Hey guys,

As of recently I've been having white smoke ( or rather just regular smoke)come out from my exhaust when i start my car like other cars do normally; however, I've never seen it before from my 4.2 until recently. It has always been a clean and odorless start.

I heard that when this starts happening it could be that oil is starting to leak through the clylinder or that the piston rings aren't sealing properly or something like that ( i'm not too mechanically inclined).

is any of this true and what should be done to correct the issue?

Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

How many miles on the car and what is the maintenance history?

If it is true, the only solution is an engine rebuild. However, these engines aren't known for this problem (premature ring failure). You will need to do a compression test and leak down test for more detailed analysis and resonable conjecture to occur. Unreasonable conjecture will, I am sure, soon follow.

Bob

 

the car has 150,000 mi. on it and i have maintained it pretty well except for recently ( and this might be a contributing factor ) I have driven well into empty ( about 5 or 6 times over the past month). Hopefully my fuel pump hasn't gone bad. And, the service light's been on for 2 months but i haven't been able to do a service yet.

Could the fuel pump/driving on E be a factor? Also, (as a separate question ) where are our fuel pumps located if in fact i could have problems there as well - from driving like that?

 

oh, what did you mean by reasonable and unreasonable conjecture, Bob?

 

could be;

Valve seals
Head gasket
Piston Oil ring

Have you cooked it recently???
Does it happen all the time?
Just on start up?

 

^^ Valve seals are going... the oil left in the head (under the valve covers) leaks past while sitting and collects int he combustion chamber to be burnt off on start.

 

black smoke is an indication of an oil leak... it will have a strong pungent smell... white smoke is either water in the pipes or a coolant leak... the coolant smoke will have a slightly sweet smell.. if you cant tell what color the smoke is then look at your bumper... black smoke from oil will leave soot on it and coolant smoke will not

 

Not necessarily. On a cold start mis from bad seals the oil mixes with incoming gas, Misfires and gets sent to the cat and burns off. The smoke was white on mine and did not smell like oil. Then again this synthetic crap doesn't seam to smell like oil anyway.

But that is if you have a cold start misfire or the smoke only happens on cold start.

If it happens as your driving along non-stop then you have a blown head gasket, bad valves or a broken ring. A compression test and a leak down test would be next, Also check your oil for water and your coolant for oil/carbon.

 

What if no white smoke when you are driving?

 

running rich, you should have a CEL. clean and check your Maf, and check your temp sensor. That will kill your cats.