General Stilo 1.6 coughing up white smoke

[hydrantekk]

My 2004 Stilo 1.6 is developing a problem for last week or so. It happens when I start the car and the engine is cold.

- The car won't start up properly, looks like the battery is flat but is new. After few tries it starts up.

- Engines vibrates a lot for first 5 minutes or so.

- Loads of white smoke coming out, I fear for safety of drivers behind me

As soon as the engine is warmed up the problem dissapears until next cold start. The car drives well, I cannot see any loss of power.

I have no coolant loss, I have checked the oil cap, no nasty stuff there.

Please help


Anybody got any idea or similiar situation? :bang:

 

[Ffoxy]

My 2004 Stilo 1.6 is developing a problem for last week or so. It happens when I start the car and the engine is cold.

- The car won't start up properly, looks like the battery is flat but is new. After few tries it starts up.

- Engines vibrates a lot for first 5 minutes or so.

- Loads of white smoke coming out, I fear for safety of drivers behind me

As soon as the engine is warmed up the problem dissapears until next cold start. The car drives well, I cannot see any loss of power.

I have no coolant loss, I have checked the oil cap, no nasty stuff there.

Please help


Anybody got any idea or similiar situation? :bang:

Any brake fluid loss? Does the smoke smell "smokey" or "steamy"?

 

[PNL]

Sound as if the car might be over fueling on cold start..:chin:

 

[hydrantekk]

OK, so I went to check everything again and the coolant is gone. I have checked the oil level and on the rod the oil level is about 2 cm above the top mark. The car had been services 3 weeks ago by Fiat dealer. Oil change and all the usual stuff. I have a strange feeling that Fiat dealership (Curry motors in Wimbledon) overfilled my oil causing it to blow a headgasket.

any opinions ??

 

[hydrantekk]

Any brake fluid loss? Does the smoke smell "smokey" or "steamy"?

Definitely steamy ....

 

[Argonought]

OK, so I went to check everything again and the coolant is gone. I have checked the oil level and on the rod the oil level is about 2 cm above the top mark. The car had been services 3 weeks ago by Fiat dealer. Oil change and all the usual stuff. I have a strange feeling that Fiat dealership (Curry motors in Wimbledon) overfilled my oil causing it to blow a headgasket.

If the coolant level has gone down that quick then certainly looks to be head gasket but never known a connection with overfilled oil :chin:

 

[PNL]

OK, so I went to check everything again and the coolant is gone. I have checked the oil level and on the rod the oil level is about 2 cm above the top mark. The car had been services 3 weeks ago by Fiat dealer. Oil change and all the usual stuff. I have a strange feeling that Fiat dealership (Curry motors in Wimbledon) overfilled my oil causing it to blow a head gasket.

any opinions ??

If the coolant has gone firstly top it up and keep a check on it ..if it continues to disappear then water is getting into the bores and thats causing the steam ..not good for the health of the vehicle and sounds as though you may have a head gasket fault ..a simple compression or sniff test would confirm it either way..

 

[Deckchair5]

Yes I'm in and I'll raise you 10

Head gasket gone

 

[hydrantekk]

If the coolant has gone firstly top it up and keep a check on it ..if it continues to disappear then water is getting into the bores and thats causing the steam ..not good for the health of the vehicle and sounds as though you may have a head gasket fault ..a simple compression or sniff test would confirm it either way..

How do I do the compression test ?? Where should I sniff ??

 

[PNL]

Where should I sniff ??

:devil: ..lol.. sniff test is where they add a liquid to the expansion tank run the engine..if the gasket is shot it changes colour.. compression test is done at any good garage ..remove plug engage compression tester and crank over the engine..repeat on all 4 cylinders ..

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/__head...cff&keyword=head+gasket+tester&agid=397327960

 

[john55]

OK, so I went to check everything again and the coolant is gone. I have checked the oil level and on the rod the oil level is about 2 cm above the top mark. The car had been services 3 weeks ago by Fiat dealer. Oil change and all the usual stuff. I have a strange feeling that Fiat dealership (Curry motors in Wimbledon) overfilled my oil causing it to blow a headgasket.

any opinions ??

Overfilling the oil wont blow the head gasket. The oil appears too full because you have a lot of water being pumped into the oil through the head gasket leak. Let some oil out of the sump plug. I bet water will come out (it is heavier than oil and sinks to the bottom).

 

[Argonought]

Water normally leaks into one or more cylinders and wont cause much harm if it does but if it's leaking into the oil at that rate then I'd get it to a garage you trust ASAP.

You don't want to end up with complete lubrication failure

 

[hydrantekk]

OK, I am going for a compression check tonight. I just hope it's something cheap to repair.

How much is a headgasket to fix ?? Any idea ??

 

[john55]

OK, I am going for a compression check tonight. I just hope it's something cheap to repair.

How much is a headgasket to fix ?? Any idea ??

I wouldn't really bother with compression test. You have all the classic symptoms of HGF, and a bad one at that. Don't drive the car till it is fixed as you could do a lot more damage to the engine.
Expect a bill in the £200-300 range from a cheap garage. A dealer will be a lot more.

 

[Sparky1483]

if its vibrating like mad and using alot of coolant then defo the hg, gone between two cylinders probably, know whats thats like:bang:

 

[hydrantekk]

I had my car checked and it is a Head Gasket fault. I am not a happy bunny right now.

Thank you guys for help.

 

[Morty Mort]

if its vibrating like mad and using alot of coolant then defo the hg, gone between two cylinders probably, know whats thats like:bang:

Hehe. I've had that experience aswell, but with some extra fun. The HG blew as mentioned between two cylinders. This led after a while to ignition between the cylinders, so and uncomressed mixture was ignited across the block/head and made that cylinder work against the other three... Exhaust blew up the air intake with great balls of (not fire) smoke and kabooms.

Make sure you test your head. It might need skimming as alumimium bends under heat.

M.