Note (to the OP): The ridiculous lack of proper *physical* line wrapping
by IDG's extremely poor choice of newsreader for posting was corrected
in my reply.
An extremely poor choice of newsreader by the OP when posting questions
or for any discussion. Plus it makes spam all your posts with its
non-signature spam garbage at the end of your posts. Your post *is*
spam because you are a spam affiliate for GrabIt in all your posts when
using it.
Sounds like some oil in the driver side valve cover is getting past the
valve seals as the car sits, and into the combustion chamber. When the
engine is first started that oil burns off, producing the white smoke.
Oil? Since when does engine oil burn white (at temperatures produced in
automobiles)? Isn't white smoke the sign of a coolant leak? If
antifreeze is getting into the cylinder then you see white smoke from
the exhaust.
Black smoke = burning oil
Blue smoke = burning transmission fluid
White smoke = water vapor burnoff if short-lived and immediate), or a
coolant leak from gasket leak, cracked block, or cracked
head (if not immediate and starts after engine gets hot)
To the OP:
If the white smoke has no or little smell and only lasts a minute after
you start the car when cold then it's accumulated water. Coolant has a
sweet smell.
When you burn gasoline you generate water vapor and why those promoting
water-fueled cars are idiots because they don't want you to know that
your engine already produces water and doesn't need it again. What
those "water-burning" kits actually do is further lean out the mixture
which is very bad to do in the already highly regulated combustion
engines in commuter cars. See:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.autos.subaru/msg/b53e58f1b34a01ea.
Since you car is at a steep tilt, you might have trapped water sitting
in your muffler (the catalytic converter remains way too hot for awhile
after you turn off your car for any water vapor to coalesce into liquid
there). Burning gasoline always produces water vapor. You can't see it
on a warm/hot day because the steam is hot. Just sit on a stalled
freeway during rush hour and notice all the steam coming up from the
tailpipes of all the stuck motorists. You've never seen water dripping
out of exhaust pipes from a running car? What do you think happens to
all the water vapor still sitting in your exhaust system when you turn
off your car? No, scrubbing bubbles don't rush through your exhaust
pipes to clean out the water that liquifies as the steam cools.
Also, as I recall, your year model is the one where Subaru screwed up
the head gaskets which caused coolant leaks into the combustion chamber.
There were previous posts about the problem in this newsgroup but might
not be on your NNTP server anymore so search Google Groups in this
newsgroup about Subaru's screwed up head gaskets. Also, as I recall,
Subaru's "fix" was the old leak goop fix. You add the goop through the
radiator cap and the goop seals any small crevices where its velocity
slows to allow accumulation (which means the goop also deposits
elsewhere, like in nearly plugged radiators to then fully plug them).
The correct fix to replace the defective gaskets with new ones and is a
pricey repair.
If the white smoke is constant past the warm up of the engine, you could
ask the shop to do a compression test. As the engine gets hot, a crack
in the block or head gets bigger so coolant can seep through. However,
you said the white smoke appears immediately when you start the car
"cold" and then dissipates (which could mean after the engine got hot).
So my guess is you have accumulated water in your exhaust system that
gets steamed out when you start your car. Or its just the normal water
vapor that is produced by the combustion of gasoline and you didn't
mention that you notice the steam because it was cold outside.
