Help, help, help - white smoke from exhaust.

larmy16

Try to be brief.

Old car. Was going to cost £450 to get through MOT, so we decided to ask for a cam belt change (just incase it went - in the hope to get another year out of it) which bought the cost up near £600.

It appears now water pump was not replaced at same time ( why oh why did I not ask for this and not just assume they do it?) Arrgh.

Temperature gage started going up. Checking coolant levels daily, noticed few drips under car.

To date, yesterday car overheated when son driving. He drove it home few miles.

White smoke coming out of exhaust. Huge leak from water pump area.

Phoned mechanic - he said it's the water pump. Need new one - £120.

No mention of head gasket as my partner did not think to tell him about it the white smoke! (He knows the mechanic).

No gunk or mayo type stuff around oil cap or oil.

My question is

Would a broken water pump cause the white smoke?

I really don't want to waste any more money on this car, pay for a water pump, and then it is head gasket (£500?)

Sorry bit of a car dunce, but my partner is even more clueless, I have found out the little I know from Google and previous experiences.

Any advice so much appreciated.

It is booked in for a water pump next week and I want to know if I am doing the right thing. Most concerned about if the white smoke could be just due to a broken water pump.

Thanks.

espresso

It does sound like the lack of coolant circulating has cause the engine to overheat and has very likely caused the head gasket to fail. It should not have been driven after you discovered the water pump failure and your son should not have driven it home after it had overheated.

larmy16

Suitably admonished but is there anyone who can advise what they would do with regard to fixing this problem?

johnnyroper

larmy16 wrote: »

Suitably admonished but is there anyone who can advise what they would do with regard to fixing this problem?

if it has got a knackered head/head gasket from overheating which with white smoke certainly sounds like it has you have 2 choices really

1 pay to have it stripped down and fixed

2 get rid of it as it is either scrappy or sell as spares/repairs

larmy16

Any idea of what I might have to pay Johny? If the head gasket has gone would it not necessarily have that mayo type stuff in the oil tank?

hartcjhart

larmy16 wrote: »

Any idea of what I might have to pay Johny? If the head gasket has gone would it not necessarily have that mayo type stuff in the oil tank?

if you tell us what make/engine/year etc we may be able to help more

thefishdude

you dont allways get the mayo as it depends werea bout the headgasket has gone. there are lots of channels in the engine were fluids go through and depending on at what poing the head gasket went kinda decided what get mixed. water in the oil creates the mayo in cap. but i have had it were the oil was going into the water making the coolant brown frothy and gunky. the white snoke is from water getting into the engine itself and then comming out of exhaust as teh smoke.

larmy16

hartcjhart wrote: »

if you tell us what make/engine/year etc we may be able to help more

Embarrassing but here goes. 1996 Ford Escort 1.6v. Been no trouble for the four years we had it, but was getting rusty and needed some welding to get through the MOT.

We were just hoping to keep it going for one year more before getting something else.

I spoke to the mechanic earlier and he said he would check it out and phone before he did anything.

Thanks.

larmy16

@ Fishdude.

Re: the mayo thing, yes I was just hoping against hope that it may be a good sign but I understand what you are saying.

If I had my time again, I would have become a mechanic!

hartcjhart

apx another £200 on top for the head gasket

colino

Buy a Haynes manual and have a go yourself. As its now chucking steam out of the exhaust it has HGF, but these old engines can sometimes survive a roasting better than their younger, more efficient cousins.
Otherwise if you use a garage for any more repairs you are chucking good money after bad.