Ive noticed that my B5 s4 ALWAYS has white smoke comming from its tailpipe... the type you get when you first start your car, usually with other cars ive owned when its cold the smoke goes away after the car warms up, with my audi its always there even if ive been driving for an hour i sit a stop light and i can see it in my rear view, now today i was driving and decided to get on it a little bit and i could see alot i mean ALOT of this steamy stuff comming from my tailpipe, my question is should i be concerned or do other people have this same experience. i should note that it doesnt seem to be burning any coolant but i do get a burning smell sometimes when im letting my car idle to warm up, which goes away after a minute or two of driving. any comments or advice would be appreciated thanks.

 

hmmm, white smoke = unburnt fuel? i can never remember that, do you get bad fuel mileage? Are you leaning out, any check engine lights, codes?

 

white smoke = coolant check level its possibly the cylinder head(s)

 

I undertstand Its a tough job and I love it when the "tech" knows why its doing what its doing, but for once in my life I would love to take my car to the shop and hear stuff like " Hey your car is fine please dont waste my time" or "nothing wrong here " or "Ur car looks like it gonna out live you have a nice day "but then again if they did sell the stickers" support your local Audi techs" I would by the gold edition!




Sorry just alittle Rant ~!

 

white is coolant, white/blue is oil usually

if it goes away after a while and it's cold out then i wouldn't worry about it, if it's still warm where you are it may be puddling up in the down time, caused from a leak somewhere

do you know what burnt coolant or oil smells like?

 

check your dipstick to see if the oil has been contaminated with water.
check coolant level also... how does the car preform? and where does the temp guage sit at normal opperating temp.?

 

what was the ambient temperature when you still had "smoke" even after car warmed up? There is always Water/Steam comming out of any internal combustion engine and if the temperature is "cold" then you will view this as white smoke. Warm the car up (when oil is ~160F) and park in a warm garage. Do you still see white smoke? Also coolant will smell sweet when it burns. Good luck.

 

Well here in Michigan it has been around 15-30 degrees outside whenever I drive my car. An I also have noticed that even after a 45 minute commute to school I will still see some white steam/smoke. I've only owned my car since late october, but when it was 60s outside I didn't really notice anything. Plus the steam/smoke doesnt smell like anything special, just has a slightly different smell than my old Dodge Stratus. Hopefully there isn't anything wrong with mine. I have been getting a few o2 sensor codes and one coolant temp performance/range code. But I would clear them to just see if they are sporatic, and they have came back on usually a day or so later. But the last time I cleared them was about a week ago, and still no codes since. But everything seems to run fine, I average about 21.5mpg.

 

You should be fine. My s4 does that in the morning when its cold out.