White Smoke From Front End
 

Hi,

I have a 2002 Chevy Cavalier with almost 200,000 miles on it. For a few weeks when idling I've noticed a burning smell (not sweet like I'd expect for anti-freeze, but not oil either, I'm not sure how to describe it). Today when the car was warming up I noticed some white smoke coming from the front end along with the smell. The smoke is visible out the passenger window and seems to be coming from the right side of the front end. I checked my anti-freeze and that was good. I had a similar problem about two years ago and had to replace the radiator fan but the fan is definitely kicking on when the car heats up right now...The oil is very, very low and I'm also very overdue for an oil change. I was curious if low oil/being overdue for an oil change could cause something like this? It seems to drive OK. I've noticed it's sluggish on the pickup and changing gears lately.

I've added oil but my concern is that I need to drive about 2hrs out to school on Monday and I'm worried the car won't be able to handle it?

Thanks!

I have an oil leak that creates white smoke and smells like burning. It's a slow leak so the smoke isn't really visible when your driving, only when viewing it under the hood, but the smell is apparent. Since you're very low on oil my first guess would be oil leaking. Have you looked to see where the smoke is coming from? Is there any oil leaking onto your driveway?

Sounds as though you are losing oil and it is leaking onto the exhaust manifold and burning off there. Likely just a valve cover gasket, but I couldn't be sure without looking. Any way you could have that looked at when you get the oil changed?

not too thrilled!
 

i wasnt too thrilled with these chevy model cars. they caused a few problems and were noting compared to my other models of chevys. still 9 chevys out of ten in my family aint bad..:D

Thanks for the responses, I made it out to school! The smoke was definitely from being so low on oil. Once I added oil that stopped. I brought it to my regular mechanic because the smell continued. He did an oil change and basically said it was along the lines of what Headache Ball suggested.

UrbanExhaust, I have to say I cannot complain about my cavalier. I think it's kind of a beast actually. I didn't know anything about cars when I bought it and really abused it. I've been trying to learn more but I can't believe how long the thing has lasted. I can't say I've spent more than $2,000 on repairs and stuff like break pads/tires in 200,000 miles...

Thanks Again!