White smoke coming from tail pipe

Tiny
ANT45
  • MEMBER
  • 2005 CHEVROLET EQUINOX
  • 109,000 MILES
I recently bought the car and had a oil change yesterday and today I noticed white smoke coming from the tail pipe. So I checked the oil and it did not look milky and it is not over heating or is the check engine light on do you know what might be causing this to happen?
Monday, August 28th, 2017 AT 8:30 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 34,093 POSTS
White smoke is a sign of burning antifreeze, typically due to a leaking cylinder head gasket. There is a chemical test that can be performed to verify that.

Also, GM has had plenty of trouble with leaking intake manifold gaskets on some of their engines. If coolant gets sucked into the intake, it will be burned in the engine and go out the tail pipe. That is a less-expensive repair than a head gasket.
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Monday, August 28th, 2017 AT 9:10 PM

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