Well, after my colleague convinced me that my car should be taken to higher rpm than what I normally do (around 5k) because that where you get the most power. I decided to let him drive around the city for a bit. As soon as we got in the car, we did some hard acceleration right from the get go and about 10 or so because of all the lights in SF. Well, we got on the bay bridge and got it up to about 130 in 5th gear. Since he is a part time race car driver I must say he did some very impressive shifting and driving. By the way, we did this around 4am so the street/bridge was clear. Anyway, the next morning when I started up my car, a huge thick cloud of white smoke blows out of the exhaust and it continued for about a minute and it smells like burning plastic or something. My question is, is this normal after the car has been driven hard or is something wrong with the engine now??? At the same time, my oil level is way above the max line on the meter. Actually its completely full I think. Should I be concerned and take it in to have it checked

 

Firstly, you need to drive your car a bit more as it's intended. Granted, I understand traffic in and around the city my prohibit that, but damn, you don't see 5k rpm's often? You are really missing out!!

The puff of white smoke is normal for a flat six engine design. BUT, not for an entire minute...that isn't normal at all. Was it blowing smoke for a minute or was it just lingering around??

Shifting at or above 5k rpms is a daily "do" for me, every once in a while I get a poof, but it dissapates quickly.

 

Check your oil at the dip stick and under the fill cap for milky residue...

 

that morning it blew smoke for a minute!! and approx 30 sec the next morning. I'm about to fire it up this mornig so we'll see

 

no milky residue under the cap and what should I be looking for on the dip stick?

 

white smoke means burning oil. 2 things oil level is too high(too much oil) or your engine is gonna explode the next time you turn it on. just kidding, your car was designed to be driven pretty hard and should be done so. but i would guess that you kicked some oil into your injectors and it should burn off eventually. if the problem doesn't go away you will need to take it in. but i don't worry i had the same problem and it goes away.

just read the bottom of your post. you have too much oil, but it should kick up white smoke when your reving at 6000 rpm. did you red line the car, and when you did did you look back to see if there was white smoke. shouldn't be a problem if that is the case just let some of the oil burn through normal driving conditions till the oil level lowers.

 

I think he did red line the car but I was holding on for my dear life so I didnt look back

 

sounds like a case of white smoke and brown skid marks....no worrys just drive it for a while as for the skid marks try bleach...

 

 

thanks for the info guys and lady Robyn

 

just need to drive the car more often and push it to the limits once in awhile.

 

Similar thing happened to me, after one of my RMS leaks were fixed. The dealership had put too much oil in and it was leaking over the top. It happened right before I took an exit to get off the freeway. The white smoke would come up when I hit the gas. I took it to the dealership and they emptied the oil, cleaned everything off and put new oil in. Hasn't happened since.

 

I've never redlined my car ...LIE LIE LIE!

How did your oil level get so high??

 

Never fill it all the way with oil.
Full minus 2 ticks on the electronic oil measurement is perfect.
My car always smokes when it full with oil, or the day after "spirited driving". Perfectly normal. Nothing to worry about.

 

last time I checked it was 1 or 2 above the min line so I decided to put in 2 cans. Rookie mistake