White smoke from the exhaust
 

Hello!

Yesterday I had a slow blinking coolant light which stopped itself after a minute or so. I carefully monitored temps and took it easy but figured it was just a wonky sensor since it went away and my car wasn’t overheating.

This morning the light was not blinking, car didn’t overheat but when I was about to pull up to work I noticed a huge plume of smoke out of the back after taking off from the stop light. I parked at work and sniffed what was coming out of the tailpipe. It didn’t smell sweet but just kind of hot and burnt? I shutoff the engine and checked the oil which looked fresh and not milky. I got the coolant cap off and noticed the level was lower but it’s been a while since I’ve seen it too since the container is so opaqu.

Unfortunately had to leave the car at work and it’s being towed to the shop on Monday. I am hoping for AOS failure of course, which I normally wouldn’t think twice about as I have no record of it ever being done on the car- except for the timing with the coolant light flashing yesterday.

Has anyone experienced something similar? I would be shocked if it was a cracked head considering the engine didn’t appear to overheat and even though the coolant was low it was still visible in the overflow tank.

White smoke without a sweet smell could point to AOS failure. If you are able, check for strong vacuum at the oil filler cap while idling. Also, consider checking the coolant cap version, older ones can cause pressure issues. Hopefully, it is nothing major.

Thanks- yeah I wish I remembered to feel for the vacuum when the engine was running. Weird part is I’m very used to oil smoke from either a valve cover leak or spark plug tube leak. This smoke smelled nothing like that, but maybe because it was filtered through a catalytic converter? I’ll update when I hear the news tomorrow.

i have seen quite a few intermix issues , i think you will be okay . from my experience the coolant does not go into the oil, the oil goes into the coolant.. the oil pressure is far higher and forces its way into the crack and into the cooling jackets of the head.

I think you will be okay

good news! It's oil smoke for sure and it looks like my flashing coolant light the day before was just coincidence and likely evaporation. just waiting on the part to come in now.

coolant is a closed system , nothing should evaporate.. keep an eye on it .

will do, hopefully its not my water pump again after only 3 years..