Water Vapour from Exhaust when Engine is warm

[Bozz]

I've noticed that even when the engine is at normal operating temperature after say 20 miles or so and I put some load on it (accerlerate hard) which I guess requires the direct injection to start doing some work, I notice quite a cloud of what I assume is water vapour emitted from the exhaust.  I realise that if the ambient air temperature was very low this would continue to occur even with a warm engine but this is normal UK winter temperatures at say 5 to 10 degC. Any thoughts?

Engine is 2.0 with about 3k miles

[Cyker]

It's normal; Virtually every petrol car I've driven would produce a lot of water vapour when you give it the beans in winter. Even my diesel cars would!

You even see it with a lot of SUVs when they move off from a standtill, as they need so much energy to get their fat boat frames moving from rest.

It'll get less noticeable the higher the ambient temperature, but when there's that much of it coming out the exhaust it'll be more noticeable even well above freezing in winter!

[TonyHSD]

More water vapour equals better burning and cleaner burning., my old girl is smoking like a steam engine when weather is cold and especially just after I have started the engine, sometimes when stationary and I set into ready mode and ice kicks in the steam is so much that it goes all around the car, looks like the whole car is set on fire 🔥 💦💧🤣👍 

[Roy124]

Had that in Greece, young lad tried to convince me I needed a head gasket change. I only went in for petrol. 

[RzrAzr]

hybrids would have excessive vapor because exhaust doesn’t ever fully warm up since ICE does not run continuously, compared to regular regular ICE vehicles. 

[Gray86]

Perfectly normal - full throttle on the 2.0 when it’s had a few days of gentle driving looks like your head gasket has let go. 

[Extreme_One]

4 hours ago, Bozz said:

Engine is 2.0 with about 3k miles

That's a great question!

 

My 2.0 ST, at around 3k does exactly the same, I'd assumed normal but good to hear opinions.

[bigblock]

My 2.0 is the same. Loads of water vapour when pulling away briskly. Even had the odd following vehicle flash me thinking my engine has just blown up. Love it. But I do wonder how long the exhaust will last with all that water laying inside the pipes, especially at this time of the year.

[TonyHSD]

4 minutes ago, bigblock said:

My 2.0 is the same. Loads of water vapour when pulling away briskly. Even had the odd following vehicle flash me thinking my engine has just blown up. Love it. But I do wonder how long the exhaust will last with all that water laying inside the pipes, especially at this time of the year.

Don’t worry for exhaust, those usually rust from outside and breaks at the brackets, other than that they are pretty durable, 11 years and almost 200k miles on my car, I think it’s a real experiment of how long will it last for everything. 👍