Normal exhaust smoke from a vehicle will be a barely visible semi-translucent shade of light gray. In most cases, exhaust smoke color will go unnoticed by drivers. When a vehicle starts emitting blue smoke, however, it will be accompanied by an obvious burning smell.
Whenever blue smoke comes out of the exhaust, it usually means the engine is burning oil. This can be the result of numerous issues, including bad valve seals, worn piston rings, and more.
What Does Blue Exhaust Mean?
Oil is the culprit if you see blue or gray exhaust flowing out of the tailpipe. Unfortunately, this means that there is little to no motor oil in the engine where it needs to be. If you continue to drive your automobile with the severe oil leak, you will damage the engine beyond repair.
In fact, if the oil has leaked out of the automobile almost completely, your engine could seize up and die within 30 minutes. It’s important that you don’t drive your automobile if it is leaking enough motor oil to create blue or gray exhaust.
What Causes Blue Smoke From Exhaust?
Determining exactly what is causing blue smoke to come from the car’s exhaust will let drivers know what repair is needed. Even if the issue is something you cannot repair as a DIY task, knowing the underlying cause can help you save on professional labor costs.
Here are a few common things that can create blue smoke from the exhaust:
- Worn out rings.
- Bad valve seals.
- Transmission fluid loss.
- Turbo problems.
- Stuck crankcase ventilation valve.
Other Colors Of Exhaust Smoke
If car exhaust appears translucent to barely visible, it is considered normal. Sometimes, it may even show shades of light gray.
When temperatures are above freezing, exhaust smoke should be barely visible. This is typically due to tiny amounts of water vapor condensation coming out of the vehicle’s exhaust system. Let’s take a look at what other colors of smoke could indicate.
Black Exhaust
If you see black exhaust flowing out of the tailpipe, your vehicle’s engine is losing too much diesel fuel or gasoline. You do not want to drive your automobile when it is leaking fuel. Continuing to drive the vehicle can cause an engine fire. In fact, in the case of black exhaust, you may also see sparks or flames coming out of the tailpipe.
This might look cool on TV or in the movies, but it makes driving your automobile extremely dangerous. Don’t drive your vehicle if you have excess black exhaust pouring out of the tailpipe. Again, the engine is burning fuel.
White Exhaust
Finally, White exhaust means your engine is burning coolant. This could be spraying out of a cracked head gasket or another severe cooling system leak. Naturally, if you have a severe coolant leak in your engine, it will also overheat.
Continuing to drive your car, truck, or utility vehicle with an overheating engine can damage it beyond repair, especially if you cracked the engine block. Aside from the white exhaust flowing out of your tailpipe, you may also see white smoke coming out from underneath the hood.
Conclusion
The reason why there is a ton of exhaust flowing out of your car, truck, or utility vehicle’s tailpipe is that you have fluid hemorrhaging out of the engine. University Auto Repair would be happy to determine where the fluid leak is so we can fix it.
Unfortunately, fluid leaks that cause excess exhaust are severe. If you continue to drive your automobile, you run the risk of damaging the engine beyond repair. Let’s talk about the different exhaust colors below and what they mean in terms of the fluid leak in your engine. Have your vehicle towed to University Auto Repair in Flagstaff, AZ, if it is releasing excess exhaust. We will find the problem and fix it.
