Just got my car washed as I am leaving it starts spewing out large amounts of white smoke I do not think it is water since my wife told me it was doing it before the wash any clue as to what it might be? Any help is appreciated thanks

 

Not really. Do you have a video of it?

Usually large amouts of white smoke indicates that the car has a bad head gasket and coolant is getting into the oil or combustion chamber and going out the exhaust. You can shut the car off, wait till the exhaust cools off, stick your finger in it or smell it to see if it smells like coolant.

- Check your coolant level to see if it's low.
- Drain a little of your oil out to see if it looks like chocalate milk.

 

Thank you I will do that tomorrow morning and check back in on here. Do you know what a new head gasket would cost?

 

More than the car is worth. At the dealer likely about $3,200, at a indi shop that does Volvo's about $1,800 to $2,400.

You can do it yourself for about $800 unless you get a head out of a junk yard, in that case you can likely do it for under $400.

Take it one step at a time. See if there is coolant loss or coolant in the oil. There is a chance that the smoke is not white but greyish and it could be an oil leak in the turbo or something.

 

That's depressing you are very correct that is more than the car costed me so only option is a DIY fix well hopefully I know more tomorrow

 

can you post a video?

 

Lets not try to drive and video the exhaust at the same time. LOL

 

started the car and as you can hear and see in the video it started but wanted to die idle was so low then the car picked the idle up itself and the smoke comes out

coolant level is lower than i remember have not checked oil yet due to not having the tools at the moment

 

the smoke looks blue-ish to me. Could be oil passing through turbo. Another way to check for collant in the oil is by simply removing the oil fill cap )at the top of the engine) or by pulling the dip stick after the engine has been running and warm. YOu would find what looks like "latte coffee" or even see condensed water/coolant permeating the cap.

 

Looks blue-ish to me as well. Like Art said, look in the oil cap to see how the oil looks there. I'm not sure where you are located but in cold weather it's not uncommon for the coolant in the bottle to be a little low due to temperature expansion.

Crank the car and open the oil cap, it the oil looks good in there you may be fine on the head gasket.

If your vacuum system is plugged up in these turbo cars, they can start blowing oil at any time. When was the last time your PCV system was serviced/replaced?

It can also be a turbo seal leak. Grey or blue-ish smoke is usually oil. My car was smoking a few months ago and it was 1 vacuum elbow torn causing vacuum to pull oil into the turbo.

 

The oil pan bolt is a 17mm.

A quick way to check your PCV system is to start the car, let it warm up, pull the oil dip stick out a little and see if it blows smoke out of the dip stick tube.


If it's clogged real bad it won't smoke. The best way to check it is to put a rubber glove over the oil filler hole, start the car and see if it blows up the glove. It should suck the glove in a little not blow it up.

 

I am in Colorado and I couldn't tell you when the last time services have been done I just bought the car about 2 months ago so not sure

If I take it to like pep boys will a diagnostic test Figure it out for me?

 

Ok it's blowing a little steam out of the dip stick slot
Not massive amounts like the video so I think I might need to get the system tuned up

It's weird it also seems like the exhaust stopped spitting out all that smoke.

 

It will come and go as it dumps oil in the turbo. Get that PCV replaced ASAP or it can cause you a lot of grief. Also, read the NEW 850 OWNER thread TODAY.

 

open the coolant cap. if your coolant boils like it is in this video, your head gasket is shot. this is a video l took with my friends s70. his head gasket was shot.

 

The other thing to check if unsure if it's oil or water is the spark plugs. If it's burning that much oil the plugs will be black, oily and sooty. If it's leaking coolant into the engine the plugs will be very clean and white. They are literally being "washed" clean.

 

took it to get diagnosed and came up turbo is going down hill and the spark plugs need to be replaced other than that it came up good. i guess it was just the water from the wash that created all the smoke

could the PCV have cause the test to think the turbo was bad?

 

Yes. A clogged PCV can also cause a lot of smoke out the tail pipe intermittently.

 

What is it they did to "test" the turbo to determine it was on it's way out

 

Could not tell you all I know is they did a Diagnostic test and those 2 things came up

Is their some way I can verify before spending money? I plan on getting the PCV serviced next week just to be safe