White smoke - anything to worry about?

My dads car is producing a bit of white smoke, its nothing too bad, its not a cloud or anything but its constant, it never seems to stop even when the car is ideling but other cars don't produce any smoke in that situation. The MOT is due soon so it anything to worry about?

The engine is running very smoothly in fact its running better now than it was when we bought it, the engine sounds fine when ideling so I can't see what is creating the smoke. If the fuel mixture was wrong then surely the engine would not be running properly?

 

Are you sure its not steam? ..leaking from the radiator that is. Keep an eye on the water levels if I were you.

 

When my cylinder head gasket went I had loads of white smoke!

 

Its coming from the exhaust, its not noticable in the car, its just when I am outside I have noticed there is smoke constantly pouring out of it, its nothing major but its constant rather than puffs.

I don't think it can be anything like the head gasket becuase the temperature is fine. It also had a clean bill of health last time it was serviced.

 

I had the same problem when my head gasket went, not lots of smoke, but constant.

It did smell of oil though, check the dipstick to see how much has been burnt, also check the temp gauge whilst driving, most head gaskets result in over-heating, mine just burnt lots of oil.

Make sure you get it fixed properly if it is too, mine killed the engine completely so I had to replace the car.

 

Well if its the a new head gasket its a new car, it already needs a new rear bumper for the MOT.

There has been no eratic changes in temperature though so I would have thought if it was the head gasket there would be signs of over heating wouldn't they? I need to check this when my dads not around, I don't want to tell him there is anything wrong until I am sure.

This is the original Zetec 1.6 engine but it does have Zetec on the rocker cover rather than OHDC like the original Escort Zetecs had.

 

Head gasket can be on the oil path rather than water, when mine went the temp was fine but the smell of oil was terrible from the exhaust and obviously the dipstick showed it

 

Sure its not just the cold for christs sake?

 

Buy it a coat.

Seriously lift off the oil filler cap. If there's white 'mayonaise' under it your head gasket is farked.

 

It might be nothing.

When the car is cold check coolant level first thing in the morning best. Then over the next few days keep checking to see if the coolant level lowers. Sometimes engines have headgasket seepage.

 

maybe your cars deciding whos going to be pope

 

Maybe it's chosen amazingtrade's Dad to be the next pope, which would probably be a more interesting choice than the current one....

Hey, amazingtrade, is your Dad catholic?

 

Nope he is CoE but like all of us he only ever goes to church for funerals, well I go to church for Badly Drawn Boy gigs as well

 

I had a problem with my shopping trolley - sorry car on friday - I went to pick it up from my girlfriends Uni car park - drove back to hers and while i was driving down a road - the brakes failed on me...!!! luckily I wasn't going fast (about 25mph) and no other cars were at the crossroads either...sigh...had to replace the front pads and disks!

 

Cripes! How many lives have you got left now?

 

not many - but had we have got out butts out of bed sooner - we could have easily been doing 80mph up the M6...
or even if my girlfriend hadn't of wanted to take a turn off to show me the route that she cycles to Uni then I would have driven through the city centre...that would have been scary enough...

 

Its probably just cold but check for crud under the oi filler cap, you can also smell for oil in the water but you really need a 'nose' for this smell. Frequently check water levels to see if its using any.