from my car or from when they swapped out the clutch I'm not quite sure, they cleaned it and let it run for a while but couldn't find anything so guess I'll find out in a few days. Could motor oil possibly could have dripped onto the exhuast? beacuse as far as we could see the transmission and clutch wasn't leaking.
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Old Jun 16, 2006 | 02:55 PM
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has you car smoked before?
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Old Jun 16, 2006 | 03:18 PM
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Well it's only done it after they placed in a new transmission, so what I'm hoping for is it's just residual oil from their install and that they didn't somehow screw something up.
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Old Jun 17, 2006 | 10:09 PM
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Usually shops occasionally spill a little fluid around and it burns right off.However internally it may be something more.Blue smoke usually indicates burning oil inside the combustion chamber whereas white smoke in a normal piston engine means your rings are shot(in your rotary it has apex seals) black smoke usually means your running it rich.I would check your compression asap.You could check your plugs also to see what and how they are burning.
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