Smoke coming from driver's side aircon vents?

[Blathers]

Hi there, 

Have just been running my is200 up and down the driveway getting used to it etc, when I noticed that there was a fair amount of what looked like smoke coming from the drivers aircon vents. Needless to say I was fairly concerned so checked under the bonnet and nothing was immediately visibly wrong! This is now the second time in 2 days its happened and am keen to sort this issue, gives me a heart attack the two times its happened! 🙂

Can anyone help me/give me a hint to check what's going on or try to solve the issue? 

Thanks, 

Alex 🙂

[ColinBarber]

How quickly does it start to come out from when the engine is started? Is it steam rather than smoke, which may indicate a leak in the interior heater matrix?

[Blathers]

It starts when the temp gauge is saying the cars up to temperature, and I think it's smoke? Not entirely sure tbh, but if it helps I haven't used the A/C in a while

[BachelorDays]

Presumably there's no smell with the smoke.

Does it only happen when you've got the ac/heater fan on or will it also do it when it's off? An additional test you can run is to switch off the fresh air (Recirc) button. Is your ac full on gas?

[Blathers]

6 hours ago, BachelorDays said:

Presumably there's no smell with the smoke.

Does it only happen when you've got the ac/heater fan on or will it also do it when it's off? An additional test you can run is to switch off the fresh air (Recirc) button. Is your ac full on gas?

Haven't had the ac/heater on the times it's been smoking, which is why I was really confused

[BachelorDays]

If there's no smell it's quite likely there's some dust/debris inside the dash which gets heated by the evaporator/water pipes, which is why it happens only after car has reached a high temperature.

This dust could be coming in through the fresh air intake so you could check that in the engine bay for debris. Probably a good idea to see if you can remove a panel inside the car and check inside the dash.

[Blathers]

7 hours ago, BachelorDays said:

If there's no smell it's quite likely there's some dust/debris inside the dash which gets heated by the evaporator/water pipes, which is why it happens only after car has reached a high temperature.

This dust could be coming in through the fresh air intake so you could check that in the engine bay for debris. Probably a good idea to see if you can remove a panel inside the car and check inside the dash.

Will do! Thanks for the help as it happened again yesterday, so will need to get this check haha

Also on closer inspection of the engine bay, noticed a large amount of oil built up around the head gasket area. I'm assuming this is quite bad and I should probably replace it? 

[ColinBarber]

6 hours ago, Blathers said:

Also on closer inspection of the engine bay, noticed a large amount of oil built up around the head gasket area. I'm assuming this is quite bad and I should probably replace it? 

Is it near the oil filler, someone may just have spilt some when trying to add some oil to the engine?

[Blathers]

1 hour ago, ColinBarber said:

Is it near the oil filler, someone may just have spilt some when trying to add some oil to the engine?

No its all the way around the joint between head and block, most heavily at the front of the block, but its basically just around the seal? 

[BachelorDays]

What does the last MOT say about it? Do you have oil drips on the road under the car?

[Blathers]

9 hours ago, BachelorDays said:

What does the last MOT say about it? Do you have oil drips on the road under the car?

Passed last Mot with no issues it seems, no oil drips under the car however it looks like this? Wondering if this is a problem as sometimes the exhaust seems a bit over-smoky 

[BachelorDays]

Doesn't look too bad to me, but it does look like there is a slight venting going on at heat/speed. It is 18 years old and probably done a fair amount of miles. It's a tough one to call. Depends so much on how you use the car and so on. No harm discussing it with a garage and then assessing the cost and benefit.

[Hazzo]

Thats just a rocker cover gasket which apart from looking a bit messy isn't causing any harm and after all its 18 years old more than likely, mine looks similar and the 16 year old car I've got is sweet as a nut, I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it starts peeing out or you're a bit anal about this sort of thing, you could always replace it if its bothering you.

I only got this car in jan and haven't even tried the air con yet but everything else works as it should, even my 6 disc changer so I'm not too worried about AC especially here in the North.

[Blathers]

17 hours ago, Hazzo said:

Thats just a rocker cover gasket which apart from looking a bit messy isn't causing any harm and after all its 18 years old more than likely, mine looks similar and the 16 year old car I've got is sweet as a nut, I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it starts peeing out or you're a bit anal about this sort of thing, you could always replace it if its bothering you.

I only got this car in jan and haven't even tried the air con yet but everything else works as it should, even my 6 disc changer so I'm not too worried about AC especially here in the North.

OK thanks for the help! Yeah I think over my summer break I'll tear the engine down, as that was my plan for the car anyways, just to learn general maintenance before going mental with raising my insurance premiums with mods 😅 I was amazed my sunroof still worked tbh considering how cheap it was!