My engine is smoking...

[misterjj2u]

White smoke that is.

Now that the weather is actually somewhat grey-ish here in SoCal, I noticed that a small plume of white smoke comes from my hood when I come to a stop, during my city driving.

Last time I saw that, it was because my radiator was overheating (on my Chevy II). I immediately checked the engine temp and all was good.

Drove a few more miles and same thing, every time I come to a stop--sometimes it's less smoke than others.

Any thoughts? Turbo eating oil? Engine smoking a cigarette?

[JoshDub]

Have you recently washed your car?

[misterjj2u]

No, but it was raining today.

I've noticed it on other days when it wasn't raining but I couldn't tell if it was just the exhaust smoke from the car in front of me.

Today just confirms that it has always been coming from my engine bay.

[JoshDub]

Well I have experienced water evaporating out of the grills have a wash or heavy (very very heavy) rain. But if yours does it all the time then I do not know what to tell you.

[[email protected]]

Does the smoke smell like coolant?

If so, you prob have a very small leak.

How long does the coolant in your reservoir last?

[misterjj2u]

Thanks, I'll check for coolant leaks. i take a look at the reservoir to see if it's dropping...

[b4a41point8t]

i had a small exhaust leak after doing my test pipe install and it would smoke at idle a bit. I can imagine with the cold weather it could exacerbate the problem. Have you touched any exhaust related components recently?

[jonan]

yea, you might be burning coolant...

[old guy]

Mine did the exact same thing. i had a small leak from the radiator end cap. Clicky click

[Shayneduboulay]

I had the same thing happen to me but it was coming out the exhaust. It was a small crack in the cylinder head where the coolant was leaking onto the piston.

[misterjj2u]

Thanks Everyone! I'll start going through and checking the symptoms this weekend.

[[email protected]]

The smell of the smoke will be your best indicator...take a wiff and let us know

[misterjj2u]

Turned car on this morning to find a nice little message on the DIS: COOLANT!!!!

Popped the hood and saw that the reservoir was bone dry. Luckily I had some 50/50 solution in the garage.

Thanks everyone.

[cosmokramer]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. You put 50/50 solution of standard green coolant? Or the oem spec red coolant?

[Dan[FN]6262]

might want to find that leak.....

[misterjj2u]

50-50 green to hold me over until I drop it off to get fixed / flushed.

[cosmokramer]

50-50 green to hold me over until I drop it off to get fixed / flushed.

I hope that won't be too long...you can be doing some major damage by mixing the two...

[A4DJ]

I hope that won't be too long...you can be doing some major damage by mixing the two...

What kind of damage?

[sillysod]

water pump is one for sure

I had same problem, a few years ago... audi was smoking a cig at lights haha. was same problem old guy mentioned - end cap on the rad.

[misterjj2u]

Flushing it Saturday night and going with Old Guy's suggestion.

[cosmokramer]

What kind of damage?

Like sillysod said, water pump would prob be the major issue--but I would think it would affect the whole cooling system. I guess "major damage" might be a bit drastic.

In actuality, the red/pink mixing with the green coolant creates this oatmeal/sludge looking substance that just clogs the whole system up. Happened on buddies B5 after I specifically warned him not to mix the two... What a chore that was to clean out...