Previa 1997 White Smoke From Exhaust

[boseso]

About a month ago, white smoke started coming out of my exhaust when I started it up. I only use the car at the weekends and cover between 10 to 50 miles each weekend, with a long run out in the summer, 2000 miles. It has covered a total of 83,000 miles.

I checked the oil, this was fine, no evidence of contamination. I checked the coolant bottle and this was empty, ( I have had the car for 3 years and had never topped up the coolant as i thought this was done when the car was serviced!!!) I topped it up with water and anti freeze (about 2 litres of the mixture).

The smoke stops once the car has covered about 2 miles. There is no loss of power ar any other evidence that their is anything wrong.

This has happened for the past 4 weeks when the car is started from cold. there has also been no more coolant loss.

Toyota checked it out and said it was the head gasket and also the Cat. Total cost to put right £3000. An independent has told me that it is definately not the head gasket, they have also checked the engine and found no evidence of cracks or anything else

Does anyone have any ideas or experienced the same problem.

[officerscamp]

About a month ago, white smoke started coming out of my exhaust when I started it up. I only use the car at the weekends and cover between 10 to 50 miles each weekend, with a long run out in the summer,  2000 miles. It has covered a total of 83,000 miles.

I checked the oil, this was fine, no evidence of contamination. I checked the coolant bottle and this was empty, ( I have had the car for 3 years and had never topped up the coolant as i thought this was done when the car was serviced!!!) I topped it up with water and anti freeze (about 2 litres of the mixture).

The smoke stops once the car has covered about 2 miles. There is no loss of power ar any other evidence that their is anything wrong.

This has happened for the past 4 weeks when the car is started from cold. there has also been no more coolant loss.

Toyota checked it out and said it was the head gasket and also the Cat. Total cost to put right £3000. An independent has told me that it is definately not the head gasket, they have also checked the engine and found no evidence of cracks or anything else

Does anyone have any ideas or experienced the same problem.

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[blobstrom]

Well if it was a diesel powered Estima I would say it's definatly your head gasket as they are known for it.

Does the car over heat at all (when the water level is correct)

Water will only get into the head when the engine is stopped as the water pressure will push the water into the combustion chambers.

[Andy]

A compression check would tell you for sure, but I would say that as the white smoke goes after a couple of miles that everything is ok, my surf blows white for some time on cold mornings, but the head and gasket are fine.

[boseso]

Well if it was a diesel powered Estima I would say it's definatly your head gasket as they are known for it.

Does the car over heat at all (when the water level is correct)

Water will only get into the head when the engine is stopped as the water pressure will push the water into the combustion chambers.

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[boseso]

The car doesn't overheat, the temperature guage stays half way between hot and cold. I've checked the oil every week and the dipstick is showing a good colour oil and the oil cap shows no evidence of water getting into the engine. It really does belch out the white smoke. So much that I keep getting comments from my annoying neighbour.

Could it be the Catalytic converter?

Obviously I dont know very much about engines which is why I really appreciate your comments. Thanks

[Tardis]

The car doesn't overheat, the temperature guage stays half way between hot and cold. I've checked the oil every week and the dipstick is showing a good colour oil and the oil cap shows no evidence of water getting into the engine. It really does belch out the white smoke. So much that I keep getting comments from my annoying neighbour.

Could it be the Catalytic converter?

Obviously I dont know very much about engines which is why I really appreciate your comments. Thanks

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I've not had a head gasket failure on my previa but have experienced two on a Cavalier and an ancient Range Rover. Both were characterised by white smoke from the exhaust. The Range Rover also had oil contamination in the coolant header tank which was a brown gungy mess.

I don't see how the Cat could cause white smoke - the smoke is most likely to be water. If it is water then you may be able to condense it on a mirror held next to the exhaust? (Don't gas yourself in the process)! If it is water vapour then it will condense into water, if smoke then it's particulates suspended in the gas ie it won't condense.

