I have oil and water misting out of the tailpipe. What would cause that?
Blown head gasket. Maybe something else but you did not give much info.
I just changed my oil and after I started it up is when I noticed the oil and water out of the tailpipe. I also changed the idle. It seemed too low before I changed it.
Some water vapor will come out the tail pipe, especially when the car is old. Water is part of the exhaust as gasoline is burned. But, if you see wisps of vapor after the car is warmed up, chances are there is a problem internal to the engine, like a blown headgasket.
Also, oil mist is usually a result of a worn out engine. The oil is seeping past tired, worn out, and possibly broken rings and getting into the combustion process and coming out the tail pipe.
I suspect this engine is about done.
How many miles on this engine? Regular maintenance? How much oil are you losing? Did you do a compression test? I wouldn’t give it up until I knew how much oil it was using and did a compression test. Just changing the oil shouldn’t have caused the engine to use oil. Water vapor is normal. How do you know it is “oil mist”? Rocketman
Oil that appears at the back of the car in droplets is not getting past piston rings, it is getting past exhaust valve seals. Oil that gets past rings is in the cylinder for the firing stroke, so it appears as blue smoke at the rear of the car.
Replacing valve seals is not a terribly expensive job on a 4 cyl engine, and it should get you at least another year or two, maybe more, depending on how loose the valve stems are in their guides. Before you spend any money on this engine, you need to determine if the water is just condensation that blows out of the exhaust when the car is cold, or whether you are loosing coolant. Have you checked the water in the radiator to see if you are loosing coolant?
It sounds like you messed up and put too much oil in the engine. If you did, the oil will be drawn into the PCV system and get sucked into the intakke manifold. Check the oil dipstick after the car has been sitting for 10 minutes and be sure you didn’t over fill it. Also, pull the PCV valve and make sure it’s not oozing oil.
I know at least 1 other person that has overfilled his geo metro, and oil indeed, did drip out the exhaust pipe. I drained several extra quarts out of it, and drove it about 10 miles to burn off the excess in the exhaust system, and the problem stopped. just MAKE SURE the oil level is correct.