zelig

every morning. I was told this is normal. However, I did a search on this and came up with all sorts of different, horrific diagnoses. Can someone please give me the "long version" on why this happens? Is it normal? If not, what can I do to further diagnose this problem?


Facts:

*1995 22K org. engine and turbos.
*Auto
*Just bought it. Came to me Tuesday. When it rolled off the truck we started it and white smoke started coming out of the tailpipe. The car came from Florida and was in transport for three days. I'm in Chicago.
*Car has an almost unnoticable rough idle that's somewhat intermittent.
*Every morning when I start it up, white smoke comes out of the tail pipe for about 5 mins, then it goes away completely. It seems to only happen in the morning.
*Once I heard a very frequent high pitched rattling noise from behind the dash. It SEEMED to only happen when I turned on the parking lights. I does not seem to happen anymore.


Thanks.

Zelig

potatobbq

Does the white smoke smell like coolant? If not then it's probably ok. I had that with my car before too and I was pretty worried but I had a pressure test done on my cooling system and it came out ok. If you're not losing coolant, it's probably no big deal. The smoke on my car smelled more like fuel and when I got my A'PEXi PowerFC, it pretty much went away. Now it smokes for like 15 seconds and then it goes away. Somehow the PowerFC fixed it so I guess it was just the ECU making my car run too rich at start up.

Nathan Kwok

Well first, to get it out of the way, the noise with the dash has nothing to do with the other stuff you mentioned. I'd personally figure out what it is because noises I can't identify bother me, but set that aside for the moment. As far as white smoke goes, this really depends on the weather as to whether its "normal" or not. I live in dry SoCal so its uncommon for it to get cold and damp enough for the normal moisture from the exhaust to condense visibly in the air, so I rarely get "white smoke". This type of white smoke is ok, however the white smoke from burning coolant is not. Burning coolant smoke indicates an internal O-ring failure that will require a rebuild. I highly doubt you have this at only 22k miles. The key is to sniff the smoke (I'm not joking). If it is coolant that is burning, it will have a distinct sweet smell to it. If you're not sure, just smell some coolant, its the same smell. Also, does the smoke just dissapate once it exits the pipes, or does it kind of hang in the air and crawl along the ground? Normal water vapor shouldn't create any kind of cloud, it should just dissapate. I suspect that what you are seeing is simply water vapor condensing in the exhaust and then slowly evaporating as the engine warms up. Once summer rolls around, you'll probably notice it doesn't do that anymore.

StellarZ

My car does the same exact thing... I HAD a very subtle rough idle, now it is considerably worse, but my car smokes for a good long time when I first start it in the morning or if it sits somewhere for a couple of hours. It started getting worse as it got colder. This is the kind of smoke that hangs around and people in the neighborhood are wondering what the problem is! As far as I can tell the smoke does not smell like coolant and I know I am runing extremely rich... so I guess I will just see what happens.

FJ

When the seal goes, if water can get in, gas can get out. This gas in the coolant can be seen: With a cold engine, remove the radiator cap and start the engine. If it's the seals you will shortly see the coolant bubble. Maybe just the occasional blub, blub, maybe constant. But you will see it.
Bottom line: no bubbles, no problem. It's just condensation. I hope this is the case for you.
I have mild white smoke on startup only when it's cold outside and do have a bubble every few seconds visible in the rad within a few minutes of starting.
-John.

Pressurized

As for the smoke, I would like to say that is normal, mine smokes when it starts on colder days. The smoke smells like gas and is white in color. The only thing is, mine never smoked until I put the midpipe on, go figure. Does your car have mods?

Then the rattling noise behind the dash, if it comes on when the parking lights are on I would look at the cooling fans. When you keep the parking ligths on, the fans come on much sooner than they should(kinda helpful on hot days), I would pop the hood next time you hear the rattle and check out the fans, sometimes things will come loose and rub the fans as they spin, this will craete a high pitch rattle type sound.

Oh, almost forgot about the 'rough idle'. If your idle is smooth but your feel a slight intermittent 'hicup' happening, I hope to god that's normal because mine does this as well.

Other than that, good luck with your car!

efini93

This is the exact same thing that was happening to me. Just as the weather started to get colder around here my exahust was pretty extream at cold startup. My garage would fill in under a min with white smoke. Well in the process of getting my car ready for echeck i noticed that i had a hose coming off my air pump that was completly split. After replacing the hose the car starts up with little to no white smoke on start up. Or at least nothing more than any other car on a cold day. So.....check and see if your air pump is working correctly and that air is getting to your main cat.

poony

I have white smoke also when I start my car. I was also worrying about it early this year when I first got my FD. But after a whole season with it, I believe that's completely normal.

If I follow the regular so-called accelerated start-up that Mazda said to let the engine run up to 3000rpm while starting the car, those white smoke dissappears fast. If I shift it into gear before I start the car, initial rpm stays lower, but the white smoke stays longer as well. Thus, I believe the white smoke is caused by an exhaust that's not up to temperature.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. That's just what I think.

twntrbo

if the smell coming from the car is of a sweet nature than more than likly it is a coolant leak from o ring failure. this was what happened to me on my first fd. a few weeks later and a few grand invested new motor and about 4 months in the garage.

pweizman

It is probably fine. You are in Chicago, so it is pretty cold there. My car does the same thing for the first 1-3 minutes.

I live in Cincy, and it has been 30-50 degress lately, so it smokes more.

I would just watch the coolant, and smell the exhaust, make sure it doesn't smell like coolant.