caunyd

Hi guys. As I was driving, all of a sudden A LOT of white smoke started coming out from my car. The smoke had a burning smell. The yellow engine light went on in the dash. So when this happened, I immediately stopped the car and had it towed.

What do you guys think this is?

I have consistently changed the oil on this car, usually every 5-10,000 miles. The most recent oil change was 2,000 miles ago. According to the dash, I have adequate oil. So is this an oil problem?

What I have noticed is that for over 1 1/2 years, there was a burning smell, probably from the rear vents, after I drove and then parked the car, but everything worked perfectly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

No HTwo O

Year? Miles?

Air & Oil Sep. is my guess.

caunyd

2006 and around 77,000 miles. It's my daily driver. Thanks for the reply.

No HTwo O

That helps a little. AOS is still my first guess. Not a big deal.

caunyd

No HTwo O. Thanks for responding to my post in the other forum, I posted here also, since there are more people viewing this forum, and therefore, I might get more advice.

caunyd

I tried to remove and replace my air oil separator, but I couldn't do it. So I haven't turned on the engine since. So I had the car towed to the mechanic, but now I notice an oil leak, which I never noticed before. Even when there was first white smoke, I checked the oil level, and it was full. Can removing the AOS, without replacing it somehow cause oil to leak?

caunyd

I think the oil leak was because of the bad air oil separator allowed too much oil to get into the cylinder/piston. So I replaced the air oil separator. But after I replaced the AOS, I tried to start the engine, but it wouldn't start. It just made a "click" sound. At first I thought it was a battery problem, but then I charged and then jumped started the car, but it still wouldn't start.

My thinking was that perhaps too much oil went into the cylinder/piston. The engine won't start because now the piston was trying to compress oil, which is an incompressible liquid. I think this is what they call "hydraulic lock." So I tried to take out all 6 spark plugs to allow the oil to drain out. Sure enough, after I removed the 5th spark plug, oil drained out. After removing all 6 spark plugs, I cranked the key for several seconds so that the pistons would pump out any additional oil in the cylinder. Then, I replaced all 6 spark plugs.

After doing this, my engine was able to start again, but there was still the initial white burning smoke, but a lot less of it. So then I figured there was still some oil residue in the engine, so I stepped on the gas, and had the car at 3,000 rpm for a few minutes to try to get rid of the oil residue. After doing all this, the burning white smoke has stopped, and I believe my problem is fixed. However, now I'm getting the error message "take to the engine shop." I think that the problem is solved, but now, because of oil being in the engine, perhaps some sensors have been damaged, and therefore I'm getting this error message, even though I think that everything is ok now.

Why do you think I'm getting this error message? Do you think I did anything wrong? Can you guys make any suggestions or give any advice?

Coochas

I think your logic with the AOS is spot on.
I just went through this with my track car. I had the AOS so overwhelmed that I actually had an exhaust fire from all of the oil that was ingested. My mechanic cleaned out the exhaust but even then there was still residual smoking. We ended up replacing the mufflers because there was so much oil caught up in them.
I'm not saying that you will need to do this but it could be part of the problem.

I would borrow someone's Durametric, see what the error codes are, and if they are relatively benign then reset them and try driving the car.