Smoke coming from exhaust?/

[Tyler Lance 2]

I got in an accident back on Thanksgiving.....a pavement company was repaving a parking lot and no signs were out. Me and another lady could not control our vehicles my truck went right on top of her hood. Only my bumper was messed up a little, tow hooks were bent and the raditor hose busted. Her car however was not so lucky. I guess the Sport Trac wanted to be a monster truck! Anyways the pavement company said they were at fault and would pay for both vehicles. After I got the truck home the exhaust was smoking from the pipes and smelt of car fews bad! Well my truck just got its new bumper and tow hooks. However now Ford says they won't even look at it to see why is is smoking. They said the insurance company said the engine or whatever was not from the accident. They also will not replace the raditor hose. They said the smell is from the raditor hose and from the fluid that poured out? Anyone experience this problem. Anyone other ideas as to what it could be?

 

[Todd Z]

If the smoke and smell was from under the hood, i can see that being an antifreeze leak...



During the colder months you can and will get white smoke out of the tail pipe, but is should disappear within 5-10 feet from the truck... That is normal...



BUT if your driving down the road like puff the magic dragon, then there may be an internal engine problem.



Todd Z

 

[Richard L]

Smoke from the exhaust pipe??? What color is the smoke and are you sure it's comming out the exhaust pipe?



A broken coolant hose will show white smoke (steam) from under the hood an comming out from under the front of the vehicle while stopped, but not from the exhaust pipe.



Blueish colored smoke means that your engine is burning oil. That could meen that you have damaged piston rings or valveguides. Neither of which would have been caused by the accident.



If you have blackish colored smoke from the tailpipe, then your engine is running way to rich and is burning too much fuel. That could be caused by a crushed air intake hose, air filter or air filter box, but that would be hard to do since they are all located fairly high up in the engine compartment, behind the passenger side headlight.



It is also possible that you may have broken one of the transmission cooling lines in the accident and transmission fluid may be leaking onto a hot exhaust manifold or exhaust pipe. But that would not make smoke come out of the tailpipe. That smoke would be bluish in color and com from under the hood or from under the vehicle when standing still.



The real problem is to find the actual source of the smoke before anyone can diagnose if it was caused by the accident.



A broken lower radiator hose could have easily been damaged in the accident that you described, but the white smoke would not come out the end of the tailpipe.



The last possibllity is that you damaged the catalytic converted. That could account for the smoke and smell. Catalytic converters will tend to smell like rotten eggs ... a very sulphery smell.



Engine coolant has a slightly sweet smell which is very different from the smell of burning oil or overly rich gasoline mixture.



...Rich

 

[Tyler Lance 2]

Smoke is white that is coming from pipes. I'm in Florida so it is not cold out. Well it was not cold out when this happened. So I know it was not from that. However the smell is not sweet or does it smell like eggs. It smells like engine or exhaust fumes. It never did this prior to the accident.



Thanks for the addivce I will check the truck over before I leave Ford.



-Tyler

 

[Gypsy me]

found this...

 

[Chris Taylor]

Could some of the antifreeze from the radiator hose somehow gotten into the exhaust pipe during th accident? Just a thought... Maybe it's just burning it out.



Or... did the ST overheat when the lower rad hose blew? Heads and the associated gaskets don't like to be overheated. A warped head due to overheating will allow antifreeze to be burned. Is your antifreeze low, or are you losing any? Does your oil look like a chocolate milk shake?

 

[Tyler Lance 2]

With the raditor hose busted during the accident and if the anifreeze went into the engine, etc. this would not have happened if the accident did not accure. Therefore should'nt the insurance company pay for the damages?

 

[EddieS'04]

Sounds like it overheated and blew a headgasket. Coolant is leaking into a combustion chamber. Insurance might try to say you drove it or should have shut it down.

Not trying to bear bad news. Insurance companies will try to get put of paying if they dont see an association to the damage.