# White smoke on acceleration **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** smoke, exhaustsystems, passat\ **Created:** [July 23, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102 "2008-07-23T14:47:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tom1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@tom1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/tom1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 2:47pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102/1 "2008-07-23T14:47:43Z")
1999 VW Passat with 70,000 miles sends a puff of white smoke from the exhaust pipe while accelerating. Any ideas what the problem is? ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://community.cartalk.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 2:54pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102/2 "2008-07-23T14:54:17Z")
Is it a diesel or gasoline? Does it make a difference warmed up vs cold start? Unfortunately, if it’s doing it all the time, that white stuff is burning coolant which means you’re probably looking at a head gasket. ---
**Author:** ![Docnick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Docnick](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Docnick)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 2:57pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102/3 "2008-07-23T14:57:02Z")
Agree that coolant must be entering the combustion chambers, and you should fix it right away! On older cars with vacuum modulated automatics, it could be transmission fluid due to a ruptured diaphragm. ---
**Author:** ![hellokit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6a8cbe/32.png) [@hellokit](https://community.cartalk.com/u/hellokit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 3:33pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102/4 "2008-07-23T15:33:27Z")
Stand behind the car while someone accelerates the car. Does the smoke smell like antifreeze or like fuel (gasoline or diesel)? If it smells like gasoline, there’s a fuel injection problem. ---
**Author:** ![tom1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@tom1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/tom1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102/5 "2008-07-23T15:55:14Z")
Gasoline And just a puff while accelerating, not a constant white smoke ---
**Author:** ![hellokit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6a8cbe/32.png) [@hellokit](https://community.cartalk.com/u/hellokit)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 4:10pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102/6 "2008-07-23T16:10:53Z")
Tom, Who are you answering, Hellokit or GreasyJack? Is your answer that it’s a gasoline engine, or that the exhaust, upon acceleration, smells like gasoline? Your answer could be the salvation of mankind…Well, not really! ---
**Author:** ![tom1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b487fb/32.png) [@tom1](https://community.cartalk.com/u/tom1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102/7 "2008-07-23T20:05:28Z")
Gasoline Engine I don’t know the smell at this point. Sorry for the confusion,with mankind hanging in the balance! ---
**Author:** ![dialM4mayhem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bc8723/32.png) [@dialM4mayhem](https://community.cartalk.com/u/dialM4mayhem)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/white-smoke-on-acceleration/17102/8 "2008-07-23T23:26:50Z")
It could also be vaporized water that accumulated in the exhaust system while driving without accelerations, but you need to smell the exhaust too.