I was driving home from work today on the highway and a hugh amount of white smoke came out of the exhaust. the car seemed like it was going to stall, then it cleared and did it again but not as bad. I had the oil changed is this because they used the wrong kind or too much???/?
Should I do anything? or do you think it was a freak thing.
[align=left] [/align]

 

white smoke is indicative of coolant (water). I'd get your oil changed and see if it has coolant in it. Could be a head gasket going bad.

I'd definitely get it looked at. You shouldn't have any kind of smoke out of the exhaust at any time.

Is it possible the smoke was actually light bluish in color? If they overfilled the oil, you could possibly get some blow-by or oil getting where it shouldn't.

 

Smoke coming out of the exhaust immediately after an oil change can be an indication that they put far TOO much oil in. Since your situation occurred shortly after a change, strong chance something they did is the culprit.

Really fresh motor oil burning could create white smoke.

Check the oil level immediately to see if this is the problem. I'd let the car sit aminimum of 20minutes before checking the oil level- my experience with my 3 is it takes about that long before all the oil settles back to the oil pan.

Some say you can shorten the wait time to 10 minutes ifyou loosen the oil filler cap.

I've had my 3 overfilled by oil change places twice (not by a huge amount ... but enough that I went back rightawayand had them adjust it) - the cause I believe being the fact the dipstick shows a false low reading unless you wait.

 

I dropped it off this morning at goodyear and they are going to change it out. I will see later today if it runs ok. I hope I didnt screw my plugs up.

If it is still smoking after they do there thing I will bring it to the dealer and play dumb and let them handle it. Just writing that make me cring, because my local dealer sucks. but if it ends up being something serious i will have to use warranty.

 

ok if anyone cares. I ran it home tonight and everything seems to be all right. You should have seen all the black on the tail pipe..LOL man I hope this doesnt happen again.
[align=left] [/align]

 

I care, and hope for your sake that itdoesn't (ever?) happen again. There! I said it.

 

based on what the dipstick shows, my car was overfilled when I first checked it. No smoke happened yet. but thanks for your sharing. I'll watch out for the next oil change. What did the Goodyear place say about the smoke?
________
CERAMIC BONG

 

doesnt white smoke mean your burning coolant, and blue smoke mean your burning oil???

 

Yep.

 

they really didnt seem to care (goodyear) But I expected that. I check the dip stick and it looks low. This dip stick is a piece of junk. There is no way you can tell the oil level. I think the tech may have read the dip stick after putting in the right amount of oil and thought it was low, so added another qt.??? I have to say I can NOT tell where the oil level is. It always looks low to me.
Has anyone taken a dip stick from another car that would work with the Mazda 3. Maybe the volvo 40, or ford focus. Arent those the same motor???