Has your Jeep started smoking recently caused you much anxiety? Are you smelling anything strange like sharp water vaporized smell in the exhaust fumes? Have you noticed a puff of smoke billowing from your exhaust a second after you start up your Wrangler? Does it happen intermittently or is it smoking consistently? If your Wrangler is displaying any of the mentioned symptoms, then you might find the solution in this article.
Your Jeep Wrangler can smoke on startup for multiple reasons such as:
- Leaking Fuel Injectors
- Leaking valve seals
- Condensation Burn-off
- Coolant leak into the combustion chamber
In order to accurately diagnose the problem, we first need to identify a few signs which either isolate a very specific component or eliminate other possibilities, and we go about this by identifying the following:
- Identify any smells from the exhaust
- Identify the color of the smoke (Blue/White)
- Identify the smoke density (Thick/Thin)
- Does it smoke constantly or only at startup
Once we’ve achieved the above, we can move to the next phase by determining the possible cause and a solution.
Let’s look at each possibility in more detail
Jeep Wrangler White Smoke On Startup
One identifying sign that it’s either a serious problem or nothing to really be concerned about is if the smoke being emitted from your Jeep is thin and only lasts a short while and disappears without repeating or, If the smoke lingers and happens each time on startup with a distinct smell like antifreeze or oil burning. In either case, you have a serious problem on your hands.
Oil and antifreeze have very distinct smells and are signs of a serious leaks which could result in catastrophic engine failure in not attended to immediately.
Let’s look at the fuel condensation burn-off as a possible cause.
Condensation Burn Off
If you only notice a puff of white smoke for a second or two on a cold start, then it’s most likely condensation burn-off. You need to determine the density, since a thicker white smoke isn’t consistent at startup but always after standing a few hours, then it’s more likely to be coolant mixing into the combustion chamber and burning up.
Condensation is a very regular occurrence in colder climates and nothing to be alarmed about. It usually evaporates quickly. Condensation burn-off occurs when the hot exhaust fumes is exposed to extremely cold ambient temperatures outside. The steam and white smoke short lessen after a few minutes of driving.
What causes Condensation burn-up?
It’s the direct result of normal condensation building up inside the exhaust system. It shouldn’t linger too long after driving and dissipates relatively quickly. CAT (catalytic converters) are also designed to trap a lot of the toxic exhaust fumes and convert them to vapor that is less dangerous to the environment.
Coolant Leak
We touched briefly on coolant leaks earlier, and trouble-shooting for coolant leaks is one of the easiest things to do. A reputable garage should be able to detect coolant leaks within a few minutes. There are a few ways to check and they are
| 1. | You can tell by the level of coolant constantly dropping. That is the most obvious method, however, you shouldn’t always wait too long to notice a considerable drop. |
| 2. | Check your oil. If the oil looks milky white, you definitely have coolant mixing in the oil. This is really bad news and depending on how far gone it is, worst case scenario it means damaged bearings and a complete engine redo. |
| 3. | Burning coolant emits a terrible smell and can be detected immediately. |
| 4. | Check for traces around the head gasket for obvious leaks. |
| 5. | A milky white appearance in the smoke |
| 6. | Bubbles in the radiator once the engine reaches operating temperature |
| 7. | Puffing white smoke on and off at startup |
It is a well-known secret that Jeep adds a stop-leak to stop small leaks from developing and seals minor leaks. Many manufactures add this additive to the assembly line. It’s a harmless product that constantly circulates through the cooling system and basically remains dormant until a leak occurs. Once a little bit of coolant manages to seep into the combustion chamber, you’ll get a nice milky white smoke on startup.
Engines overheat if they aren’t getting enough coolant circulation, and if the coolant is leaking constantly, your head gasket will blow.
Cracked Head
A cracked head goes hand in hand with a coolant leak. As mentioned earlier, once the coolant leaks, the engine temperature cannot be regulated properly, resulting in a crack developing in the head and white smoke from the exhaust. Even a failed head gasket will yield similar results. Once a car overheats, it is usually bad news. Also, the aluminum cylinder head is very prone to cracking once it overheats.
Head Gasket Blown
There is constant water circulating through your block to cool it down and maintain stable engine temperatures. However, if that coolant starts leaking from the block into your cylinders between the cylinder bore and the cooling channel, due to a blown head gasket, you will experience smoking as the coolant burns up. The smoke color is white in color, however, it’s not very obvious during daytime driving.
The smoke is a lot more obvious and visible at night when a vehicle drives behind you and its lights reflect the smoke. The difference is that smoking will appear consistently and not only during startup, and it emits a very distinct odor.
Oil Blow-by
The Jeep head is designed with the PVC (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve is located behind the head. If the vehicle is in a severe incline position, you could experience white smoke for a limited period. This is a result of oil being dumped directly into your intake and burnt up. A catch can be a very good investment to prolong the health of your engine intake by keeping it free from soot buildup.
Oil Rings
If you have a situation where your piston rings are shot, it will result in oil leaking directly into the combustion chamber. This will result in constant, bluish whitish smoke being emitted from the exhaust. This condition will result in constant smoking from the startup.
Valve Guides
If you have a situation where your valve seals are leaking, it will result in oil leaking directly into the combustion chamber. This will result in constant, bluish, whitish smoke being emitted from the exhaust. This condition will result in constant smoking from the startup. It will emit a distinct oil-rich smell.
Leaking Fuel Injectors
If you have an injector that is leaking from the O-rings, it allows additional fuel to slowly seep into the combustion chamber once the engine is switched off. As the fuel slowly drips into the combustion chamber over a few hours, it results in excess fuel collected in the chamber upon initial startup. That’s because on startup your injection system squirts a bit of fuel to ignite and start up the engine.
So with the excess fuel in the chamber, it cannot burn up quickly enough and results in a lot of unburnt fuel exiting the exhaust pipe in a black color smoke.
Bad Modulator Valve on the Transmission
Another culprit for excessive smoke exiting your exhaust is a TMV (Transmission Modulator Valve). This is only applicable to automatic transmission Jeeps. The signs of a bad TMV are:
- Inability or difficulty shifting into gear
- Smoke from the exhaust
- Whistling noise from a leaking diaphragm
- Rough idle
Exhaust system upgrade
When we upgrade the exhaust system, it’s usually to a bigger diameter pipe which releases a few more HP and gives of a deeper exhaust note. In many cases, a muffler is deleted and replaced with a smaller free-flow version to allow exhaust gases to escape easier.
However, you might have noticed a slight increase in smoke and a stronger fuel smell after your upgrade, especially at startup. Removing the FF muffler and replacing it with the stock muffler visibly decreases smoke and the strong exhaust fumes.
You need to do a visible inspection of the drain hole on the mufflers. If the muffler was installed incorrectly with the drain hole facing upwards it could result in water being blown out.
Resources
Purchase new Wrangler 4.0 Fuel Injectors here
Purchase 3.8 Wrangler Fuel Injector kit here
Purchase 3.6 Wrangler Fuel Injectors here
Mopar 150 000 mile 50/50 Coolant
4-6 Fuel Injector O-rings seal kit
Jeep Edelbrock Performer Complete Cylinder Head For 4.0L Engines | 1987-2006 , EB-50169
Conclusion
If you’ve managed to do some of the suggested inspections and your findings are still inconclusive, then rather take the Jeep for a pressure test. There is only so much Intel you can gather from a visual inspection.