A lot of white smoke , 1988 Audi 80 1.8

[Simon L]

Hi, I have a problem with my car that I can’t find a fix for.

When the car is running, cold and warm, there is an unnormal amount of white smoke coming out of the exhaust. You might think, headgasket! I doubt it, because coolant does not disappear and the coolant is not discoloured and there are no bubbles in the resevoar.

Please throw possible answers at me! 🙂

EDIT: Can it somehow be related to the car not getting up to the proper temperature, when operating it should be at ~95 celsius but my car never gets hotter than 85 celsius? I am going to change the thermostat and the radiator since it’s leaking intermittently, tomorrow.

Topic

[Redacted]

there is not a lot of things that will make a lot of white smoke
if you are sure its not oil then
you have a blown head-gasket,cracked block,warped heads nothing good…
take a rag and put it up against the tailpipe and then check for water vapor … on the rag also give it a smell if it smells sweet then you are burning coolant then run a compression test on all cylinders if one is showing drastically lower then the others then you have a issue
a blown gasket/cracked block ect ect doesn’t always present its self as rapid loss of coolant or bubbles depends on where it broke

[Simon L]

Thanks for the answer.

I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t burn oil. I’ve checked the oil 3 times since I changed it last time a couple of weeks ago and it’s been the same level all 3 times. I will try the thing with the towel, atleast it’s worth a try.

[Gary]

If you rent a pressure tester from autozone or the like you can test the cooling system pressure. This will help verify there are no leaks in the cooling system. The tester should hold pressure. Next, you can do a compression test or a cylinder leakdown test to verify leakage in the cylinders, block, and heads . All these tests will help rule out the worst case scenarios. A cylinder leakdown test should be a last resort because it is the most time consuming.

PS: 85 Celsius= about 185 Farinheight which is acceptable operating temp. This would not be causing your issue. How many miles?

[Simon L]

It has run nearly 290000 km.

[Gary]

[quote=”Sajmon” post=126239]It has run nearly 290000 km.[/quote] I see, I would run a compression test. This will help verify headgasket, valve and rings issues…all of which can contribute to the problems you are having. If the rings are worn, you will get smoke due to excessive blowby.

[Author]

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