Blowing Smoke on idle when warm

ZippyZafira

Hey guys

Got a lady here with her Zafira A

Fisrtly the car is running beautifully not rough idle ect and smooth as can be.

Problem she is having is once the car warms up and is left on idle it starts to blow smoke.. Then once its been idling at traffic lights and you first accelerate a big puff of thick white smoke blows out the exhaust.

she does have an error code in the system

Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1)

The car has done now 2000klm since oil change and looks to be perfectly clean still (not black)

Thoughts?

HarleyPete

White smoke normally indicates water is getting in the combustion chamber so I would think head gasket. However I don't know if that would throw up the code you say is present for the cat. I suppose it could if the water is keeping the cat too cool to work properly. I would suggest doing a pressure test on the cooling system first and see if it's loosing pressure and fluid.

Only other thought is that if she's doing loads of short journeys then there may be a build up of condensation in the cat I suppose, not too sure.

Dave_Gilbert

HGF on a z22se is very rare so i would think more of cylinder 4 spark plug hole being cracked n causing water to get in.

milo

ZippyZafira said:
Hey guys

Got a lady here with her Zafira A

Fisrtly the car is running beautifully not rough idle ect and smooth as can be.

Problem she is having is once the car warms up and is left on idle it starts to blow smoke.. Then once its been idling at traffic lights and you first accelerate a big puff of thick white smoke blows out the exhaust.

she does have an error code in the system

Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1)

The car has done now 2000klm since oil change and looks to be perfectly clean still (not black)

Thoughts?

When my Astra Coupe was on the rolling road getting its mapping down for the super charger, on the power runs the car was pumping out pure white smoke and it sticks and was told by the guy mapping it, that the white smoke is off my CAT getting hot with the gases getting forced out and nothing to worry about. So if your getting the white smoke and the bank 1 error code its more than likely your CAT has had it tbh bud.

vocky

it will most likely be the valve stem oil seals need replacing (y)

ZippyZafira

I was thinking valve stem seals myself. But i thought that usually stem seals blow smoke when the car has been sitting (over night for example) and when you first start it.

this car blows no smoke when you first start it ?

also had cars here which burn heaps of oil but no smoke