Car trouble! No overheat but lots of smoke when driven!

I wrote most of the message in the pictures so please read, its very lengthy but I describe it as best as I could!

Engine, transmission fluids are okay. No signs of overheating because the temperature gauge looks okay. The stick thingy does not pass the between marker but its leaning towards the COLD not HOT. Pictures below of example.

I gave a call to my mechanic but hes very busy so he can't take a look or fix it any time this week or next week. There is a leak under the car, facing towards the hood right side.


I hope anyone can HELP!

 

Hey!

Sounds like a coolant problem. The smoke you described, does it have like a sweet smell? If so it's likely steam from coolant splashing out/leaking and hitting your exhaust.

What I would do is find your radiator (front of the engine, rectangular thing: http://www.uneedapart.com/images/used-radiators.jpg ) and find the two black rubber hoses that come out from it. Inspect to make sure they're not leaking/loose.

The best thing you could do right now if possible would be identify what is leaking, and from where?

 

Drento is giving you good advise, might be the coolant leak you described.
Pretty funny spot for a coolant leak tbh, so I'm thinking it may be another type of leak.
If you just start your car and let it sit in an empty driveway for like 10 mins, is there a littlebit of fluid on the ground?
If that smells like gas/oil it may be a bigger problem, but if it's only a littlebit nothing to worry about.
The smoke can very well be a puddle of fluid vaporizing, what fluid it is may be important

Good luck man, and if you can't figure it out, just go to another mechanic who's not as busy.
Your car is more important than a relationship with some random dude. Get it fixed

 

Well, the smoke smells stinky but it didnt have a sweet smell at all but honestly, i,don't know. I mentioned that when i drove, there was absolutely no coolant in my radiator , only in my reservoir tank. When i noticed a huge crack or noise or an explosion that felt like a bump who knows, i parked my car and saw bunch of smoke. I looked under the vehicle and saw it was leaking a lot of fluids near right side. I park my car in my parkway that's slightly slanted and the leak isn't there.,I,checked the transmission, engine fluids and it appears to be okay. I,was lucky that it could drive but i did it cautiously.

 

you're right, it is probably not the coolant leaking. The leak stopped though but checking my engine fluid and transmission which appears to be at okay level.

EDIT: I added some drinking water to my radiator to the full and then started up the car and let it idle. I saw a leak under the hood.

 

i'm no mechanic, but i'd venture a guess that maybe a radiator hose is leaking, especially if there wasn't anything in your radiator. the smoke was probably the leaking fluids hitting hot parts of your engine bay, and then evaporating.

 

Have you recently changed your oil? There was a customer that brought their car to our shop before that had way too much oil in it. Whenever you check the oil, clean the dip stick off completly , then carefuly re-insert it without rubbing it down the sides. Also- make sure your checking the engine oil not the transmission fluid.

I'm not a mechanic either, I work in a Body Shop- we fix cars that have been crashed, not mechanical problems.

Your car is running really rich if the smoke is also coming from the exhaust. The leaking is a a serious problem though. I would highly advise you to not drive it at the moment. Since you have smoke coming from under the hood, it's burning whatever you have leaking which can harm other pieces quickly.

__
Sorry if I wasn't much help, my assumption is that it's engine oil.

 

The first time I knew about it, I pulled over immediately and looked under the hood. There was a loud explosion or a bump, I don't know but I heard it with one ear ( my other ear has ear wax blockage which prevents me to hear from that ear ). There was so much fluids leaking that it started a river and then I went in the store to buy my Distilled water. About 5-10 minutes later, I come back and the smoke was gone and then I drove it to the gas station because my gas was low. Same thing happened again, smoke under the hood but it disappeared. I drove it again one last time and final destination was to my house. I parked up my drive way rather than on the side of the road and what a surprise, I looked under the hood and there was no leak.

The next day, I filled my radiator up with water to full until I couldn't anymore. I started up the car for a few seconds, about 1 minute tops and then the leak happened again. I want to drive the car around the block and then come back to see if there will be smoke again with (water in the radiator). A few hours later, I just open my radiator cap to see if theres any water left and it looked empty. I don't even know if thats normal or not though.

I don't know if this is actually true or not, but if you run water in your radiator, would there actually be actually be a stain leak on the cement/street/parkway whatever you call it??Water evaporates and doesn't leave a stain but if it was oil or something, then it would leave a traces. Under the hood, I see a small, short river of that leak. I checked all my other fluids such as engine oil, transmission oil and the levels seem to be okay. The transmission oil looks brown though which I don't even know if that's good or not.

