yeah so my 00 neon with 99k miles has been blowing a little white smoke out of her tailpipe for a few months now (probably longer) and burns up oil pretty fast. there arent any crazy leaks or spots/puddles under my car when its parked. i had a friend look at it and said it was the oil pan gasket and he would do it for $x amount of dollars but he could just be tryin to make a quick buck (he works at an oil change place). im afraid it might be something more severe such as the head gasket but i have put over 3k miles on her and have put it to the floor plenty of times but i can notice shes not running in tip-top shape. the temp has always stayed normal too and it hasnt stalled, just runs a little sluggish with a little white exhaust. it hasnt gotten any worse and it doesnt stink real bad or anything.


so if it was a head gasket problem, would the engine have died by now? i'll be taking it in soon to be checked out but i want to get some opinions.

 

well if your not leaking oil you can take the oil pan gasket out of the equation. when i hear someone say they have white smokecoming for thetailpipe i tend to go more to the side of internal oil leak into the combustion chamberburning oil and making smoke.

 

i was told it is leaking oil from the oil pan gasket but its not dripping all over the place. he showed me the gasket seal and it did infact look a little warped and the bottom of my engine looked moist like there was infact some find of leak. like i said, it has never over heated nor stalled for over 3k miles even when ive had it to the floor.

if the oil isnt milky can i safely say the head gasket is fine?

 

you can do the oil pan gasket by yourself for free..its easy...drain the oil, take the pan off, scrape off the gasket if u need to with a putty knife, put the new gasket in place on the pan, secure the pan back to your vehicle, fill her with oil and ur good to go...BUT if ur blowin white smoke u cant point the finger at the oil pan gasket..like 12 Volt said..its something internal...white smoke is typical of burning coolant..have you checked your coolant level?

 

alright

it does have some what of a sweet type smell so you guys are probably right.

so does this mean my head gasket is fudged? what should i do? my inspection is up at the end of this month too.

i should just trade it in for a 1st gen dohc

 

If the exhaust is white that means theres an engine coolant leak into the CC, if the exhaust is blue-ish that means there's an oil leak into the CC.