I bought a 91 accord LX about a week ago and it is a daily driver. It has 127,XXX miles on it and i have never had any problems with it at all within this short little period that i have owned it, but this morning i woke up and went and started it up and them got out and popped the trunk to get my g/f's laptop out and it started puffing white smoke out of the exhaust. I was little worried about this but i shut it off and check all fluids and everything looked fine, and started it back and it still did it so i decided to take it for a spin and drove it like 1mile or so and all the smoking quit and hasnt done it again today. What do you think might have caused it to start the smoking? Sorry to ramble on and on just wanting to be informative. Thanks for your posts and comments.

 

happens all the time. just burning up the moisture from overnight. im guessing you park outside

 

yeah my car did that, perfectly normal until i found out it was my head gasket

check the antifreeze reservoir for oil

 

yeah but he said it goes away after he drives it... with a blown headgasket, he'd probably be blowing smoke 24/7

 

if it was really bad it be like a huge cloud of steam coming out all the time. I agree

but it doesn't hurt to check

 

this is not always true... as the engine heats up it expands and it may be sealing a leak in the process. it is best to check to anitfreeze level. it is normal for a car to puff a water vapor cloud first thing in the morning but white smoke is definately a no-no as it usually indicates that you are buring ethyl glycol.


I got a Q for the thread starter, does the exhaust smell sweet? if it does, you are in trouble. Since Honda Engine blocks and heads are of the same material (aluminum) it is rare for these cars to blow head gaskets.

 

^^^ It's highly unlikely that if this is in fact smoke coming from a faulty head gasket that it would stop entirely for even one full day...its possible that it could seal with expansion, but it would also go back to its initial state after letting it sit for any length of time with a situation dealing with a blown head gasket...there could be a few other things that are highly unlikely, but im guessing that it was probobly condensation blowing out of the exhaust system...which is normal.

But just to be safe, like was mentioned before, get down there and smell the "smoke" coming out of the exhaust, that will tell you REAL quick whether this is a problem, or just a normal morning occurance.

 

Yeah thanks Well day 2 of my problem and i just started it and it did the whole thing over again, but i havent drove it this morning yet, so i will keep you all posted on what this is doing. Thanks

 

If the exhaust does have a odor to it when smelling it what would be the problem? Please inform me, thanks

 

Please, this sounds like a classic case of leaky valve stem seals. Oil slowly leaks past the seals over the night and when you start it up you'll burn it off for a while. Check the compression and I bet it will be normal.

Valve seals are annoying, just continue to check your fluids but there's no immediate need to fix it (unless its the headgasket of course). You can replace the seals without taking the head off, just make sure you know what you're doing first.

Easy way to see if it is oil vs. vapor is check your tail pipe for a greasy residue after you see the smoke. Exhaust vapor won't have a smell and evaporates quickly after the car warms up.