Ok so the balt has been sitting in the garage for about a month now undrivin. So when I got home from work today I started her up and the last time I started her up was about a week and a half ago and she ran fine. Today however when I started her a little bit of white smoke was coming from the exhaust so I continued to let her idle for a few min and still a little bit of white smoke. when I was getting ready to shut her off a gave it a few revs and the smoke started pouring so I shut her off. Any ideas. Maybe bad cat or gasket?

 

Im not sure if this would have anything to do with it smoking but I was checking under the car for fluid leakage and seen a tiny puddle. So I put my finger in the puddle smell it dosent smell or look like oil. I also think the leak may be coming from one of the fluid cooler lines.

 

Hmm well white is ussual means burnt coolant, however, a head gasket failure on an Ecotec is extremly rare as they are MLS.

Also, if its coming out of your exhaust, that means the engine is somewho injesting coolant, so I don't think a leak somewhere else would cause the problem.

Now, are you sure its not just condesation, go smell the exhaust, if its white and smells sweet, then its burnt coolant.

Odds are tho its just condenstation.

Then again all this is assuming your car is stock, aside from bolt-ons that is.

Also, a little tip, if you are storing a car for a while and not driving it, its best to not start it up every so often. Just shut it off and leave it untill you plan on driving it again.

 

Thanks for the info man. It def wasnt condensation and I wouldnt say sweet smell it sort of smelled like burning oil almost

 

Saw the title and was gna say doesn't smoke always from from there haha

 

If you honestly cant tell...try it again and get a video.

White smoke = coolant OR condensation

Blue smoke = oil

Black smoke = fuel

what was the temp when this happened?

 

my car has poured white smoke out from the tail before. my conclusion was either A) condensation or B) the change in weather made my car run itself a little rich on start up until it was at operating temp ie: protective action by the computer

 

Yeah was it cold out? If so don't worry about it. I got to work the other day and realized my exhaust was still making "smoke" lol, and I got a 30 min commute.

 

^ this. colder weather makes it a lil harder to tell cause you will see more white density in the exhaust fumes

 

Yea ill work on gettin that vid. And the temp in the garage is around 55 and the temp of the car when I shut it of was only 98

 

Ya the only way for coolant to get into the engine is either a leaky headgasket or a cracked coolant gallery that is leaking coolant into the combustion chamber. Both of those are extremely unlikely with the ecotec. Or somewho through the intake manifold, but as far as I know no coolant runs to the intake manifold on a Cobalt (ie. no heated TB)

The only other cause of white smoke I have seen is oil leaking out of a turbo into the exhaust side of the housing. This is a very thick white smoke and smells the same as burnt oil, but since it hasn't gone through the combustion chamber it doesn't have a blue colour for whatever reason.

However since your car is not turbocharged, this is unlikely the issue.

If your really worried still you can always compression test the motor to see if the head gasket is bad, but like I said, that is very unlikely.

 

My car is doing the same thing but its supercharged

And its catless

 

Im guessing it was jus condensation cause when I started it up when I got of work it only smoked a bit and when I revd it up a few times it cleared out. Again thanks for the help guys I did take a vid of it might upload it later so you all can check it out

 

If you have recently put in a dual pass it could also be your laminovas leaking into the intake