Hi Guys,

I have white/light brown smoke coming out from my exhaust. After reading some posts regarding the white smoke, it seems like its a head gasket issue and as a result leaking radiator fluid. I know I have a leaking radiator at the moment so does this mean that its not the headgasket and when I replace the radiator it will fix this issue?

Thanks in advance

 

easiest way to tell is by the scent of the exhaust...

burnt radiator fluid smells very distinctive...almost sweet

 

I can even smell it from inside the car at times but thats because the coolant is actually leaking in the hood. What I want to find out is that apart from the head gasket issue. Can white smoke coming from the exhaust also come from "just" a leaking radiator?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kublai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Can white smoke coming from the exhaust also come from "just" a leaking radiator?</TD></TR></TABLE>

no, a leaking radiator will not cause white smoke from the exhaust...
white smoke can also mean you are running too lean

 

cools.. thanks for that

 

It'll be white when the car is cold, and the air is cold and or humid. That's just steam, water is a normal byproduct of gasoline combustion. (a pure hydrocarbon will burn into C02 and H2O, mostly.)

If your headgasket is blown, you can get coolant in the combustion chamber in the cylinder, which makes the white smoke out your tailpipe.

Another symptom can be exhaust bubbles getting into your coolant system, sometimes a lot of exhaust, and that will blow radiator fluid out of your overflow bottle.

Fix your leaky radiator first. Top off your radiator and see if you're leaking any, or if it's blowing out of your radiator into your overflow bottle. Where is it leaking from, anyway?

 

Cools... I'm due to replace it ... waiting for my fluidyne radiator to come in. I doubt it should be the headgasket cos I've checked the oil and it wasnt milky at all. Its leaking from the actual radiator itself. I popped open the hood and looked at the radiator and saw coolant traces around the middle of the radiator and more collecting at the bottom of the radiator. But i did notice drops of dried coolant (whitish chalky marks at on the panel where the bonnet hatch is. Also almost every day I would need to top off my overflow bottle because it will always drain (assuming its draining from the leak thus taking from the overflow).

Also anothing thing, if it was because it was running lean.. will tuning resolve it?