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Why do cars smoke?

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Anonymous

14y ago
Updated: 10/23/2022

Assume you mean that it's burning oil. Typically that's because of poor maintenance or abuse.

  • There are several reasons that an engine will burn oil and most of the time these are caused by inadequate oil changes:
  • poor piston ring seal (cylinder taper, worn rings and/or carbon deposits in the piston ring grooves.)
  • Worn or faulty valve guide stems
  • SOMETIMES bad rod bearing can cause pistons to vibrate, allowing too much oil to remain on the cylinder walls.
  • A cracked piston can also cause quite a bit of oil burning, but that's quite rare.
BUTSometimes a sticking injector or a plugged air filter will cause a "wash down" situation, in which too much fuel gets into the cylinders, the fuel mixes with what little oil is on the cylinder walls, and the fuel and oil burn.

Also

White smoke indicates coolant entering the combustion chamber. Normally caused by a blown head gasket or cracked head. Blue smoke is oil burning, and black smoke is an overly rich fuel/air mixture.

IFit's black smoke (too much fuel) it can be caused by a sticking injector, faulty sensor or plugged air filter.

Note that if coolant is entering the combustion chamber there will be other indicators, such as serious misfiring and/or coolant will be blown from the water jacket. Without those indicators you are probably not getting water in the combustion chamber

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Wiki User

14y ago

What else can I help you with?