General Alot of smoke coming out of exhaust

[MichaelD88]

Bought the car last week and it had a 12 month mot on it. was told that it failed originally on emissions, so there was a new cat put in, and it passed with no problems on emissions. on the first day of driving the car, no problems, but on the 2nd day of driving it to now, there is alot of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. could this have something to do with the emissions? been told by a friend who is training up to be a mechanic said that its just condensation making it do it, but the amount coming out of it is abit excessive. dont know whether to get it checked out or whether it is just condensation and might take a while before it goes. Cheers for any info

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Fiat Brava 1.2 sx 2000 X reg

 

[rallycinq]

If it is more than condensation it has to come from somewhere, so keep a regular eye on the coolant level.

Cheers

SPD

 

[MichaelD88]

My father has had a drive of the car, and checked it out whilst engine running, an he has said it is steam rather than smoke, as i said. might of been a bit misleading me saying smoke rather than steam. I'll keep a look at things, make sure it is just steam. i'll keep an eye on levels as well to be on the safe side.

 

[zazadavison]

I had the Cat changed on mine(along with the lamda sensor and the ECU) and for the first week or so it would "steam" permanently like the car was still cold the steam only came from the exhaust, and it just seems it was the new cat "bedding in" so to speak, a friend of mine with a punto also had a similar experience.Hopefully this is the same as what is happening on yours.

Good luck.

 

[MichaelD88]

Re: Alot of smoke/steam coming out of exhaust

Hope it is just the CAT bedding in. i'll just have to keep checking on it make sure its not getting any worse. hope it goes in a week like yours. will keep you informed. cheers

 

[Thrisey]

Have your friend, the trainee mec to take a look at coolant levels, perhaps do a cylinder presure test, and are you sure the cat was changed, have a look just to make sure it has, the cat section will be a lot brighter if not silver painted opposed to the rest of the exhaust system.
People selling cars have a tendancy to; shall we say be a little economical with the truth some times, so it is worth a look just to be sure yourself.
If you do have a head gasket leak pushing coolant through the exhaust, it will screw up the 'new' cat for sure.
They are a little smokey when they are new, if you are worried do the above with your mate, so you are sure yourself.

 

[rallycinq]

In general

White smoke/ steam is water.

Blue smoke is oil

Black smoke is fuel/overfuelling.

Just keep checking the coolant level.

Cheers

SPD

 

[TommoW]

A mate of mine had a mk1 clio, not so long back, something happened (I forget what exactly) and he ended up having a load of water in the engine, this resulted in my mate basically taking apart the engine and getting it all out. When we started his car, the exhaust was doing this, it lasted for a good half hour, just the exhaust emmiting masses of steam, we put it down to alot of water still left in the exhaust system. I think the problem is he had got water in his oil system... something like that, anyway, it stopped after all the water had condensed. MY mate put hours of work in to this little clio, only for it to be wrote off a couple of weeks later