I noticed a small amount of smoke coming out from the back of the hood (by the windshield) today when I stopped at my girlfriend's house. I popped the hood and saw some smoke coming from behind the UIM by the firewall almost directly in the center of the engine bay (like by the VIN). Does anybody know what this could be from? It's not coolant...could it be oil?

Tyler

 

Sure its smoke and not steam?

 

check the coolant hoses direcetly behind the UIM, the one coming from the block, and the one going to the throttle body.

 

Is the clutch burning?

 

I hope not...I'm not that bad...anymore

 

i'd bet it's an oil leak. my car will smoke out the right side of the hood after a hard drive. the oil will leak out of somewhere (?) and drip onto the turbos/downpipe and smoke. it looks almost like the oil pools on top fo the lower intake manifold and then runs off after some hard runs/turns. you can usually tell what is burning by the smell of the smoke.

 

For your case, it's more than likely coming out of the y-pipe connector. I had a similar problem, and fixed it by replacing the rubber connector that was hard as a rock. Definitely something that needs replacing every 50-75k just to keep things shipshape. I think there are several of these things, so I have an extra, just in case.