My exhaust is shootingout a smelly white smoke

When the head gasket fails on a liquid (water) cooled engine the typical smoke colour is white (steam) and that becomes rather underlined by the steady drop of the coolant level and often clear evidence combustion gas is leaking into the cooling system.

Smelly black/grey smoke tends to be produced by an over-fuelling condition such as a stuck choke or strangler or other cold starting aid or perhaps carburettor flooding.

Blue or blue/grey smoke is invariably engine oil burning but I suggest you ignore that until the black smoke problem is rectified and after a short time the blue smoke might also disappear. If it doesn't it could be related to the overheating but the black smoke probably wasn't caused by that...

What is year--make--model?
Are you losing coolant? The white smoke may be coolant in the combustion cylinder, possibly caused by a head gasket problem. If head gasket problem, fix that first.

With idle issues, clean/check anything that has to do with idle air system. Any applicable trouble codes?

http://www.carsdirect.com/car-repair/causes-of-white-exhaust-smoke


Causes of White Exhaust Smoke

White SWEET smelling smoke, or white OILY smelling smoke? If it's white thick SWEET smelling smoke, you have a blown head gasket - that's the smell of antifreeze burning in the engine, which it should NEVER do. If it's white OILY smelling smoke (smells a lot like diesel), then you're getting too much fuel into the cylinders.

If it's sweet-smelling smoke (antifreeze), pull the oil dipstick & check the oil level. If the oil level is HIGH and the oil looks like a mocha milkshake, that's absolutely conclusive - that's what happens when antifreeze gets into your oil, and it's nasty corrosive to engine parts.

I'm not at all surprised that the oil light is on if it won't start - you won't get much oil pressure until the engine is running.

Black Smoke is too much fuel, Blue Smoke is Oil and White Smoke is Coolant. Sounds like the Catalytic Converter is burning itself out because of too much fuel.

Yes and no. I would take it back quick.
And take an attorney with you.
Liquid oil in the exhaust is usually a sign of a blown engine.

Hi.

If you have just a bit more of smoke than usual do a code scanning to check if mixture is rich or lean or if there is misfire or other problem that can affect the engine.

Dark thick smoke is symptom of unburned fuel or oil getting into the cylinder. The smoke can be the result of rich mixture, piston ring problems, valve problems, ring problems or misfire. EGR and PCV system problems also result in smoke from exhaust.

If smoke is only at start and it is dark gray it is probably because of incorrect mixture resulting from another problem.

If problem is piston rings or valves the smoke will be black, thick and smelly because oil gets burned in cylinders. The smoke in this case is not only at start.

1. Check if you have spark in all cylinders.
2. Check if one or more of the spark plugs is dirtier than the others. That will tell you if problem is with that (or those) cylinders only.
3. Do a DTC code scanning using an OBDII reader. In US the code can be done for free at Autozone.

Thick white smoke is instead symptom of water (or coolant) getting into the cylinder. Check if the coolant fluid level is going down by itself. Look for traces of fuel in coolant reservoir. Do a compression test to find out if there is head gasket leakage inside the engine.

Regards.

Ginko

You mean lots of smoke? White, blue, black? Or just smelly stuff? Rotten eggs or shotgun shells, usually an oxygen sensor. I will give you the rundown, white smoke when first starts up is gas, should clear up in a minute.No big deal, normal. Black smoke, carbon, burning rich, settings are way off, computer is not right, oxygen sensors or air flow sensors are bad. Blue smoke is oil, you have lost comp and oil is getting into the cyclinders. Steam, comes out after it warms up and is a blown head gasket. You can look for oil in the radiator. A radiator shop can tell you if it is blown or not. Hope this helps.

Hello!
There are two differnt reasons for black and white smoke coming from the tail pipe.
Black smoke means fuel runs rich (car getting to much gas). Check fuel pressure/air filter.
In some cases the white smoke means car is burning oil or transmittion fluid. Have tem checked/replaced.
If you can feel a smelly smoke it can be catalytic converter.
In a worsest scenario if car blowing white smoke it can be engine coolant is getting into an engine cylinder from a bad head gasket ,or a warped/cracked head. So you need to keep your eye on coolant level and check your engine for overheat. Also might be good to check your oil for traces of coolant (on a dipstick it would be a milky substance mixture of oil and coolant).
Good Luck

Did you check the air filter. Remove and check very close. It might also be a blown head gasket. Hopefully this will help you