 

What color is your engine oil? It should be an amber color. If it's light you could have blown a head gasket and are getting coolant in the engine oil. Now also water.

I would take it somewhere and have them do a pressure test to see exactly where the leak is coming from.

I doubt its the head gasket honestly, it could just be the radiator hose. There would be a large hard as hell to clean up puddle of engine oil if that was leaking. It would also be all underneath your car splattered everywhere.

 

Where you said that you're having overheating problems and that you had no coolant in your radiator means you've narrowed it down to that you have a leak in your cooling system somewhere.

What I would do is fill your radiator up with water and start the vehicle and let it idle. Then crawl underneath the vehicle and find where the fluid is leaking from. I'm taking a shot in the dark here and suggesting that one of the rubber lines that fit onto your radiator blew off when you hit the bump and heard the "explosion". The lines coming to and from your radiator are sometimes under pressure and would explain the loud sound you heard when the line came off.

Check the front of the engine (closest to the headlights) and look at the radiator that's right behind the headlights (looks like the picture I previously posted) and find those two rubber lines. Follow them around and check for accumulation of water and/or fluids.

Couple questions:

Does the liquid leak out of the radiator if you pour it in and not start the motor? Or do you have to start it to make it leak? If you have to start it to make it leak you might be looking at a water pump replacement, if it just pours out when you put water in (with motor not running) you're likely looking at a loose or broken line to/from the radiator.

Until you can tell us where your leak is coming from it's difficult to have any kind of ideas to help you diagnose the problem.

Take pictures if you find anything of interest, I can likely help. PM me if you don't see me reply in a day or so. I'm forgetful, but I have a reasonably large knowledge in mechanics and I can help you through this.

Edit: and on a side note, don't drive your vehicle with a malfunctioning cooling system. Make sure you know that there's liquid/coolant of some kind in the radiator before driving.

 

I'm not a mechanic but it sounds like a blown head gasket to me.

"The head gasket maintains two important parts of the engine. The cylinder block and the head. Between these two parts there are multiple passages and cavities that carry, oil, water, fuel mixture and exhaust fumes. A "blown" gasket will allow some or all of these different liquid and gases to escape and/or mix. Not good for the engine. Coolant will leak down on the piston and make lots white smoke. eventually you could hear a knocking noise in the engine or an explosion type of noise when the gasket is blown (not always)".

 

blown headgaskets usually relate to smoke coming from the exhaust, usually

 

Typically a blown headgasket will slowly affect the coolant levels, and you'd notice a white smoke/steam coming from the exhaust.

It wouldn't explain the amount of smoke coming from his engine bay.

I'm leaning towards water pump.

 

Blown headgasket is also going to make engine oil a very light color from the fluids.

 

Give your radiator hoses a squeeze when your car is off, might just be pressure in there dude, may as well take it to a garage and explain your problem too, would be the best option!

 

Got it fixed, watched the mechanic replace the radiator hoses. Lots of light brown liquids came out as you described. Mechanic replaced two hoses. I don't know what he was doing but the way he fixed it was..

1. He cut the hoses so that he can replace it.
2. He replaced it with new hoses
3. He used this metal ring sort of a tightener that was used tighten the hose to the whatever he was doing.

Everything was done on the right side of the hood. He had to take out this thingy near the battery, which had a filter and then there was this thing on the engine. If you look at the picture and see the red O O O O all connected to the side of the engine, thats what he unscrewed. In order to replace the hoses that leak, it had to be removed.

Yep its fixed now, no more leak. I guess that the smoke came from the leak when water + heat combined, it creates steam. But for now, I need to fix my power steering leak, replace water pump and timing belt kit and head gasket. He quoted me around 350 for water pump, timing belt kit, and head gasket and the power steering leak hose whatever for 130.

if anyone thinks its a good deal, i'll give him a ok

 

350 for water pump timing belt and head gasket is good ASSUMING he's talking about labour, and not parts cost.

Remember the shop is going to charge you for parts + labour. A head gasket job is typically a reasonably expensive one.

Just be sure to read out the quote paper he gave you (if he gave you one) and be certain you know what your bill is going to be TOTAL.

if anyone thinks its a good deal, i'll give him a ok[/QUOTE]

 

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He is a personal mechanic that doesn't own a shop but work at home. There are several self-employed mechanics out there that don't cheat you out of your money, and he's one of them. Timing belt kit which includes water pump for $350 including parts and labor. I don't know if parts are used but for an old car like mines, a whole kit costs about $100.