Posted on 3/28/2025
Seeing smoke coming from your exhaust can be unsettling. While a little vapor on a cold morning is normal, constant or heavy smoke is often your car’s way of telling you something’s wrong. The color, thickness, and smell of the smoke can all offer clues about what’s going on under the hood—and some issues are more serious than others. So how do you know when exhaust smoke is a red flag? And what might be causing it? Let’s break it down. White Smoke Thin white smoke that disappears quickly after starting your car—especially on cool mornings—is usually just water vapor. That’s a normal byproduct of condensation in the exhaust system and nothing to worry about. But if the white smoke is thick, continuous, and doesn’t go away, that’s a different story. It could mean coolant is leaking into the combustion chamber, often due to a blown head gasket or a cracked engine block. In this case, you might also notice o ... read more