madlion

I have a 2008 cobalt ss. it is a little cool but moderate for the most part(25F low 110F high right now 53F'ish) and is often humid. In the morning when i cold start the sucker there is a little steam and drip of condensation from the tailpipe... The steam is humid and disipates quickly. the color of the steam is def clear. i stuck a peice of toilet paper underneath the tailpipe and the liquid was clear thus leading to the condensation thought. i was wondering if it could be coolant. once in a while ill misfire enough to throw an ecu code (maybe 2-3 times in 7600miles) but not often only when the car was a little cool. On start up i think sometimes i notice a fuel smell but the steam doesnt seem to smell? One of my thoughts was if it was coolant it would be orange like coolant. The coolant is orange unlike whats coming out of my tailpipe. unless its leaking at cool down and then vaporizing and not maintaining the orange color? but my coolant is at the exact level from when i bought the car. also the steam seems to go away after 5 minutes or so. also start up is loud and i can hear spooling for the first 10-15 seconds and holds rpm at 1.5k and levels out in the first 30 seconds and then it seems like steam is coming out. no performance or coolant temperature issues. i do run my car through the touchless car wash that sprays the undercarriage i wonder if that could be doing something. i wash it once a week or so.. i am thinking this is normal since im not throwing codes consistantly??? i have tried reseting the ecu. the first time i reset it way less steam. now after relearning it steams again?? sorry for the fragmented thoughts but those are the symptoms and if anyone has any ideas please help. hoping this is normal??

srowler9

your fine. Like you said it's condensation. You would know if it was coolant.

jimbreast

mine does this also....you just have to let it warm up before you go ripping on it in the morning...as for the cel, i got it 2 times actually one of those times was this morning. they only stayed on for like 30 sec. though.

Tomtwtwtw

Condensation is fine, and you may catch a whiff of fuel on a cold start...it does run quite rich for the first few minutes. Go to a local Autozone or similar though and get the cel checked just for piece of mind. Even if the light is gone, the code should still be in there. May have just been a small misfire...I hear it's fairly common on these engines.

madlion

already been done. only cel ever received was for misfire then i just reset it.. i think the plugs needs to be regapped or something of that nature but it hasnt done it in a while so.. i think ill finally take it in for an oil change and get them to look at it. i personally like to change my own peace of mind

Zander916

The fuel smell is normal also. It's just running on a base map until the oxygen sensor gets warm enough to operate.

Tomtwtwtw

It defintiely wouldn't hurt to check your gaps...when I changed plugs on the ss/sc, I found the gaps were off by different amounts on each plug, although not by much. Per the manual on the ss/tc, they should be .035. I'll check mine this week as well, just for giggles...