Under hard acceleration my petrol Mk3 Vrs  appears to blow a whitish smoke from the exhaust, it has done this from new. I don't drive the car hard very often as I only have a short journey to work and all in 30/40MPH speed limit, but on the occassions when I am able to push on the car always leaves a smoke/ vapour trail.

Does anyone else experience this problem, the car runs and performs properly and doesn't use oil or water, could it just be water in the exhaust being vapourised ?

When you put your foot down is the smoke momentary or does it produce it for a while? Also, when you say 'trail', does the smoke/trail you've produced hang around for a while or does it disappear fairly quickly? If it's just water in the exhaust then it should disappear quite quickly unless it's very cold outside. Does the smoke have any smell to it other than the normal petrol exhaust smell?

How short is your journey?

If its short it wont be getting warmed up, so the 'smoke' is just steam from the exhaust, same as all cold engines produce.

Take it up the motorway for 10 mins then see if it smokes..

White smoke is vaporised water, which is a biproduct of the combustion. If not the exhaust system is warmed completely up during normal driving, much of the vapour will condensate and stay inside the exhaust system. You may have noticed that water may drip from the exhaust tip at idle. If you floor it from time to time this water will be forced out by the speeding exhaust as vapour. The hotter the exhaust system is, the more vapour you will get rid off. Best visible in damp weather.

If it is something wrong with you car is difficult to say, without looking into it in more details. If your head seal is somewhat defect, coolant should disapear and/or be mixed with oil. It is notlikely as you have experienced this from new.

Edited 20 September, 201510 yr by fatzy

You can get white smoke if your turbo is on its last but that tends to be on the over-run not on throttle. Black smoke on throttle is the usual sign of trouble. I would say as others have that you are just looking at condensation which is perfectly normal.

I get the same on mine it's water vapour, the rear screen mists up for a few seconds when it does it

How short is your short journey?

I agree with the others it is probably just condensation so probably not so good you are giving it some beans before it properly warmed up.

Ever considered getting a bicycle ?

Thank you for your various responses, I never drive an engine hard until it is fully warmed up , my journey to work is only 4 miles and in 30 and 40 mph speed limits so never drive hard on these journeys. It is when I do longer local journeys after the engine is thoroughly warmed up hwen this happens, I have accelerated hard alongside a VW Golf GTi and my car blew out vapour but the other car (which is same car really ) did not blow out any vapour.

 

Gerrycan, I have never ever considered a bike :p 

 

I can only assume that I am just not using the car enough and building up a lot of moisture in the exhaust system, at least it's not a serious problem and it certainly makes people keep their distance,

 

Thanks everyone

Driving 4 miles in the winter is not going to warm the engine up, it going to have a lot if condensation.

I have a 18 plate Skoda Octavia. VRS 

245   dun 11K brilliant car but when I floor it  it blank's out the road behind me it takes several blasts to clear it my last VRS  didn't do it ?

1 hour ago, Carp245 said:

I have a 18 plate Skoda Octavia. VRS 

245   dun 11K brilliant car but when I floor it  it blank's out the road behind me it takes several blasts to clear it my last VRS  didn't do it ?

.

A regular thread.....

 

Here was last weeks.....😉

 

 

20 minutes ago, Phil245 said:

Here was last weeks.....😉

 

But this one was from 2015 

 

2 hours ago, Carp245 said:

I have a 18 plate Skoda Octavia. VRS 

245   dun 11K brilliant car but when I floor it  it blank's out the road behind me it takes several blasts to clear it my last VRS  didn't do it ?

 

Top marks though, good use of the search function  wish more did it