Smoking after adding oil and driving, 2-year old gasket
06-10-2017, 03:41 PM
#1
Newbie - Just Registered
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 9
Smoking after adding oil and driving, 2-year old gasket
Hi everyone,
I own a 2000 nissan maxima with +260K miles on it. my dad and I have maintained it pretty well over the past years. about 3-4 years ago, I had a bad ignition coil while driving between cities. the strain on the engine mealted the head gasket, which caused smoke to come from the engine.
after the gasket was replaced, the smoke was gone, fortunately. fast forward till about an hour ago before a meeting I had to attend in another town.
I checked my fuel gauge before leaving town, and it was at the 'low' tick mark on the dipstick. I added anywhere between 2-3.5 quarts of oil, closed it up, and hit the road.
about halfway to my desitnation, I had to pull over to send a message and smelled smoke. rising from underneath my car (from previous experience, its from the engine block) I saw smoke. I got to my destination and when I checked the engine again, the engine block was still smoking.
I believe the smoke might be blue, since now is the only time ive noticed it smoking since I commute pretty often between cities going home from school to visit family.
Could this issue have been caused by a possible overfill of oil? What are the chances of a melted/blown gasket? will this problem recede if I continue to drive it and allow the excess (if present) oil burn off?
thanks in advance for your input.
Civ
I own a 2000 nissan maxima with +260K miles on it. my dad and I have maintained it pretty well over the past years. about 3-4 years ago, I had a bad ignition coil while driving between cities. the strain on the engine mealted the head gasket, which caused smoke to come from the engine.
after the gasket was replaced, the smoke was gone, fortunately. fast forward till about an hour ago before a meeting I had to attend in another town.
I checked my fuel gauge before leaving town, and it was at the 'low' tick mark on the dipstick. I added anywhere between 2-3.5 quarts of oil, closed it up, and hit the road.
about halfway to my desitnation, I had to pull over to send a message and smelled smoke. rising from underneath my car (from previous experience, its from the engine block) I saw smoke. I got to my destination and when I checked the engine again, the engine block was still smoking.
I believe the smoke might be blue, since now is the only time ive noticed it smoking since I commute pretty often between cities going home from school to visit family.
Could this issue have been caused by a possible overfill of oil? What are the chances of a melted/blown gasket? will this problem recede if I continue to drive it and allow the excess (if present) oil burn off?
thanks in advance for your input.
Civ
06-10-2017, 04:13 PM
#2
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 432
When the dipstick says "LOW," it only takes .5 - 1 quart to fill it to the top. So you put in about 2 more quarts than you should have. I would not be surprised if that is your issue. I'm also not surprised it didn't start coming out of the dipstick tube.
06-10-2017, 04:23 PM
#3
Newbie - Just Registered
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 9
oh lord... I FEEL like a dipstick for not knowing better. at the least, I know for the future NEVER to make that mistake again. I may have a chance to unscrew the oil pan's bolt to let some out later on today after this meeting I have, but I will also look under the hood to look at whats going on there, see if anything is coming out.
06-11-2017, 01:49 PM
#4
Newbie - Just Registered
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 9
Just wanted to follow up... today everything went back to normal..I checked the dipstick last night after letting the engine cool and the dipstick was above "high", and this morning it was just under. I took a short trip and there was a little bit of smoke, but on the trip back into town there was no smoke at all, just the scent from the burning residue.
lesson learned...
