White smoke

[ianelvar]

Hi

I get a bit of white smoke when I start my FD up from cold. I\'ve done some searching, and found a lot of people saying this is normal - others saying it can be a sign of coolant seal failure.

It\'s a stock 92 import with 83,000 Km on the clock. Been sat around in a dealers storage yard for 2 years, and done only a 100 miles since imported.
She starts ok hot or cold, but when cold chucks out enough white smoke that you can see it drift over the car while sat inside. Clears up after about 15-30 seconds. Looks a lot like the condensation you get from any car when starting from cold on a cold day, but the weather is obviously rather warm at the moment, and I have no idea if this is normal for the rotary.

I can\'t see any smoke when driving, the coolant hasn\'t gone down as far as I can see - but it\'s early days as I\'ve only owned her for a week - the pipes don\'t go hard, and I can\'t hear any bubbling in the cooling system after switching off which would indicate pressure loss.

I think my next move may be to take it to Carl and get it pressure tested if it sounds dodgy to you guys?

I have a feeling i\'m being paranoid - it\'s these forums I tell you!!! Lol. Great community, and loads of useful info, but I keep reading about more and more stuff that can go wrong! I\'m scared every time I get in that it\'s going to do something whacky and die horribly!

[nikp]

I\'ve never noticed any on my 1 year old, less than 3000 mile rebuilt engine. Mind you, i never noticed any before mine was rebuilt and the water seals failed on it!

I know some people say some is normal, but yours does sound like quite a lot. I think you are best getting a health check over it.

[leon]

Mine smokes for a few mins at most on a cold wet morning, (like the ones we are having the last few weeks ) NASTY weather to drive a rex as the daily  

I have no reason to belive mine is kabunk yet, starts hot cold etc. (it is looseing water but from the gasket on the waterpump) But if your worried. Getting it tested for exhaust gas\'s in the coolant / a compression test at the same time would cover all bases.

something i\'ve been meaning to do but have had no time to get it compession tested yet :yes  busy boy me.

You\'d beable to see if your loseing water by opening the cap in the middle of the engine bay, its quite obvious even half a cup lost seems to send the sensor in that pipe crazy, which is a good thing realy.

[ianelvar]

Cheers guys, I think i\'ll get it booked in with Carl. The smoke does worry me a bit, but I can\'t find any of the other classic symptoms of water seal failure. Very frustrating!