The other day when I started my car I got heavy white smoke form the exhaust for about 10 seconds. It was a little heavier on the drivers side but it came from both pipes. It has never happend before or since then but I have been smelling coolant when I get out of the car after driving but no signs of leaking. Also my coolant level has gone down. No smoke when driving.
P.S. The car drives fine!

 

1 of 2 possible problems...1st, since you said you smell coolant, but don't see a leak, it's possible that you're burning it. Head gasket leaking may be the cause. Only way to know for sure is to get a coolant pressure tester, install it, pressurize the system, start the engine and watch the gauge, if the pressure rises, you probably need to get one of the head gaskets replaced. 2nd cause to your white smoke at start up is possibly valve seals leaking.

Both problems will give the same symptoms, and will require proper diagnostic to come to the correct cause. Either case, both are expensive repairs.

Good luck and let use know.

 

Since there is no crossover pipe on the R's wouldn't I have to have both head gaskets go bad to get smoke out of both sides and wouldn't it be fairly constant while the car is running not just at start up? Also if it were vavle guides wouldn't it happen everytime that I start the car and not just that one time? I'm just asking but that's what my experience tells me. I got smoke just that one time. Or maybe I'm dead wrong.
Also the car still has 1 year of select edition warrenty left so it should be covered. (I hope!) I bet my dealer says that they couldn't find any problems and that they refilled the coolant. Then they will hand me a bill for 150.00 for the labor and the coolant and tell me if anything changes bring it back in. LOL.
I'll see if it happens again or if I loose too much coolant then I'll bring it in.

 

Select should cover any internal engine repair.

 

Well that may be true if you have a true dual exhaust. Most exhaust systems connect to one pipe after the manifold, than branch off to the two mufflers.......

 

I do have true dual exhaust. STR.

 

Hey mojo what dealership u go to. ur zip code in your profile is a chicago suburb right? I have heard it before I think

 

Elmhurst

 

That's pretty close I think, I don't know the suburbs.

Imperial Motors in Willmette probably isn't too far from where you live, if you go there they will do a good job fixing your problem, if there is one. They are pretty cheap too. I think they replaced the coolant on my dad's xk8 for 80 bucks, and they have done so much work on my car for very little money.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try AC Imports in Palatine. I bought my first Jag. There. I think their a little closer. My dealer does a good job of fixing problems (when they find them) they just can't ever seem to find the cause so I get a lot of diagnostic charges even though it's under warrenty. Then when they do find the problem, No refund!

 

It is more then likely a head gasket leak. Did you drive the car hard prior to this? Headgasket leaks are fairly common in higher mileage vehicles and vehicles driven roughly. However, since its a jag i am sure you have about 22k miles and drove it like granny and it will still blow white smoke.

 

Actually about 55k and I did hit it hard right before I parked and then a couple of hours later when I started it that's when I got the smoke. It only happened that one time (last saturday) and I drive the car everyday but I am using coolant and it does have a coolant smell after I shut it off. The smell has been there for several weeks. I really don't beat it that much though.

 

white smoke is caused by coolant burning off in the cylinder heads. So either when you ran it rough you lost a gasket or a valve seal. Either way it will needa rebuild soon. Hows your engine temp? Higher then normal i suspect. Do yourself a favor and get it serviced before you have a total failure because there really isnt anyother way to fix it then ti tear the top end apart.

 

Temp is normal and it runs good, just uses coolant. It's going in tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

 

White Smoke = break out your wallet

 

How about my Select Edition card! I would never buy a Jag. without a warranty. I've had 3 and the last 2 had the extended warranty. These cars are too expensive to fix and I've had my share of issues with this one.

 

OK, I picked the car up today and here's what I got. There is a cooland leak at the front of the motor coming from a hose causing the coolant loss and smell. They could not find the the cause of the white smoke since it only happened once and never again. They tell me that on extremley rare occasion the blower, ( supercharger ) can get condensation build up causing white smoke at startup. can any of you tech's confirm this?

 

I'll confirm that it happened on my turbo's all the time if I would let them sit for over 3 weeks to a month! Not if I used the car regularly though!

 

The leaking hose and 2 seals that Jaguar said were causing the coolant smell and loss of coolant they told me it would be 584.00 to fix. I told them no thanks and took the car back and guess what, no more coolant loss or smell. I guess that they tightened up the loose clamp before I told them to leave it alone. Nice scam huh!!

 

[sm=smiley10.gif]Ha, a star for bad mojo! Free work from the ***********, and no more problem FTMFW!