Diagnosis Please

[Danzzza]

Occasionally my car (2006 mk6.5 1.25 fiesta) seems to be reluctant to start, it has never not started, it just seems to take a few seconds of trying, not sure if that is of any significance to my main problem.

When I first start my car, if the engine has cooled right down, if i rev the car between 1000-2500 rpm, i get puffs of white smoke from the exhaust. It only seems to do it when the cars cooled right down though. Any thoughts as to what could be casuing it? I do have a small hole in my backbox that I know about, but could that be causing it? Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

[Cortexx]

I think thats normal if the car is cold? especially round this time of year?

[Danzzza]

Hope so, never noticed it with my mk5 but then again i wasnt really looking for it, i only noticed this because i was leaning out of the car to hear my exhaust popping cause of the hole haha

[SteveTDCI]

Does the "smoke" have any scent? If its just steam it could potentially be moisture in the backbox evaporating my mk5 1.25 suffered alot with this.

Apart from that most vehicles will give out steam at the pipe on these cold mornings but as I say if has a sweet scent to it and you feel any performance problems or if the starting problems get any worse I would start looking round for something potentially more serious

[MrrNoName]

Does the "smoke" have any scent? If its just steam it could potentially be moisture in the backbox evaporating my mk5 1.25 suffered alot with this.

Apart from that most vehicles will give out steam at the pipe on these cold mornings but as I say if has a sweet scent to it and you feel any performance problems or if the starting problems get any worse I would start looking round for something potentially more serious

agreed, you need to determine if the "white smoke" is steam from moisture in the exhaust from overnight (very common this time of year) and perfectly normal as long as it dissapears when the car has warmed up, or unburnt petrol vapour.

put your hand over the exhaust when its "smoking" and wait for your hand to get damp, give it a sniff and work out if its water or not.

also look at other cars on a cold morning, guarenteed you will find a few cold ones with steam comming out the back, does it look exactly the same as yours?

probs nothing to worry about.

with regards to the starting exactly how long does it take to turn over on a bad day? how many miles has it done?

[Danzzza]

It does seem to stop when things are warmed up, but there is a slight smell of petrol on start up, that also quickly disappears though. Is petrol vapour anything to worry about? Im not mechanically minded at all.

On a bad day, maybe 3-4 seconds, which to me seems too long, and its done a shade over 53000 miles.

[fiesta_lad]

My mk5 fiesta does this on cold mornings white smoke notthing to worry about.

[MrrNoName]

so long as its gone once things have warmed up i wouldent worry about it. thats normal. with regards to the starting i would say 3 - 4 seconds is a little long, this could be simply down to a poor battery though? it could be a number of things causing it, cant really pinpoint on here, sorry :P

[Danzzza]

Thanks for the help, might see if I can get another battery and see if that helps, cheers folks

[MrrNoName]

Thanks for the help, might see if I can get another battery and see if that helps, cheers folks

if you do, make sure you get the correct type, I remember artscot posting on here sometime saying that if you get the incorrect type the battery dies really quick