I've been noticing some white smoke coming out of my exhaust pipes when I crank the engine (not all the times), either in the morning of at a later time, it doesn't do it all the time (it isn't the tipical white smoke that comes out when the outside temp is too cold), it smokes at crank and then it is just fine.

Also yesterday I noticed that under heavy acceleracion on first of second gear only there is some smoke comming out of the exhaust (I can see it on the rear view mirros in fron t of the car behind me as I take off or downshift to second, but I can't tell the color because it is at night), but if I accelerate hard on third or 4th gear nothing comes out.

The question is, should I be concerned? It is normal?
I just had the state inspection done and it passed it with no problems.
It is not blue smoke and oil level is OK, not low, so it is not that the engine is burning oil.

 

My CLK 430 did the same especially if I started the car cold backed it out of the garage washed it and started it up again...has something to do with un burned fuel etc.

 

That explains the smoke at start up, but how about when I floor it? It it wasn't burning all the fuel it should be driping down the exhaust

 

Some white smoke is normal if you punch it. As long as your not losing/burning coolant or oil I think everything may be OK.

 

If you had fuel dripping out of your exhaust, the engine would be running so rich your car would either not be running at all or it would be belching out huge plumes of black smoke. Not to mention on fire because of the raw fuel in the catalytic converter. The reason you get a little black smoke when you floor it is because the fuel pressure suddenly increases due to the drop of vacuum in the engine, and the air/fuel mixture richens up a bit. It's normal.

 

There is no fuel dripping, I just mentioned it to make a point on the fuel. Actually the car is giving me about 20 mph on the highway at around 85 mph average speed which is good for this car.

Thanks for the explanation, makes me feel better.

one more question, does pouring a bottle of injector cleaner really help keep injectors clean? I always fill up with 93 octane and fill about 20 miles after the reserve light comes on (in other words I don't let dirt accumulate inside the tank)

 

Concerning the water accumulation in the muffler, I had recently an experience which makes you understand the white smoke. My wife drives her car mainly shorter distances for shopping etc. The muffler started dripping rusty water out of a little hole after only 30 months installed. I went to the garage and they tryed to make me belive this is a "condensate drain". So I checked with the manufacturer and he could not confirm this. Went back the garage and they checked it again. They found out the muffler was rusted through. They opened the little hole and, you would not believe it ,about half a quart of water drained out of the muffler. This is what creates the white smoke in cooler weather and short distance rides.