Help! Im a car illiterate....my car has started this smoking (out the exhaust pipe) alot of grey/white smoke. It started when I added 2 quarts of oil to my car at the gas station last Thursday night....can anyone help me please??? I know if I go to a mechanic Im going to get run through the ringer because Im a younger chick with no fricken car knowledge at all. I really wanna have some kind of an idea so I don't get screwed. Thanks!

you probably have a blown head gasket, its not a cheap fix. Stop driving the car immediately and have it fixed unless you want to pay more money.

I thought a head gasket had to do with the antifreeze and all that? I haven't lost power to the car? It still drives and acts normal other than the smoke. Could it be piston rings? someone told me that might be it....?? I guess I just have to take my chances on a mechanic to find out for sure. Thanks!

Trying to understand a little more on the symptoms.

Why did you add the two quarts of oil? Did the dipstick read it as low?

Just in general, if you blow a head gasket, it doesn't necessarily lose power. What could be happening is anti-freeze is getting into the combustion chamber, its then subjected to the heat, and comes out as steam, otherwise white smoke, out of the exhaust tail pipe. The easiest way to determine this is to check your radiator fluid level. Also, does the exhaust smell sweet?

Another situation could be the valves aren't seating correctly. Oil is leaking passed them, into the combustion chamber, and thus burned. This tends to cause a higher amount of smoke at startup and is usually undetectable unless under hard acceleration.

The last, could be the rings. However, generally when rings go bad, the motor tends to lose compression in that cylinder, ultimately making it dead weight, thus causing the engine to run rough.

I added oil cause it was low....but now I think I added too much oil? its running fine...the first day it ran a little rough and the smokeyness isn't as bad or as often as it was..... but it smokes when I accelerate....at first it idled a lil rough and it smoked a lil when it was idling but its stopped that.

Good question RandomTask. Did it need oil? If not, you may have overfilled it and the oil is sqeezing up past the rings and getting burnt. Since it happened at the same time you added oil, that's my first guess.

The only other thing I can think of that would happen all at once to cause smoke is the blown head gasket. It wouldn't have been affected by the oil, but it could have just happened at the same time by coincidence.

Things to check:

1) check the oil dipstick. If its the proper level you're OK. If its higher by an inch or so, you might have a problem. Its a $20 fix since you can just have the oil changed and they'll fill it to the right level, or you could drain some out.

2) Check the dipstick for anything abnormal. The oil should be somewhere between brown and black, but should not be cloudy, frothy, or anything but clear. Rub some on your fingers and you'll be able to tell if its clear.

3) check your coolant reservoir level. Don't open it hot. In fact its probably translucent so you can see the level through the side. If it is significantly low, it might be a blown head gasket. The water does evaporate over time, so a slow reduction in level is normal, but if you've lost a bunch recently, it might be a head gasket.

4) Smell your exhaust smoke. If it smells like an old car with a pungent oily smell, then its oil. If its a steamy, sweet smelling exhaust, its coolant and you have a blown head gasket. You can match the smell by first opening the coolant tank (when its cool) and smelling the coolant.

My guess is that you overfilled the oil. Cross your fingers

it does not smell sweet at all....its a nasty stinky chemically oily smell...I hope and pray its just overfilled.....I'll have a friend of mine check the oil level since I'd probably screw that up too. Thank you so much you guys! I should probably go buy a chiltons book and learn about my car since Im going to be driving it for a while.

its an inch over exactly on the dip stick and the oil is clear..no cloudyness or frothyness the coolant is at the normal line thing....I think Im an idiot and just overfilled it....

like this?



I too guess its an oil issue, but also too much fuel consumption could cause this problem too. I mean A LOT of fuel consumption. Chances are thats not it, but I just thought I would share the similarities of the smoke. In the picture above, when i first got my car running after the engine swap, it was dumping so much fuel down the cylinders, the car wouldnt even hold an idle and it created the smoke above.

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1996 Ford Contour SE
3.0L V6 and Arizona Dyno Chip Turbo Kit
364 whp, 410 wtq @ 16 psi and only 4,700 rpms.
Contour Enthusiasts Group

Jessica, you can go to www.howstuffworks.com and click on the autos link. There is more stuff there than you can imagine. Once you've read and understood everything there, you are then qualified to post here.

Just kidding. We're glad you found us!!! Post any question you want.

I think its an oil overfill issue, and you can have a friend with a wrench fix it

You guys are awesome LOL....I'll go study up and then maybe I'll be cool enough to hang with you auto-literate peoples.... Thanks again...you guys rock...

Yours is cool looking smoke (and much less than mine) My car looks like someone stuffed a smoke bomb up my exhaust pipe. You're car is really nice too btw....my car is nice ...LOOKING....till I start it...then you can't see it.... LOL Thanks for your input.