turtle1026
Veteran Member
My car is pushing out a ton of white smoke and loses coolant quickly. I would like to diagnose this so I am asking for help.
The car ran fine on a 60 mile trip my wife took yesterday. She pulled into a parking lot at a supermarket. After coming out of the supermarket she started the car to see a ton of white smoke. She shut it off immediately. She only had 2 more miles to go so she re-started it and drove the car the 2 more miles to a parking garage at her final destination. (Smoke had stopped by now-coolant all gone, I guess) She spent a few hours in the building and then came back out to leave. She started the car and got more white smoke (reservoir coolant now maybe made its way to engine). She sent me a video of the white smoke and I told her to shut the car off. She confirmed to me that the coolant reservoir was empty. I told her to put water in the reservoir and wait for me to show up. I arrived an hour or so later and started the car. I confirmed more white smoke AND water running out of the bottom of the car. I had come from work with no tools or even a flashlight to see where it was coming from. I couldn't even remove the engine cover. I will be going back to the car to diagnose or I will have it towed to my house.
I suspect the white smoke is burning water (steam) caused by an EGR failure. I am guessing it is broken externally and internally. I don't think it is a head gasket because the oil is not contaminated with water and the water is leaking externally.
One more thing: She said when she pulled into the parking lot at the supermarket she hit a pretty severe dip in the road and she is concerned she broke something. I am not sure if this is related or not. I know the EGR is upper passenger side of the engine and she felt like she hit lower driver side.
Of course, I am concerned about overheating from the short drive, but I have to address one problem at a time. She never saw the temp gauge go above the "190" and never got an engine light of any kind.
I can post the video of the smoke, but I am not sure how to do that from the Post screen.
The car just hit 100K miles and has been well maintained. I have not yet done the TB/BS, but that will be soon assuming this issue is not catastrophic.
Are there other possible diagnoses for this? Any help is greatly appreciated.
The car ran fine on a 60 mile trip my wife took yesterday. She pulled into a parking lot at a supermarket. After coming out of the supermarket she started the car to see a ton of white smoke. She shut it off immediately. She only had 2 more miles to go so she re-started it and drove the car the 2 more miles to a parking garage at her final destination. (Smoke had stopped by now-coolant all gone, I guess) She spent a few hours in the building and then came back out to leave. She started the car and got more white smoke (reservoir coolant now maybe made its way to engine). She sent me a video of the white smoke and I told her to shut the car off. She confirmed to me that the coolant reservoir was empty. I told her to put water in the reservoir and wait for me to show up. I arrived an hour or so later and started the car. I confirmed more white smoke AND water running out of the bottom of the car. I had come from work with no tools or even a flashlight to see where it was coming from. I couldn't even remove the engine cover. I will be going back to the car to diagnose or I will have it towed to my house.
I suspect the white smoke is burning water (steam) caused by an EGR failure. I am guessing it is broken externally and internally. I don't think it is a head gasket because the oil is not contaminated with water and the water is leaking externally.
One more thing: She said when she pulled into the parking lot at the supermarket she hit a pretty severe dip in the road and she is concerned she broke something. I am not sure if this is related or not. I know the EGR is upper passenger side of the engine and she felt like she hit lower driver side.
Of course, I am concerned about overheating from the short drive, but I have to address one problem at a time. She never saw the temp gauge go above the "190" and never got an engine light of any kind.
I can post the video of the smoke, but I am not sure how to do that from the Post screen.
The car just hit 100K miles and has been well maintained. I have not yet done the TB/BS, but that will be soon assuming this issue is not catastrophic.
Are there other possible diagnoses for this? Any help is greatly appreciated.