I drive a 1983 Honda Civic hatchback, its the old body style. Some call it vintage, I call it an ugly deathtrap. In any case, the car only has 105,000 miles on it. Engine and transmission are in good shape and have been well maintained.
Here’s my question, every day I start my car and for the first 5-10 minutes of running there’s a white cloud behind my car. After it warms up, the cloud is gone. Keep in mind this is not a blueish cloud that would indicate burning oil. Just a clean smelling white cloud. My dad told me that it was condensation from the night before cooking out of my tail pipe (I don’t park in a garage and I live in oregon), my dad, however, is far from a mechanic.
I’ve never really worried about, and I see similar looking white clouds behind most (not all) of the cars in my apartment complex. Is this something I should worry about? Does this indicate that my engine has a cracked block or a blown headgasket? Could it possibly be just normal wear and tear on my piston rings?
well, I’ve had a blown headgasket in a previous car and it POURED white steam out of the back of the car. Also, I constantly had to top off the coolant because it would burn through it. Do blown headgaskets come in different severities? Is this a safety risk or can I just drive it until its dead?
I have no issues with getting stranded on the side of the road. I have triple A, and you can’t rape the willing.
Whitish or light gray smoke is totally normal until warm-up. As noted, unless your coolant level is dropping, there is nothing to suggest the head gasket has checked out. Verify that the radiator (not the overflow reservoir) is full, and that the oil is not contaminated (pull the dipstick-if it has slimy whitish crud on it,you have problems-if it’s oily black, you’re good).
like I said, I’ve had a blown headgasket before and the white cloud did not stop. ever. Everywhere you drive there’s a white cloud in the rearview. The only reason it seems strange is that I notice all the older cars in the parking lot have a white cloud while warming up, some of the newer cars in the parking lot have no white cloud. If its a blown headgasket, than 6 out of 10 cars in my apartment complex have one.
I’m just hoping someone can give me an explanation for why this happens, hopefully from someone who is a mechanic, or at least knows more about cars than my father.
Ring wear on higher mileage cars allows oil into the cylinders until the engine warms up, and the rings expand. The oil burns, and produces the temporary white cloud you describe.
The smoke from a blown headgasket is white, sweet smelling, persistent, and makes excellent camouflage for those times you don’t want anyone to see that it’s you sitting at the stopsign in a smoker.
Despite all the death knells, I don’t think you’ve got a blown gasket. One of the byproducts of a healthy engine is water vapor. If your daily drive is long enough to heat up the whole exhaust system (cat. converter, muffler, and tailpipe,) the water will evaporate into the air. However, if you have a short daily commute, some of that vapor will condense in the muffler and tailpipe, which is still cool. The next day, when you start it up again, the hot gases will blow out yesterday’s water from the muffler. By the way, if you usually have short trips, you are doomed to replace your rusted out muffler fairly often. Buy them from a place that guarantees free replacement. That golden touch guy, for example.
I agree with ask not. Another thing to consider, do you have any friends that might be “messing” with you? I know from experience that spraying wd 40 into a tail pipe produces a dense white cloud for about 3 miles.
It has nothing to do with your car in particular, and everything to do with the humidity and temperature of where you live. The phenomenon is common in cold weather. Ignore it.