Thread: Smoke from exhaust

were in agreement. Hole in muffler was caused by moisture in the system due to a leaky or failing head gasket : )

dude just go to advance auto, go about halfway down the chemical wall, and on the third shelf from the bottom grab this silver bottle that says "head gasket repair". I think bar's makes this also, 9/10 it works awsome. Fixed a crack in my buddies honda prelude right in the head, for like 10 months. It never failed again, we just finally got around to putting on a new one.

ill hope for u since its cheaper but dude lol

Let me reiterate this that a simple hole in the muffler is not going to cause white smoke. The muffler simply muffles the noise via the baffles in its interior. Saying that water is getting into the hole and then evaporating due to the heat is reaching a bit I'm afraid. I'm not saying it's not possible, but it is very unlikely.

Other signs of a possible blown head gasket.

1. Rough idle,starts, and stops - caused by loss in compression in one or more cylinders.
2. Computer cannot maintain correct RPM at idle causing a rev-up/rev-down cycle to start as the computer attempts to adjust for the loss in compression.
3. Bad gas mileage - antifreeze isn't exactly high octane fuel. Low compression will also cause this because the engine will need more gas to make up for the lack of compression in the cylinder.
4. Temperature hotter than normal - caused by coolant level dropping due to antifreeze being burned in the cylinder(s).
5. Hard to start car after its been sitting for a bit. - another result of both loss of compression and attempting to burn antifreeze as fuel.
6. Clogged catalytic converter and/or bad O2 sensor. These might have failed due to the head gasket problem. Antifreeze being burned will certainly clog the cat and will also foul the O2 sensors.


Water dripping from the exhaust is more likely due to condensation being built up in the exhaust system (reason why trips of 30 minutes or more are best during wet and/or wintery conditions) OR bad fuel. Bad gas or gas that has a lot of water in it can literally cause the tail pipe to leak water. I've experienced this a lot with Amoco brand gasoline. If you notice you will also go through that tank of Amoco gas like it's water.

My advice is to get it checked out. Don't assume your muffler is causing all of that. With 90K on an American made vehicle, anything could be wrong with it.