White smoke/steam from exhaust

mikemac2

Hi I did check previous threads but I might add my own if ok. I saw all the Pope election jokes too ha

Own a quite old high milage Mercedes which I bought directly from a friend. He owned it 3 years before me.

I'm not in Ireland but it passed the equivalent of NCT in October so I was very happy.

In the last month there has been smoke from the exhaust. Sometimes it was billowing but now it is steady and constant but not so extreme. There is also drips falling out the exhaust.

Im a bit clueless but from reading it seems to be the head gasket and it is burning antifreeze. There is also a smell. Some message boards call it "sweet" but I don't know if I would say that, hard to describe. Maybe its the same

I checked the oil for milky white gunk but it was fine.
I don't have access to a radiator cap but I checked the coolant tank/ resovoir and it seemed ok, no contamination.

A lot of message boards recommended Steel Seal so I put that in the coolant tank and followed all the instructions. Today I went for a drive and tbh no difference, a steady flow of white steam.

The car drives fine but this white steam and the engine light are my issue. A secondary issue and I don't know if its connected is the heating doesn't work so well. I struggle to get warm air. I do not drive much so maybe that's a separate issue I never noticed

Am I looking at head gasket repair? That is likely more than I paid for the car

Am a noob, any help appreciated

Toyotafanboi

We'd need a bit more info.

What model car is it? What engine has it got? Where do you live?

I wouldn't claim to be a sceintist but i was told before that for every litre of petrol burned a litre of water is produced. On a cold day or in a cold climate you will see condensation billowing from a petrol cars exhaust, moreso on rich running older cars or when the engine is still warming up. So it wouldn't be unusual to be seeing a degree of steam and even drips or running water if the car does a lot of short trips.

Head gasket failure steam is very different, it's a thick, heavy, smelly steam and by the time the car would be steaming like that it'd be running like a dog.

I find myself saying this on here from time to time and please God i'm wrong but steel seal and the likes are pure rubbish. In my opinion you've jumped the gun with it and possibly done more harm than good, possibly/ probably the reason you've now lost heat etc.

Has your coolant level ever needed topping up?

Beltby

Petrol cars used for short runs collect water in the exhaust which turns to steam when heated.

Bring the car on a hot run. An hour of driving with the car in a lower gear than usual. This will heat the exhaust fully and evaporate any moisture from it. If its still steaming after that, you have a problem.

greasepalm

Never got that steel seal to work either,cold weather and moisture build up in exhaust with short runs as car needs a good drive to heat it up to temp and more noticeable on cold mornings.Look more intensely around engine to see if water pump or stat housing is leaking and rad.
Burnt coolant you can taste in your mouth like a sweet taste and level in bottle will drop and thinking your bottle has a sensor?

When starting engine from cold does it run rough like on 3 cyls for a short time and clear possibly head gasket and topping up coolant more often.
Might need to get coolant sniffed for residue of combustion gases as liquid is blue and changes if it detects gasses.

You mentioned engine light needing diagnostics to be run or a light of low level was it?

mikemac2

greasepalm wrote: »

You mentioned engine light needing diagnostics to be run or a light of low level was it?

Hi is yellow check engine light. No text to read so a mechanic would have to diagnose.

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

We'd need a bit more info.

What model car is it? What engine has it got? Where do you live?

Thanks for replies.

2001 Mercedes C200 Compresor. 2.0 litre petrol. 242,000 km. So yes is old.

I live in Luxembourg and passed our Controle Technique in October and while not checking everything must surely be the equivalent as the Irish NCT.

I very rarely go driving and only at weekends. Today I went for 70km spin with lots of motorway driving and also through some villages so varied. When I returned and parked up the exhaust was fine, I was happy. A good run for the car.

But I turned off and turned on again a few minutes later to test and the white steam returns. I've checked the coolant resevoir tank and it's definitely down from yesterday.

The car drives fine and I don't need for work so can park up for a while until it gets seen to.

Seems I'm burning coolant and the issue is in the early stages. That is what I think anyway. Is this head gasket failure?

Beltby

mikemac2 wrote: »

Hi is yellow check engine light. No text to read so a mechanic would have to diagnose.



Thanks for replies.

2001 Mercedes C200 Compresor. 2.0 litre petrol. 242,000 km. So yes is old.

I live in Luxembourg and passed our Controle Technique in October and while not checking everything must surely be the equivalent as the Irish NCT.

I very rarely go driving and only at weekends. Today I went for 70km spin with lots of motorway driving and also through some villages so varied. When I returned and parked up the exhaust was fine, I was happy. A good run for the car.

But I turned off and turned on again a few minutes later to test and the white steam returns. I've checked the coolant resevoir tank and it's definitely down from yesterday.

The car drives fine and I don't need for work so can park up for a while until it gets seen to.

Seems I'm burning coolant and the issue is in the early stages. That is what I think anyway. Is this head gasket failure?

It certainly looks like it now. There is coolant entering the cylinders.

Beltby

You could remove the spark plugs and inspect them. The plug from a cylinder leaking coolant into it will look 'washed' compared to the other plugs.

Toyotafanboi

How are you monitoring the coolant drops?

Always check the level at the same time, when the engine is cold. Coolant expands and contracts with heat so if checking immediately after use, a few hours after use and a day after use you will get different readings between min and max.

I would top up to max on a completely cold engine, mark the expalsion bottle with a sharpie, drive x distance, say 100kms, then recheck on a completely cold engine to quantify how much if anything you are losing.

If you do lose some and the oil is clean and not emulsified the only other place the gasket could be leaking is between the water jacket and combustion chamber, so the easiest way to check then would be to pull out the spark plugs and see if one is significantly cleaner than the others. If there isn't one, then i'd say you probably do not have head gasket trouble, but you may have a leak; coolant hose, radiator, heater matrix etc.