Why Is My Car Smoking: Tell-tale Culprits & Workable Measures

As a car owner, noticing smoke from your vehicle can be alarming. The first thing that might spring into your mind is often, “why is my car smoking?” 

Like when you spot the tire pressure sensor fault, pinpointing the culprits is a must to determine viable solutions. Such odd smoke could be the driver behind other grave problems.

Need look no further than this read of DriveRevolve! We’ll cover it all with proven reasons why your car may be smoking, from fundamental issues like oil coming out of exhaust to more intricate things like engine damage. So, stay tuned and get the ultimate answers!

Why Is My Car Smoking?

Long short answer: The vehicle’s exhaust system, expelling the byproducts of the engine’s combustion process, should be nearly silent and unnoticeable most of the time. But once something goes wrong, smoke of various colors could come out of the tailpipe or under the hood.

Engine oil or other fluids seeping from a faulty seal or gasket onto a hot exhaust pipe or engine is a typical origin of such smoke. 

Engine coolant, transmission fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid, and even washer liquid could fall into this category. Albeit being mostly harmless, fixing them timely is required, particularly the alarming red fluid leaking from your vehicle.

Of note, a plume of smoke from your tailpipe or the engine compartment usually points to graver electrical or mechanical matters. 

Based on the smoke’s color, you would narrow down the root-cause ranges and save time in seeking the problem. Scroll down and delve into each smoke type’s triggers:

Blue Smoke From Exhaust Or Gray Engine Smoke

Blue or grayish vapor often comes with a dreadful, unbearable scent. This signifies the engine is consuming oil as fuel. Overfilling the crankcase, unsatisfactory oil amount, the wrong oil type, and seized or worn-out piston rings are all plausible to blame. 

On the other hand, the engine may steadily and slowly burn oil if you see blue smoke with no visible leaks. To this end, switch to motor oil with higher mileage or greater thickness.

What’s more, once your transmission vacuum modulator is broken, the transmission fluid will be sucked into your intake manifold, rendering your exhaust emission thick and gray.

Black Engine Smoke

Black smoke from exhaust when accelerating means that the auto is burning raw fuel. To explain, a bad pressure regulator, a lousy engine sensor, a leaking fuel injector, or a poor ignition element can trigger incomplete combustion. From there, the unburned gasoline enters your exhaust system, eventually expelled from your tailpipe. 

This vapor also comes with a gasoline-alike odor. Besides that, your car efficiency may drop, as well as the gas mileage, until you deal with the issue. This way also confronts the catalytic converter and oxygen sensor from ruining.

In other cases, black smoke can stem from burned wires due to a short circuit or electrical failures, then enter the hood and cabin. What’s more, you may also notice burning plastic in such scenarios.

White Smoke From Exhaust

Make this question clear first: What causes white exhaust smoke?

If you see smoke coming out of your exhaust, it means the head gasket or another engine part has stalled; perhaps, your coolant is burning inside the combustion chamber.

Wisps of white smoke with a steam-like appearance can be produced by a broken radiator hose spraying coolant over a hot engine. If you rub some smoking coolant between the fingers, you can notice a sweet, pungent smell and feel oily.

Water Vapor

That is typical. In reality, it’s not even smoke. Condensation accumulating inside the exhaust system is the cause of this. It swiftly dissipates into the atmosphere, and there might even be a gradual drop of water coming out of the tailpipe or you can witness water leaks from your engine.

What Should I Do Once My Auto Begins Smoking?

If smoke emerges from the car, you’d better pull over immediately and turn off the engine. 

Moreover, once the oil pressure gets low, try topping off the gas tank and starting the car again and see whether the smoke remains. If not, presumably, you’re facing gasket failure, engine crack, or something worse. 

Otherwise, rush to the nearest service center. While it’s impossible to operate the vehicle anymore, you may need to have it towed. There, a mechanic may swiftly identify what’s wrong and proceed with a solution correctly.

Not just smoking, the car making noise when turning is also worth noticing. Get the issues diagnosed soon and sorted out promptly!

How To Diagnose The Issue

Schedule servicing is advisable as mechanics would analyze the issue profoundly using tools, particularly diagnostic equipment.

Based on the smoke from the engine or the exhaust pipe, they shall look into each feasible component to determine the culprits.

Once anything wrong is spotted, they deliver the needed servicing, repair, or substitute elements. They must ensure the entire car is in top shape and smoke-free before you return to the road.

FAQs

In A Nutshell

Why is my car smoking? There you have it – the well-rounded answer to this question. 

While a little bit of smoke now and then might not be cause for concern, persistent smoke may indicate a hush-hush danger needing addressing timely. 

As a car owner, you’d better delve into such phenomena and what steps you can take to sort the hurdles out properly to avoid squandering a payout.

Jot something down in the provided space if you have more to discuss. Of note, do not forget to forward such a far-out read about Fun Driving to other car owners!