I just did my oil change on sat. afternoon. sunday i notice a smell as im driving with my ac on. It smells a bit like hot rubber, not too much of a burnt smell. it wasn't noticeable yesterday, but today as im driving in to work, i see a light white smoke coming from the engine, and when i arrive here i look under the hood and i see smoke coming from the engine oil cap. before the oil change, i used 1040 oil but i noticed the engine sluggish, so i switched to 1030 this weekend. could that have something to do with it? my car's never done this before. should i worry?any help would be useful and appreciated.

 

Possibly a blown head gasket.

COolant is getting in the cylinders - thats why you see white smoke. If the headgasket is blown, you could also be getting coolant in the oil.

Pull your spark plugs, And if they're REALLY clean, you're getting coolant in the cylinder

 

Are you saying that smoke came out of the oil fill hole when you removed the oil cap?

 

check your coolant. if it looks dirty then oil has gotten into your collant passages and you have a blown gasket somewhere. i noticed this when i changed my timing belt. i had left the valve cover off over night and moisture from the air had settled in the valvetrain area (i live near seattle so theres plenty of moisture in the air), so when i started the motor all the moisture evaporated and i saw white smoke. i freaked out as well, but my fluids were clean and the smoke was gone by the end of the day. hope this is all that happened to you.

 

Well it's a bit dark in the parking garage but im sure it was coming from there when i removed the cap. so im assuming changing to 1030 from 1040 is not the problem? Im going to check out the spark plugs at home during noon.

 

You should actually go ahead and check your coolant first - its easier

 

Thanks Weatherman and everyone else. I checked the coolant and its ok, no oil. i checked the oil, no coolant. As soon as I got home I checked under the hood, the white smoke is coming from behind the engine, so before in the dark it appeared to come from the oil cap. I don't know what anyone else thinks of my 1040 to 1030 oil theory (obviously not a very good theory). The only reason I bring it up is that before, my car was dribbling oil from somewhere back there, not enough for a drop or puddle but enough to lightly coat the oil pan and surroundings. Now, after sunday's oil change, this begins. Anyone think that might be the cause. Sorry for the long write up and thanks for all the help again.