Our cars like any other machinery can give us signs that something is failing internally. There are teams that do it by emitting some sound, others because they have certain flaws or obstacles in their operation. Or what we will deal with today… White smoke. If you are wondering why your diesel car emits white smoke and you don’t know if this is something serious or not, let me tell you that in this post you will know that and more.
If you see white smoke coming out of your car’s exhaust pipe, there is no need to panic, the fact that your car is still running is already a good sign. But without a doubt you will have to take the task of attending to the origin of that smoke and discover how to solve it. Preferably before it becomes a bigger problem that costs more to repair. In a simple way, in this post we will tell you about the different types of smoke that your car can emit and what each one means. Are you ready to learn more about your vehicle? If so, let’s get started!
What does it mean if your car emits white smoke from the exhaust pipe?
Let us respond mainly to the case of white smoke, which is the one that concerns us in this article. The causes of your car expelling white smoke can be two. The first being the most harmless and the second the most serious. We will explain how to detect each one.
- The car can expel white smoke from mere water vapor. That’s right, this white smoke may only be due to water vapor, if this is the case you do not have to worry. Just follow your route and you will see how after a few kilometers the car stops expelling it. The way to know that it is water vapor is that this smoke is white but very faint, and disappears a few seconds after leaving. The best way to confirm is by checking to see if the engine is cold. If that is the case, you have nothing to worry about.
- Your car is having a problem with the power supply to the engine. The way to confirm that this is the cause of the white smoke is to check if the engine is very hot. This will cause failures in the car’s propulsion (it will jerk), this white smoke is the result of mixing air and little fuel. The recommendation is to go immediately to a workshop and ensure that the problem does not worsen.
There is a third cause of white smoke, a little less likely than the previous two but it is also worth commenting on it. And it is that if the white smoke is massive, that is to say that it is expelled with a great density. It may be a more compromising failure. Your car is possibly burning the coolant; it is a fault present in the engine block or in the head gasket. This is a fault that you have to go to the workshop immediately and in advance we inform you that its repair is not economical at all.
What does it mean if your car emits black smoke?
If, on the other hand, the smoke that your car gives off is not white smoke, but black smoke. We inform you that this is something normal in diesel car models. Since it means that there is a lot of fuel in the mixture and it is only burning it. As long as the smoke that emanates is not in exaggerated amounts, everything is fine.
If, on the other hand, the smoke is abundant and gives off a smell of gasoline. It means that your car is burning gasoline, and it is best that you go to a workshop before you saturate your car’s catalytic converter and there the repair gets worse. It is always a bad symptom when the car releases excessive smoke, be it of any color.
What does it mean if your car emits gray smoke?
And finally we have to deal with the least dangerous case. When your car emits gray smoke from its exhaust pipe, it does not mean (in principle) any serious problem. In fact, it is a normal feature in this type of car. However, you do notice a more pronounced excess and density in the gray smoke. You can go to a workshop and ask them to check if the injection system is working properly. Since that is usually the cause of that dense gray smoke.
