Went to a road course for the first time on Sunday. After about 10 laps the car started smoking bad from the exhaust. The smoke was thick and white. There were professional drivers present (driving school) as well as a lexus service manager there looking at the car after the run. The smoke was thick but without that sweet smell of coolant. This was the hardest the car has ever been run but also maintained normal oil and coolant temperatures. After a bit of resting the smoke cleared up and never came back, my drive home was 2 hours long and car still seems ok. Engine sounds good, oil very clean, what could it have been? I have no cats so its going to be more obvious than normal.

 

Interesting. Assuming you did not lose any fluids (oil/coolant); could it be an accumulation/pooling of condensation or water within the exhaust?

Oder-less white smoke sounds like water burning off..but the fact that it is thick white smoke would mean a lot of water.

 

Ever see the european top gear on the ISF? They got the same smoke when the stig ran the car around the track at the end.

 

I can't find the video

 

http://www.streetfire.net/video/top-gear-season-12-episode-5_2199053.htm

Check out 9:00

 

 

That's It exactly thanks, what is causing that smoke?

 

my guess is they left it idling to get it up to temp and it's condensation, but I can't say for sure. i doubt it's oil

 

white smoke usually means water. Blue smoke means oil and black smoke means gas

 

What was the temperature outside on your track day?

......may have increased condensation.......but I'm no automotive engineer.

I thought....for every liter of fuel burned, the same amount of water is produced.



Digger08

 

the temp was -3 to +1 Celsius
maybe similar to this in some sort of way

 

I just wanted to see if anyone really did figure out the smoking. I have auto-crossed the car a few times and it's happened to me multiple times in every whether from 100 degrees to 45 this past weekend. There's a LOT less if you let the car idle for about 5 minutes afterward.

This past weekend it didn't even happen right away. I let the car idle and it was fine, then we headed to Wendy's where I may have hit the throttle a few times on the way and after leaving Wendy's it happened.

 

Over the last summer, I found that when I got my oil change done then head to the track, the car would smoke. This is simply cause my oil was at the top of the range on the dipstick. I'm not exactly sure why the car burns off oil but it is 100% burning oil. I experience the same idle circumstance as you. If you idle the car then shut down, on startup it won't smoke at all, or give a little puff. I find that as soon as the oil is off the top mark of the dipstick, it stops completely. I'm not worried one bit.

 

Just like a few others mentioned, if the color was white its either water or coolant.

Best thing to do, is to check your oil to see if there was any contamination from coolant or water that leaked in. If you don't see anything, you're probably ok, only when you have excess white smoke all the time, would it be an indication that your head gasket is leaking.

Hope that helps!

 

I'm no even worried about damage. The engine is fine, and it's noting like a gasket. My thought is it's something like the scavenge pump for the heads not keeping up when you get the engine really pushing its limits. this could cause oil leaking in through the valves and on start it burns off the oil. It's got to be something like this I was just wondering if anyone actually figured it out yet.