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[TomD]

Hi,
I'm after some advice.
Over the last 2 months or so, I have noticed a puff of whitish smoke from the exhaust on start up.
My Omega is a 2001 2.6 petrol, done about 94,000 miles
Any ideas what might be the cause ?.
regards,
Tom

[hotel21]

It is quite common for a certain amount of 'smoke' to come from the exhaust, especially on startup.  The clue is the colour and applies to 99.9% of cars, Omega included....

Blue is generally oil being burnt, most obvious on startup as oil passes the valve stem seals when the engine is stationary and collects on the piston tops which is burnt off on startup.

Black is unburnt diesel or incomplete combustion.

Whhite is normally steam and, in the case of the Omega, is the engine/exhaust/cats getting to temperature.  

Guessing you are not loosing fluids?  If not, would suggest nothing much to worry about....

[Entwood]

If it only lasts a few moments it is probably condensation, moist air gets trapped in the exhaust, you fire up the engine which has a hot gas output, this evaporates the moist air but when the gas stream reaches the cold atmosphere on leaving the exhaust the moisture condenses into water droplets ( steam) for a few seconds while it evaporates again ..

The effect is worst in winter as more moisture is in the air and the ambient atmospheric) air is colder.

There are occasions when white "smoke" from a warm engine on start is a symptom of a more serious problem .

[Richie London]

i get white smoke depending on the time of the morning i start up, only a few mins though. sunny days dont get it most of time

[shyboy]

It's important to distinguish between white steam and blue oil smoke. My 2.6l gives a 5 second burn off of blue smoke on starting after a rest and I have concluded that this is oil seeping past defective valve stem seals when the engine is not running. I understand these did give problems during the development of the 2.6 engine and presumably were modified on later versions, but if your oil consumption is not ridiculous it's not too much to worry about unless the seals collapse completely, which I suppose would be immediately obvious.
I propose to do mine eventually, just to have things right, but I don't think it's an emergency job.
White steam is not a problem provided you are not losing coolant at a rapid rate.
Got my fingers and toes crossed.  

[perfferle]

Just to clarify some facts:
- Warm air holds more moisture than cold air.
- Moisture condenses into water on cold surfaces; therefore it would be normal to expect some water/condensation in your exhaust pipes on morning start-up and this should explain the 'steam' that is coming from your muffler.

[Tony H]

One easy way to distinguish whether it's steam or smoke is watch on start up from cold on a  warm windless day, steam will disappear almost immediately, unlike smoke which will linger.