I dont know if I should be asking this but here goes: When I do a cold start up on my car, is it normal to see white smoke come outta the exhaust, or is there something leaking? If its not normal, do cars usually spit out colorless gas on cold start ups?

 

might *might* be leaking a tiny bit of coolant....

 

very normal on an fd..

Mine has been doing that forever. Even with the new motor. It seems to be more visible when the humidity is real high.

If it bothers you have your exaust checked. An exaust sniffer will be able to tell you if your burning coolant.

 

A cold start is just that. If there is water condensed in the exhaust (a normal by product of combustion), you will push the water out the exhaust as vapor. Once the engine and exhaust system is sufficiently warmed (a few minutes at most on all but he coldest days) the "smoke" should disappear. If the cloud remains or smells sweet----check your coolant level. Constant replenishing of the coolant along with "smoke" could indicate a blown "o" ring problem..

 

The steam from normal combustion dissapates very quickly and has little or no odor - the WHITE SMOKE from burning coolant lingers longer and has a very distinct sweet smell to it.
Check for Bubbles in the coolant neck on the engine when idleing - also check for bunches of combustion crap (black oily carbon) in the coolant. Both are signs of impending seal failure.

 

Nothing to worry about as long as the smoke goes away in 5-30 seconds.

Here is a link explaining the startup smoke:

http://mrmazda.members.atlantic.net/...xt.html#SSTART