The Range Rover head went after the coolant ran out (due to a failed hose clip). This caused the engine to get too hot, resulting in the gasket failure. If your coolant got too low then it could have caused the engine to overheat and therefore cause a very small crack in the gasket. Not sure why the smoke stops after 2 miles, perhaps the gasket warms up and expands to seal the crack?

If it is a hairline crack then it could go on like this for months/years, or it could fail tomorrow. I've never come across a reliable way to avoid replacement, but it may not be necessary for some time.

[Tardis]

I had this product at the back of my mind which claims to seal head gasket leaks. Never used it, but if it's this or a £3000 bill.....

Bar's Head Gasket sealant

[Gareth B]

Could this not just be condensation build up in the exhuast system.

You say you only use it on weekends, could condensation build up through the week?

If you have checked all the obvious, head gasket, oil and coolant levels etc and everything is fine then I wouldn't worry too much.

Does it happen on the first drive of the weekend and then ease off or every time you drive it even if it has only been sat for a few hours?

Just a thought.

[boseso]

I had this product at the back of my mind which claims to seal head gasket leaks.  Never used it, but if it's this or a £3000 bill.....

Bar's Head Gasket sealant

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[boseso]

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. I'll try the mirror test at the weekend, and I'll have a chat with the guys who originally checked it out for me re: compression testing.

The barrs head gasket sealant looks a good option if it is a case of a small crack in the gasket that seals up when the engine heats up.

I took it over to france last friday, to stock up for chritsmas. Once again, it was belching out smoke for the first couple of miles. Driving off the boat was fine. Parked in the supermarket for a couple of hours. Driving back to Calais, slightly smokey to start off with. When we arrived back at Dover it was slightly smokey driving off the boat then the smoke stopped. Got back home, covered approx 80 miles, checked the coolant, and added about a cupful.

Drove up to London on Sunday, Smokey to start off with for a couple of miles. Got home covered 130 miles. Checked the coolant in the evening and it was still at the same level as when we started off in the morning.

I checked the carsurvey.org website and apparently it is quite common with a lot of the toyota surf engines.

As I said I'll do my checks at the weekend and I'll report back.

Thanks once again.

[nadeemkhan_68]

Wow! I have a 91 Toyota Previa and it just started doing exactly the same. My mechanic is puzzled... Have you gotten yours fixed?

[boseso]

Wow!  I have a 91 Toyota Previa and it just started doing exactly the same.  My mechanic is puzzled...  Have you gotten yours fixed?

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[boseso]

Well, it gradually got worse and worse. I took it back to a local guy who deals in rebuilding engines. He checked it all out and found that the head was badly cracked.

Anyway I had a recon head put on it, had it serviced and the total bill was £1600. Which is roughly £1400 cheaper than my local Toyota dealer quoted.

It's all going well now apart from occasionally cutting out when I go round a roundabout or turn at a junction. It originally did this when I bought it three years ago. The Toyota dealer rectified this by cleaning out the (Vacuum switch on the filter)?, or something like that anyway.

Does anybody know where this is located?

[nadeemkhan_68]

Thanks a bunch!

[alice's dad]

Hi boseso,

Our Previa did that (the stalling, not the smoke) when we first got it. That turned out to be a loose hose on the manifold. I haven't done much digging around myself, but sorting that out fixed the problem.

I've just done the head on a 7 series BMW and missed a similar hose, caused the same problem.

Rich

[shahed]

hi, reading u'r smoking problem. I had a similar problem with my estima. initially when I bought my import i had no probs. with white smoke from my back box.

It started after i changed the coolant. Miles of smoke when i started her up in the mornings. I put it down to condensation in the freeze hmm it was mid sept!.

i realised something is up. The water level was low but no overheating even after several top ups.

I used the forum to find out. I'm not sure who it was but someone mentioned AIR LOCK. I had changed the water & coolant and probably got air lock somewhere.

so I drained all the water & hardley used coolant out from the radiator and repeated with more coolant and topped it up with water until i could not see any air bubbles coming out of the expansion tank.

Great news no more white smoke in the mornings no more topping up as yet.

although i hope there is no cracks on the head as i beleive this is what happens when we see white smoke coming out.......

i hope this helps ...

shahed