Happy New Year!
I recently bought my daughter her first car. It’s a 2004 Acura TSX. The car is in excellent shape for its age, with 115,000 miles on it. I road tested it for over an hour and it ran beautifully. I used a BlueDriver and the car didn’t trip any codes. But I did notice white exhaust coming from the tailpipe. But it was below freezing outside so I chalked it up to water condensation. However now the temp is over 35 degrees and the exhaust is still white. I used a combustion leak tester and there doesn’t appear to be a leak. I even did a compression test and all four cylinders are checked out fine. What else could be causing the white exhaust?
If everything on the engine checks out, cold days and high humidity will cause translucent, white smoke from the tail pipe.
held the test tube down on the opening to form a tight seal and administered the test. Is that a problem?
as long as the tester reached the pressure stamped on the cap (usually around 15 psi) and held it for a while, then the test is complete.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcEow4CC2ME
Blown head gasket and consequently engine burns coolant.
Perfectly normal on a 35 degree day. One of the byproducts of combustion is moisture and when that exits the exhaust and hits the cold air the moisture condenses, like your breath on a cold day. So unless you are losing coolant it's nothing to worry about.
update: I rented a second combustion leak tester and it also came up clean.
But the test I rented did not fit into my radiator (the plug on the test was too big). So I held the test tube down on the opening to form a tight seal and administered the test. Is that a problem? Do these testers have to don’t inside the radiator to work?