After I park my 2000 Legacy GT on a sloped driveway (nose down) there is a puff of white "smoke" when I start up and back out of the driveway. This has happened a few times. Is this the result of water condensate backing up into the cat and burning off? I don't know if it is related but I have occasionally smelled glycol while driving under no apparent pattern of driving conditions. I have had the head gasket treatment installed in the coolant system and fear that I may simply have developed a psychosomatic "head"ache, overly concerned about the day that my head blows up.

Very well could be a coolant leak of sorts. Does it happen when parked level of nose up?

Steam or "cloud" production is normal. Especially at cold start up, in cold and/or humid climates.

 

Despite the big protests by the anti-car people - started by Ralph Nader - the biggest by-product of internal gasoline combustion is: WATER!

 

Far less than 1% of a technically clean combustion is composed of the more sinister stuff, like hydrocarbons.

 

OOPS! Am I wandering off topic??

 

 

So, yes, it may be condensation. Keep an eye on your oil and coolant levels.

 

Sounds like you suffer from the same condition as me: Snif, snif..is that engine oil? OH MY LORD, the engine is toast. Hmm, does my car smell warmer today? Does it always make that little clonk noise? Did it take two milliseconds longer to start this morning?

 

I HATE WORRYING!

Water is not as innocuous as it would seem at first glance... you can drown in that stuff.

BTW thanks for alerting me to other potential concerns (Snif, snif..is that engine oil? OH MY LORD, the engine is toast. Hmm, does my car smell warmer today? Does it always make that little clonk noise? Did it take two milliseconds longer to start this morning?) I must become more vigilant!

Reminds me of the Mel Gibson movie "Road Worrier".

Yeah, sorry about that. When I find myself worrying to much, I like to think of all those old cars you see pulling plumes of black/blue smoke along with them, and the rattling sounds their crankshafts make. It'll be a while before our engines get that bad, and even then they still run!

 

 

"You would paranoid too if everyone was out to get you."

 

Woody Allen

 

;-)

Life was certainly simpler before the invention of the Check Engine Light.

Yep, back then you could just drive until the paint on the bonnet started to crack because the engine was overheating so badly.

 

True story, my father's colleague's wife did this to an old Opel Rekord !