Welcome to the Crosstrek Forums....

How many miles on the vehicle? And are you the 2nd caretaker?

 

Welcome to the Crosstrek Forums.... How many miles on the vehicle? And are you the 2nd caretaker?

63,000 miles. I believe I might be the 3rd owner.

 

White exhaust; usually condensation turning into steam as soon as exhaust temps heat up the catalytic converter. Once the engine warms up and depending on temperatures and humidity, white exhaust disappears. In cold, humid weather (winter), steam exhaust continues but to a lesser degree. Worse case scenario is a blown head basket with a rough running engine as coolant leaks into one or two cylinders. Water isn't compressible and turns to steam for more or less continual exhaust smoke. Smoke may smell sickly sweet. Other tell tale indicators are milk chocolate engine oil and a significant drop in the coolant container.

Presuming no loss of coolant, this may be your area of high humidity as humidity condenses in the exhaust system after an overnight engine shutdown. Most EFI systems use a low grade form of stainless exhaust piping to prevent acidic corrosion from water turning to acid, eating the exhaust system from inside out

 

I'd start with the white smoke 1st. I'd do the following:
1) Check the ECU for DTC's (IE use obd diagnostic reader)
2) check the coolant and oil for signs of intermixing and levels
3) check the pcv if it clogged or stuck(IE creating higher than normal internal crankcase pressures.
4) I'd pull the plugs to see if there is any sign of burning coolant.
For your A/C:
1) check to see if the sound is coming from the compressor.

 

I'd start with the white smoke 1st. I'd do the following:
1) Check the ECU for DTC's (IE use obd diagnostic reader)
2) check the coolant and oil for signs of intermixing and levels
3) check the pcv if it clogged or stuck(IE creating higher than normal internal crankcase pressures.
4) I'd pull the plugs to see if there is any sign of burning coolant.
For your A/C:
1) check to see if the sound is coming from the compressor.

Thank you for this. I will get started on figuring all of this out.

Jaga

 

Does it smell like antifreeze? Does your radiator fluid smell like exhaust? Great way to check for a blown head gasket.

 

Check your plugs next. If any are amazingly clean, you might have a head gasket issue on the side of the clean plug(s). Could be a crack in the head or block, but less likely.

 

Ever figure out what this was? Dealing with the exact same issue as far as white smoke on startup.

 

it is normal if you park in the slope with certain angle, so just try to park in the other position to eliminate it.

 

I am having the same issue on my 2019 Crosstrek. White smoke on startup Subaru is saying it’s my fault for not getting the oil changed frequently but that is not true and I’m going to provide receipts. They said I’ve been running with the oil low, but I have never had my oil light come on and then he corrected himself and said something completely different. Which was that the oil had residue in it. I’ve been searching online and this is an ongoing issue. Their solution is to do an oil consumption test for 1200 miles. Just seems interesting that many others are having this issue. I don’t know if it’s a thing but maybe we could all rally together.

 

The amount of effort people have put into this to figure out what the problem is baffling to me. I mean, how can so many people be having the same issue and it’s just normal. Or they put all this money into trying to figure out what the problem is with no help from Subaru.

 

the easiest solution is to trade it in at a different dealership, buy a different make, I know this isn't possible for some folks but rather than fighting with Subaru and getting now where fast......

 

WHITE SMOKE: I own a 2018 Subaru Crosstrek Premium. Subaru’s dealership changed my oil every 5,000mi up to 75,000 and between 75,000-89,000(presently), I’ve had them change it every 4,000-4,500 mi(per lots of recommendations and research). I’ve also had every mileage recommendations performed, etc. I started noticing white smoke from the exhaust in warm temperatures six months ago and had the dealership check it out immediately. They said it was in great condition, the parts are fine, nothing’s wrong. Took it again two months later, same feedback. I’ve noticed white smoke coming from the exhaust more frequently in the past month upon start up and one time mid day. This time the delearship ran a pressure test, said everything was fine with the coolant/etc, and that I had build up on the PCV so they installed a new one. They also said they never saw smoke in the four days they had it. I noticed white smoke two hours after I picked it up and again the following day. Not a huge amount but noticeable enough. A lot of people recommended a second opinion with a local trusted/certified mechanic. I’m in a waiting list but will at least be seen in a week. In the mean time the mechanic said he sees A LOT of Subarus for this issue around 80,000 miles. He also said it’s typically the head gasket or oil leaking into the combustion chamber. In addition, the only other very slightly symptom I’ve noticed is occasionally my AC/heating speed slows down for a second without me adjusting the setting and this never previously happened so I’m not yet convinced this isn’t a coolant issue.

 

I would take a video when it happens and show it to the dealership and/or mechanic so they see what is your concern.

Did you check the coolant level? oil level? is there any oily residuals in the exhaust pipe?

 

Hi, did the mechanic ever figure out what was wrong? I have a 2018 Limited Crosstrek too and it has been doing the same thing for over a year now. The smoke smells like burned rubber now. So far, neither Subaru or other mechanics have been able to fix it. I’ve had the PVC valve replaced twice, they checked my oils and coolant and everything looks fine and not mixing or decreasing. It’s frustrating. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

2018 Crosstrek with 156k miles. I'm the only owner and the oil has been replaced religiously every 6-7k miles. I just changed the plugs this week and the car runs great. Today, the car belched out a cloud of white/blue smoke on a warm day start up and it also smelled like burnt rubber. My wife said it did that once before and she thinks it happened BEFORE I changed the plugs. She can't remember though. My coolant is actually a little high but my oil looks good.



I changed the plugs because I had never done it at 60k, and I thought the car was a little sluggish. I'll see if I can post pictures of the plugs, but I thought they looked fine. A little whiteish. One thing was that the plugs came out gapped at .044 while the OEM replacements came gapped at .032. I opened them up to .04.



In terms of AC, I'm pretty sure the clutch on my compressor is going. There's dark dust on the housing and I feel like it's a little loud.

 

I have a 2018 Crosstrek that had the same exact symptom. Cloud of white smoke on start up, but resolved immediately. I replaced the PCV valve and the issue went away. About 6 months later it came back, I took the PCV valve out, cleaned it out with brake cleaner, and haven't had an issue since (1+ year later). I think highly likely to be your PCV.

 

worse case scenario, head gasket cold leak or contraction leak, the white smoke is antifreeze