A friend of mine was following me on Saturday and told me that under hard acceleration he could see white smoke from my exhaust.

I wasn't driving to the red-line, perhaps up-shifting around 6500rpm, but I had the gas pedal to the floor during acceleration.

The car is 9 months old with 4,400 miles on it. It's going in for it's first oil change tomorrow at the Mitsubishi dealer and I've asked them to look at what causes the white smoke problem.

I've also recently been experiencing a problem with the engine cutting out while at idle. Normally on hot days when I'm also using the air conditioning. Anyone have a similar problem with the extra load from the ac???

Any ideas on the white smoke or engine cutting out will be appreciated ???

 

any mods?

 

I believe a little dark colored smoke on hard accel. is normal for Turbo'd cars. I know my GSX did it. I may be wrong. But I think white smoke= burning oil and blue tinted smoke= burning Coolant. It may be the other way around, someone feel free to correct me.
Hope this helps.

 

If it's WHITE WHITE, that's coolant burning, not good.

If it's greyish white, it's just condensation.

BLUE is oil burning.

 

Grey/white = coolant... Bad.

Blueish = oil, not good.

Black = gas. A/F is rich. Can be normal.


The difference between Blue and White (coolant and oil) can be hard to tell. Especially if you're at WOT with someone driving behind you.

My guess is that you're seeing blowby. Oil is getting past the rings into the combustion chamber. Check to see if you're low on oil. Pull all the spark plugs and look at the condition. I'm betting at least one shows signs of oil.

 

So, have you checked your fluid levels? Have you had to top anything off?

Nine months is a long time to go without an oil change. Oil changes are not just mileage based....they are usually recommended x number of miles or every 3 months.

 

No doubt. Check the fluids. I know the Owners manual stretches the oil changes to some stupid # (to claim lower maintence costs) but its best to have them done @ 3k. My oil is usually pretty dirty by that point. The EVO is also know to burn a bit of oil due to blow by as mentioned above, probably the reason your friend noticed the puff of smoke. I wouldnt sweat it though, keep the fluids topped off and changed reguarly and you will be fine.

 

Water aka Coolant. Check the head gasket ASAP.

 

race gas also likes to leave the white residue behind.

 

white smoke is definetely coolant burning in the combustion chamber. Possibly a headgasket blown. Have your dealer pressurize your cooling system and a compression test on all cylinders.

 

it is not always coolant, our cars and dsm's along with it...do this all the time...it is very normal....have someone follow all you guys at some point it will happen, It is what happens when the computer starts dumping fuel to keep things rich. It also can be caused by moisture building up in the exhaust system. If any of you have taken your exhausts off after a few years of use and put aftermarket stuff on water can acuumulate in the exhaust.....just shake your old exhaust sytems....both of my previous dsm's had tons of water in the muffler section. I never once had any problems with either dsm. It is normal for these cars.

 

why would his car be cutting off at idle when he has the ac on though?

 

Thanks for all the posts so far. This gives me an idea of what could cause the problem, so I don't get the run around from the dealer saying it's totally normal!!!

 

In my experience this is sometimes an indication that the turbo is going. As the turbo becomes worse and worse the white smoke will become more and more pronounced.