White Smoke from exhaust?

Asked by Bibli Sep 11, 2023 at 09:30 PM about the 2003 Toyota Avalon XLS

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Hello. I have a 2003 Toyota Avalon with over 200000 miles.
I went to work at noon today and I did not notice anything
amiss. When I left work at 7 PM, though, a lot of white
smoke came from my exhaust when I started the car and it
did not go away immediately. I thought it had a slight oil
smell. I had no choice but to drive it home, which is ten
minutes away. As I drove, I could no longer see the smoke,
although it was pretty dark by then. I did not feel or hear
anything unusual as I drove and I made it back to my house
without overt issues. When I got home, I looked under the
hood with a flashlight and I saw nothing unusual and I
could not smell anything off. I did not check the oil since I
wanted to let the engine cool down from driving. There
were no warning lights on my dash. I will take it to the shop
tomorrow morning, but I am worried that there might be a
serious problem that I do not have the money to fix.

3 Answers
202,455

Ed92626 answered 7 months ago

When you see a plume of white smoke billowing out from the exhaust pipe, the chances are nearly 100% it's from a blown head gasket. A little coolant in the combustion process even in just one cylinder can create quite a fog. You're going to have to replace one of the head gaskets on your V6, but should do both at that time. And this isn't cheap. You do have a great car, and it's worth the cost to keep it running for another 100,000 miles.

Mark helpful
307,255

Gene answered 7 months ago

Chances are very high that it has blown headgaskets, if that is so then I would bite the bullet and fix it, if you have maintained it properly it should last at least another 100K miles. I have seen some of these go to 500K before they need an engine. With interest rates like they are buying another car right now for most people is not in the budget

Mark helpful

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