Water coming from the back of the exhaust

Is this just normal under the weather? When my dad drove off there usual white cloud of smoke was there but it was also dripping with water.

I know the water coolant has needed to be topped up recently so I will check it again when he gets back.

I haven't seen any other cars producing the cloud my dads car is doing.

 

perfectly normal if the engine & exhaust is cold, and the outside temperature low. Burning a gallon of petrol gives you two gallons of water - it has to go somewhere. It's just that when everythings cold you see clouds of vapour because it condenses out on the way down the exhaust.

That said, it should diminish/ go away when the cars' thoroughly warmed up (ie driven somewhere/under load, not when idling in traffic); keeping an eye on the rad water level is never a bad idea.

 

if it helps,
some cars produce a lot of condensation in the exaust system, it lays in the bottom of the silencer box and comes out as a dribble which seems never ending, it's nothing to worry about it's not coolant,

David

 

I have just checked the oil filler and the oil is a pure brown colour so that irons out any head gasket problems. The car also revs very smoothly. My dad said its been drinking a bit more petrol a lot lately though. It also can idle irraticaly, this with the exessive exhaust fumes makes me think its probably the lambda sensor, it went on my dads punto and the symptons were identical.

 

here's a link about lambda sensors
http://www.picotech.com/auto/lambda_sensor.html

David

 

You need to drive it hard and blow out all the sh1t.

Dribbling around town all day builds up all sort cr**, just give it a good blast every non and again.

 

Yeah thats always been a problem, my dads cars never really get passed 30mph. We did have a long drive back to north lakes and back a few months ago though. One thing I noted on that link was it said a sealed sicone gasket failure can cause the lamdba sensor to fail, one of these gaskets failed on my dads car a few months back causing a major oil leak.

 

Downstream of the Cat you mostly get water vapour and carbon dioxide, the same constituants of Acid Rain. This is one of the main reasons that modern exhaust systems corrode so much. The exhaust on my Punto broke without warning the other nght on our way back from Oasis concert. £195 was the cheapest quote to get it fixed in a garage, i did it myself in an hour or so for £39. Its a right pain in the arse in this weather though. It was an even pain though as it was the original exhaust, which is a 1 peice. I had to get the angle grinder out to cut it in half to fit my new centre section, it also looked like i'll be doing the tial box in a few months.

I've fitted quite a few exhausts over the last few months , most of the newer ones seem to have a small drain hole at the bottom of the silencer boxes to drain off excess water, without causing any major gas leak.

As has already been suggested short cold journeys kill cars , I'd give the car a good little run along a local dual carriageway/motorway once a month just to get a bit of sustained heat and gas flow through the exhaust system .

You can actually test your Lambda sensor by cooking the element using a butane torch. If you connect a DVM across the sensing elements ( not the heater elements) it should produce a voltage of about 1-2v (iirc) and pulse, however the end of the lambda needs to be bright red hot to do this.

 

Yeah tell me about Punto exhausts, my dad had a MK1 and it would fail a lot, my uncle did and it cost £35-£40 it was always a pain in the arse though, in comparison the Escort one only takes him twenty minutes and has only failed once in 25,000 miles.

I think the does really need to be used more on longer journeys.

 

It used to be quite common to drill a small hole in the bottom of the front box to let the excess water drain off. It doesn't haven't a noticeable effect on the exhaust itself, i.e. doesn't blow, but makes the box last longer as water doesn't sit there day afer day.

Tazz

 

at

you have an unhealthy obesssion with your dads car. last time i saw my dad in a car he was lying in the back of it with a bloke in a top hat walking slowly in front

 

Minor OT chemical correction - acid rain includes sulphur compounds (produced e.g. by coal-burning power stations). What you then get is a dilute sulphurous or sulphuric acid. CO2 existed in the atmosphere long before acid rain and has always dissolved in rain, producing mild acidity. I don't know but I'd imagine the level of sulphur compounds in petrol to be very low.

In any case, the combination of water, mild steel, oxygen and heat is a catastrophe. I know stainless steel exhausts are expensive, but they would last the life of the car.

 

Modern cars will carry more than one lambda and some will have 3,if they all go the Ecu will just go into limp home mode anyway.

It happens sometimes after a spray wash,the fools aim it up the exhaust.

 

My dads isn't really a modern car though, its a 95 Escort with a 92 Zetec engine.

 

I stand corrected, however the net result is still the same on a cheap exhaust system , it corrodes, and more probably mostly from the inside out.....

 

hardly that ancient...