White/Gray Exhaust Smoke When Accelerating Hard

[evan5291]

Hi, new to the forum and first time Explorer owner. I have a 2017 Explorer Sport (3.5L ecoboost) with 72k miles on it and just bought it this week from CarMax and comes with a 90 day warranty for anything that goes wrong.

I noticed under 50% or more throttle, especially under hard acceleration, I can see exhaust fumes/smoke billow up a little from my rear-view mirror. The acceleration seems fine and pulls pretty smoothly but I have owned turbo charged cars before and this seems to be a bit excessive in comparison (335i BMW twin turbo). However, I am not noticing any smoke or anything when idle or even revving when idle. I have read here that there could be an oil leak from the turbo that can occur around this mileage and I am curious if this would be indicative of that or if this is just normal for this engine.

I plan to get it fully inspected by a trusted mechanic before the time frame expires but wanted to ask this here. Also, if you all have any other pointers for things that go wrong that I can communicate to my mechanic please let me know!

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum Evan.
I would think that an oil leak would produce a blueish smoke. Using the 'Search' feature at the upper right, I found other threads; 2017 Sport White/Blue Smoke on Startup/Acceleration

Sport Blowing white smoke???

We have a 2014 sport with right around 5,000 miles on it. Today while setting in the grocery parking lot I noticed a excessive amount of white smoke from the exhaust. The smoke does not smell like burning oil but it does smell like burning something. Being Sunday tomorrow and Labor day Monday...

www.explorerforum.com

Peter

 

[mguy13sport]

The water pump is the silent killer of these engines. Did you get any history on the car? Has anything been done maintenance wise?

The water pump, timing components and turbos are all common failure points at that mileage. A leaky turbo will be pretty visible just by looking underneath the car. These turbos use coolant which can also leak and cause excess smoke.

The water pump will leak around the AC compressor if its got bad seals. There a weep hole that directs coolant out the block.