General Exhaust problems

[imthejoker]

Hello all ,in this cold weather you get the white steam from the exhaust until the engine warms up - But mine always has the steam coming out , its not white smoke like the gaskets gone and the stat works ok - car gets hot and the fan pulls in stat opens and the temp goes down , iv noticed shes been using a bit more juice than usual and the exhaust fumes smell of petrol !! Its a 2.0 20v marea weekend 98 r reg.
Can anyone offer any advice as to the problem / solution please, any help is much appreciated.
Joker

 

[Renegade_8]

The car will use more fuel when it's cold weather, a loss of 1 or 2 mpg is possible. The exhaust will smell of fuel until it warms up as the ECU will be richening the mixture. However it does sound as if your car is over fuelling. Is the Lamba sensor OK? Is the air filter within it's service life.

 

[imthejoker]

Renegade_8 , with regards to the lambda sensor is there any of testing it or should i just get replaced , i drive to n from cambridge last week virtually non stop for 3 hrs and the exhaust was still showing 'cold' engine smoke-local mechanic said it could just be one of those cars that always does it like his mondeo , thanks
Joker