Car throwing smoke from exhaust

Tiny
MELISSA MORELAND
  • MEMBER
  • 2008 HONDA PILOT
  • 0.8L
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 178,000 MILES
My car has been throwing smoke for the last two weeks when I let my car sit on park with the engine running for more than 10-15 minutes, and when I put it on drive and leave. If it’s less I don’t see it throw smoke once I start driving. I noticed this the day before I got an oil change and even after oil change it still throws smoke when I drive it after engine was running and sitting in parked. Please help. Any ideas what it can be? Can I still run my car or am I at risk of it breaking down? The meters on the dash board are all good. Also my check engine light was on for a while and my key would not work with my ignition because it was bad. I didn’t know this and took it to a mechanic and he checked out the car and I don’t know what he was doing but there was a loud boom that sounded like something fell. But he was able to help me get my car started from the inside of the hood so I can drive it to a key dealership. My check engine light never came back on since. Don’t know if I should throw that scenario in there.
Tuesday, November 5th, 2019 AT 10:28 AM

7 Replies

Tiny
SCGRANTURISMO
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,897 POSTS
Hello,

Well a big key to see if anything is going on here is the color of the smoke coming from your exhaust pipe. Next time this happens can you please pay close attention to the color of the smoke and tell us if it is white, black, or blue. We can go from there.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros
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Tuesday, November 5th, 2019 AT 4:47 PM
Tiny
MELISSA MORELAND
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Hi again, so this time I left it running for almost 25 minutes and when I drove it, it honestly looks like a gray color like a cloudy gray. Might be blue but it’s in between there since it only throws the smoke when I’m driving and it’ll go away within a minute max.
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Thursday, November 7th, 2019 AT 3:03 PM
Tiny
SCGRANTURISMO
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,897 POSTS
Hello,

Okay, white smoke that smells sweet is usually coolant being burnt in your engine's combustion chambers. This is usually caused by a blown head gasket, but in rarer cases can be from a cracked cylinder head or cracked engine block. Also some engines have coolant passages in their intake manifolds and can have coolant introduced into the combustion chambers there. Blue smoke is usually caused by oil being burnt in the combustion chambers and this is usually the sign of a tired engine, with oil working it's way past worn piston rings or worn valve guides/seals. Having said this, steam coming from a tailpipe, especially when it's cold outside, is a normal process of the catalytic process of a vehicle's exhaust. The catalytic converter breaks down harmful hydrocarbons and one of the byproducts is H2O, water. Water will turn to steam in the hot exhaust and come out like white smoke or steam from a tea kettle. The way to tell if it's coolant being burnt or not is the smell and if your vehicle is losing coolant or not. Please let us know what you find out.

Thanks,
Alex
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Friday, November 8th, 2019 AT 11:46 AM
Tiny
MELISSA MORELAND
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Thank you for telling me to check the coolant! I checked it and it’s almost empty! It has very little coolant. So can the smoke be the coolant leaking? Also when you mention about smell a while before I did notice a strange smell but I wouldn’t necessarily say it was sweet. It smelled really strong and horrible almost like a dead body but I don’t know how that would smell either so I’m not too sure, lol. But I did notice a bad smell very strong for a few days random times for about a month or so and never have since. This was probably back in July or August. Should I just keep adding coolant for the meanwhile?
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Friday, November 8th, 2019 AT 12:27 PM
Tiny
SCGRANTURISMO
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,897 POSTS
Hello again,

LOL. Yes, you should keep it filled up coolant as you don't want your vehicle to overheat and cause a whole new set of problems. So, a blown head gasket is probably going to be the culprit here. Here is a link explaining in a little more detail what is going on:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/white-smoke-or-steam-coming-from-the-exhaust-pipe

Please go through this guide and report back here. We can go from there to get this remedied, but whatever you decide to do, make sure to keep an eye on the coolant and keep it filled.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros
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Friday, November 8th, 2019 AT 1:45 PM
Tiny
MELISSA MORELAND
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
Thanks a lot! You are awesome! So I did go ahead and just added coolant to the car. Now as for the head gasket I’m wondering if that blue devil head gasket sealer will help or actually work or what I can do to get that taken care of perhaps? How can I get this remedied? I appreciate all the help I’m getting.
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Friday, November 8th, 2019 AT 6:19 PM
Tiny
SCGRANTURISMO
  • MECHANIC
  • 4,897 POSTS
Hello again,

Well, first let's confirm that it is a head gasket problem. Down below I have included a link for you to go to explaining how to do a head gasket test.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/head-gasket-blown-test

We don't want to just throw parts at a problem, guessing what's wrong and hoping we get it right. Let's confirm that that's the problem, and then fix it. It will save time and money in the long run. Please go through this guide and get back to us with the results. We can go from there.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros
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Friday, November 8th, 2019 AT 10:20 PM

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