White smoke on cold start
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 148
White smoke on cold start
I was hoping for a little advice here regarding a problem I'm having on cold startup.
On the first start of the morning, I sometimes get a puff of whiteish smoke and the car stalls right away. Sometimes, I'll try again and it will start and idle normally, other times, it stalls a couple of times more and I have to give it a little gas to get the idle to stabilize and the car to run on its own. Other from that, things seem pretty normal. No performance problems. Car starts normally throughout the day, but might exhibit the same characteristics at the end of the workday when the motor has completely cooled again. This doesn't happen every time I start the car, but seems to be gradually getting worse -- happens maybe 50% of the time now.
What could this be? Oil getting past the guides? Fuel management problems?
A couple more backgrounds facts:
98 Max SE
59K
No oil consumption
No unusual fuel consumption
No coolant loss
Compression unknown
Any advice appreciated.
emoore924
On the first start of the morning, I sometimes get a puff of whiteish smoke and the car stalls right away. Sometimes, I'll try again and it will start and idle normally, other times, it stalls a couple of times more and I have to give it a little gas to get the idle to stabilize and the car to run on its own. Other from that, things seem pretty normal. No performance problems. Car starts normally throughout the day, but might exhibit the same characteristics at the end of the workday when the motor has completely cooled again. This doesn't happen every time I start the car, but seems to be gradually getting worse -- happens maybe 50% of the time now.
What could this be? Oil getting past the guides? Fuel management problems?
A couple more backgrounds facts:
98 Max SE
59K
No oil consumption
No unusual fuel consumption
No coolant loss
Compression unknown
Any advice appreciated.
emoore924
Member who somehow became The President of The SE-L Club
iTrader: (19)
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 16,024
Re: White smoke on cold start
Originally posted by emoore924
What could this be? Oil getting past the guides? Fuel management problems?
A couple more backgrounds facts:
98 Max SE
59K
No oil consumption
No unusual fuel consumption
No coolant loss
Compression unknown
Any advice appreciated.
emoore924
What could this be? Oil getting past the guides? Fuel management problems?
A couple more backgrounds facts:
98 Max SE
59K
No oil consumption
No unusual fuel consumption
No coolant loss
Compression unknown
Any advice appreciated.
emoore924
At 60K your coming up to major tune up time. Plugs & all your filters, or has this been done already? Another thing to do is clean out your throttle body. That alone solves most running, idling and starting problems. Ths smoke your seeing may just be the result of the hard start.
Thread Starter
Member
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 148
problem solved
I talked to the dealer about the problem, had it in there, and of course, it wouldn't present any symptoms. In any case, they suggested a throttle body service (cleaning). Price: about $120 + "chemicals", whatever that means.
So, I said "no thanks" and proceeded down the road to pep boys. Bought a can of Gumout TB cleaner. Removed intake assembly. Squirted the stuff in there with the car running and cleaned it out myself.
Executive summary:
Dealer:
$120
Me:
$3
screwdriver
dirty rag
Problem solved. Now I'm off to figure out how to turn off the "service engine soon" light that I turned on as a result of this little procedure.
emoore924
So, I said "no thanks" and proceeded down the road to pep boys. Bought a can of Gumout TB cleaner. Removed intake assembly. Squirted the stuff in there with the car running and cleaned it out myself.
Executive summary:
Dealer:
$120
Me:
$3
screwdriver
dirty rag
Problem solved. Now I'm off to figure out how to turn off the "service engine soon" light that I turned on as a result of this little procedure.
emoore924
All YOUR grammer belong to me
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 7,400
Re: problem solved
Originally posted by emoore924
I talked to the dealer about the problem, had it in there, and of course, it wouldn't present any symptoms. In any case, they suggested a throttle body service (cleaning). Price: about $120 + "chemicals", whatever that means.
So, I said "no thanks" and proceeded down the road to pep boys. Bought a can of Gumout TB cleaner. Removed intake assembly. Squirted the stuff in there with the car running and cleaned it out myself.
Executive summary:
Dealer:
$120
Me:
$3
screwdriver
dirty rag
Problem solved. Now I'm off to figure out how to turn off the "service engine soon" light that I turned on as a result of this little procedure.
emoore924
I talked to the dealer about the problem, had it in there, and of course, it wouldn't present any symptoms. In any case, they suggested a throttle body service (cleaning). Price: about $120 + "chemicals", whatever that means.
So, I said "no thanks" and proceeded down the road to pep boys. Bought a can of Gumout TB cleaner. Removed intake assembly. Squirted the stuff in there with the car running and cleaned it out myself.
Executive summary:
Dealer:
$120
Me:
$3
screwdriver
dirty rag
Problem solved. Now I'm off to figure out how to turn off the "service engine soon" light that I turned on as a result of this little procedure.
emoore924
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