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[vrba]

Hi,
Is there something wrong when there is little steam coming out of exhaust?
Like there is lots of condensation, on colder days this can be normal but i noticed when there is no steam coming out on other cars i can see mine in mirror?

Any opinion is this normal or something fault

[markey mark]

the v6 does create a lot of steam bud but should clear after a good run !!

[vrba]

ok

thx

[bigdods]

I noticed this on my 2.5, any time I sat in a traffic jam it started putting out a fair amount of steam. Its normal. My 3.0 does it as well but a smaller amount.

[hotel21]

The V6 is, by design, reasonably fuel efficient.  Water is a byproduct of good combustion so, by default, generates a fair ammount of water out the tailpipe...

[alanfp]

mmmm....

more efficient combustion = more steam??? not sure about that - maybe I'll have to go through my old text books, but that doesn't sound right at first glance.  It would suggest that we'd see more steam (OK water vapour) coming from the exhaust of a new Japanese supermini than out of an old 3 litre Capri - I just don't think that's the case.

I'm afraid my experience of owning cars with lots of steam coming from the exhaust has been because coolant was getting into the combustion chambers.

As Markey-Kark says, though, it should clear up once the engine and entire exhaust system is hot.  But I would keep a close eye on your coolant level for now.

[Kevin Wood]

The other factor to bear in mind is that the V6 has quite a large exhaust system which takes a while to warm up fully (and probably never does so when pootling around town) so the gases have cooled to saturation by the time they exit the exhaust and cause steam as soon as they hit the cooler air outside.

Kevin

[Marks DTM Calib]

mmmm....

more efficient combustion = more steam??? not sure about that - maybe I'll have to go through my old text books, but that doesn't sound right at first glance.  It would suggest that we'd see more steam (OK water vapour) coming from the exhaust of a new Japanese supermini than out of an old 3 litre Capri - I just don't think that's the case.

I'm afraid my experience of owning cars with lots of steam coming from the exhaust has been because coolant was getting into the combustion chambers.

As Markey-Kark says, though, it should clear up once the engine and entire exhaust system is hot.  But I would keep a close eye on your coolant level for now.

You had better do that then.....because water is a by product of a well combusted fossil fuel following interaction with an efficient cat.

It shows up more on some cars than other due to the size of the exhaust because it cools more in the big unit used on the Omega compared to Micra....

....plus petrol engine efficency has not changed that much in the last ten years......1's of percent at best.