Exhaust smoke

[winger40]

Haven't ridden since last Tuesday night so I fired it up to idle in the garage for awhile. When I shut it off, there was a trail of light, whispy, white smoke coming from the right-side can. Any ideas? Should I be concerned or is this common?

 

[The Big Red One]

We need more details...your year of bike and mileage, and how you ride it would help. I wouldn't think thats a good thing.....but if you do wheelies...overfilled her with oil...tipped her over ect it could be nothing. Then again it could be a valve guide letting you know its getting ready to retire. Does she run the same? All the power ect? It might also be antifreeze...check your coolant and watch it to see if it goes down over time....and check your oil level window to see if you see any milky looking residue in the oil it might be a head gasket....



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[Steve K]

Haven't ridden since last Tuesday night so I fired it up to idle in the garage for awhile.  When I shut it off, there was a trail of light, whispy, white smoke coming from the right-side can.  Any ideas?  Should I be concerned or is this common?

It's water vapour. (By-product of combustion)

I would not advise running it in your garage if that's all you are going to do. Your engine will not get hot enough and you'll end up with the water in the exhaust doing more damage than the good you are trying to do.

Steve

 

[winger40]

BigRed, it's an '04 LE with 1200 miles. And Steve, thanks. I spoke with a local mech and he said the same thing....water vapor. I ran a quick 120 miles yesterday afternoon and never saw that vapor. Thanks for your responses.

 

[The Big Red One]

Nice choice of bike winger40...I've got an 04 LE with 850 or so miles on it

Yep if you watch your car exhaust when you fire it up you'll see ALOT of water dripping out the tailpipe. Thats the condensation Steve K is talking about....completely harmless. I've never really seen that much at all with my bikes tho...none with my Busa...but I live in the desert too...dry air dontcha know