White smoke coming out of car bonnet on 2005 Opel Astra

RobTheLad

Hi Guys, just looking for some advice on what happened this evening.

Was driving home there at about 10pm, was dropping a friend home first, pulled into his estate, and all of a sudden, loads of white smoke started to come out from under the bonnet blocking my visibility. Immediately I braked, turned off the engine and we hopped out of the car. There was a lot of smoke at this stage, and a smell which was like burning plastic.

After about a minute or two the fan on the car stopped and the smoke had gone. At this stage, we just pushed the car up the road a bit and parked it up, I wasn't to keen on driving it again, deciding to leave it there overnight.

The 2nd part to the story would be the fact I had only got the car back from my mechanic on Tuesday night. It was in for some body work, and I asked him to look at my starter motor too, as it was quite rattly when starting the engine from cold. This was my first significant bit of driving since I got it back , and I own the car over a year now at this stage, and never had a single issue with it before this.

NeitherJohn

The hose entering the heater matrix on the mothers ford Ka perished and broke off just as I arrived home in it a few weeks ago. Drained the entire tank over a roasting hot block with white smoke everywhere.

Might be worth checking coolant levels for a start.

Perhaps a burst coolant pipe or stat housing, white smoke can be coolant. Have a look at coolant level to see has there been a loss.

dahat

Sounds like a blown head gasket to me, same happened to me in an Astra a few years back.

RobTheLad

Thanks guys, I decided not to open the bonnet , as it was dark outside, and didn't want to go near it incase there was a small fire. I'm thinking I should ring my mechanic in the morning and ask him, seeing as he was the last person to have his head under the bonnet

BMJD

white smoke would indicate that your engine has selected a new pope

jimbis

Sounds like something relating to the coolant alright. As said burst pipe, stat housing or worst case head gasket.
I know the water pumps are known to fail on these quite suddenly if there is high enough mileage on them. Important thing is you turned it off straight away so it shouldn't of had time to overheat. Don't start it and get someone to look at it.

RobTheLad

So an update to this, seems like it's just a hose which is leaking which caused this. Had a look at the car this morning and the first thing I noticed was that the coolant bottle was near empty. Filled it with water and pinpointed it to a hose running from the EGR valve to the heating system. Checked the oil in the car and it's fine no creamy baileys type fluid.Filled it a couple of time with water to get it home, and picking up the 20 quid hose to replace it now after lunch. Thanks for suggestions

jmrc

I've had a couple of coolant hoses go on my astra too.... 04 rollin coal...