Need some help

**mtbrider** · 08-24-2008 10:09 PM

I started my car tonight and noticed alot of smoke pouring from the tail pipes. I also smelled coolant. Any chance this is a blown head gasket? What should I check for? I did a quick visual check before I shut the car off and did not see any torn hoses. I'll do a better check tomorrow in the daylight. My car's idle is also sputtering a little but nothing too crazy, also no CEL's. Thanks for your help.

**FourRings80** · 08-24-2008 10:12 PM

Do you have oil in the coolant reservoir? could also be a bad oil cooler.

**A4 TSCHUSS** · 08-24-2008 10:17 PM

check your oil if it is milky white then your gasket is blown.

**[email protected]** · 08-24-2008 10:24 PM

If you don't have either of the above symptoms and the fluid level of your coolant resevoir goes down then you might have a crack in the head.

At first the car stumbled a bit on startup and got progressively worse with more and more white smoke coming out of the pipes on startup.

**mtbrider** · 08-24-2008 10:30 PM

I'll check this stuff out at first light. When I first started my car and put it in reverse to move it, the car sounded like a wrx "thumper". I sure hope I don't have a cracked head. Winston how much coolant loss where you seeing?

**mtbrider** · 08-24-2008 10:43 PM

I checked the dipstick and looked under the oil cap and can't see any white residue.

**mtbrider** · 08-25-2008 08:57 AM

coolant looked a little low but nothing too suspicious, also no white residue in the oil.

**[email protected]** · 08-25-2008 12:11 PM

Monitor your coolant level and see if the car keeps having startup issues and misfires.

If the coolant level keeps dropping but you do not see any sign of a leak from under the car and still get white smoke from startup then the coolant is going in via the head. That is what happened to myself and a couple of other AZ's to date.

My situation was a crack between two valves in cylinder #2 and the coolant was entering the combustion chamber that way.

**mtbrider** · 08-25-2008 12:28 PM

Thanks Winston, I'll be monitoring this. Plus I'm going to check my downpipe today to see if a seal in my turbo could have gone

**[email protected]** · 08-25-2008 12:42 PM

Actually there is one quick thing you can check to see if it is the head that is leaking.

Take out the spark plugs and look at the top of the piston domes. If coolant is getting into the chamber and coming out as white smoke then one of the domes should have the carbon deposits steam cleaned off of it.

You can see pics in this thread: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=161567

Now that I have reread that thread it is almost one year since my BT build started due to that head problem. I have learned a hell of a lot and seem to have finally gotten the software and setup where it should be.

**mtbrider** · 08-25-2008 12:52 PM

thanks

**mtbrider** · 08-25-2008 07:44 PM

No oil in the downpipe and the tops of the pistons do not looked steam cleaned so those two check out. However while having a friend watch the engine bay as I started it he saw a little stream of smoke coming from the turbo that had the smell of coolant. However there are no visible leaks from both the inlet and return line. Any ideas?

**dirtybrd** · 08-25-2008 07:50 PM

After you shut the car off for the night, pull the plugs. In the morning look into the holes and see if you see any coolant. At work see have a problem with the 1.8 Sentras missing on start up but not smoking. Replacing the HG fixes it.