White smoke coming from exhaust

Tiny
LONGSTEVEN88
  • MEMBER
  • 2001 NISSAN XTERRA
  • 3.6L
  • V6
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 200,856 MILES
White smoke coming out of exhaust and has a coolant smell but there is no oil in coolant or coolant in exhaust. I filled coolant reservoir up with coolant.
Saturday, April 21st, 2018 AT 11:49 AM

1 Reply

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,727 POSTS
Those are all signs of a leaking cylinder head gasket. Different things can happen depending on where the leak is. The least common symptom is oil in the coolant. The most common symptom is white smoke from the tail pipe. That is a sign of burning coolant. Combustion gases can also go the other way and push coolant into the reservoir.

Your mechanic can perform a chemical test at the radiator to check for a leaking head gasket. That involves drawing air from the radiator, while the engine is running, through a glass cylinder with two chambers partially-filled with a special dark blue liquid. If combustion gases are present, the liquid will turn bright yellow.
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Saturday, April 21st, 2018 AT 12:31 PM

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