[vak27]

I have an 02 ZX3 with a bit over 85,000 miles. I drove my car to the gym today which is about 3 miles from my house. About half way there I thought I smelled something burning and when I parked my car I saw a good amount of white smoke coming from under the hood. I popped the hood and it appeared as if the smoke was originating from underneath the engine. I didn't know what exactly I could do about it, so I decided to just go into the gym and see if I would make it back home. Well, my car made it back home but when I shut the car off there was only a very faint smell and hardly any noticable smoke.

I hadn't driven the car for a week so I'm guessing whatever was burning had been pooling for the past week and had burned off when I initially drove the car, which would explain why I detected only a faint smell when I was driving back. Otherwise the car ran fine and no warning lights are on. I checked my coolant level and it's almost at Max. Any ideas what could be going on? I am a complete novice when it comes to engine smoke![???]

 

[Captain Moonpie]

If the oil looks good, I wouldnt worry about it. Just keep an eye on it, if it happens again then have a friend who knows cars check it out.

 

[vak27]

I took my car out the other day to see if the problem presented itself again and once I got a mile or two down the road the white smoke started to come from underneath the hood again. I can't get my car looked at for about a week, but I'm thinking there's a small leak somewhere because it seems like after the car runs for a few minutes everything burns off and there's no more smoke. I know that white smoke usually means coolant, so I hesitate to start my car up again for fear of doing some pretty big damage. The interesting thing is that no lights come on and the gagues seem to indicate the temperature is fine. Is it possible there's just a leak in a hose somewhere? And if so, is there a way to test this without starting the car?

 

[PlasticRacer]

If you want to confirm its a coolant leak, make sure the coolant resevoir is fill to the cold mark and start the car and let it warm up, once pressure builds up in the system, if a hose is leaking, you should be able to see it, check all the hoses and be sure to check the ones going back to the firewall as well, if coolant is leaking just top it off that way you'll be safe until you get it fixed as long as it isn't leaking really bad, you're not really gonna run into any issues unless its overheating, in which case you'd run the risk of warping your pistons/piston rings

 

[sleepyboy]

where is the smoke coming from? could be the t-stat housing those have been known to leak