GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Well, yesterday shortly after leaving the car wash I parked the car to go in and get a drink. I shut the car off and had to walk around behind, and I have a habit of looking at/under/around the car as I leave and approach. I am used to a bit of water that drips from the tailpipe when I leave it run, it seems to be a decent amount, but I assumed it was the emissions system doing its job. This time it seemed to have some trajectory on it and you can see in the photo some black spots. They were floating in the water and all congealed like. I couldn't smell anything about the substance, but I am super stuffed up so.... Ive never seen this before and have not since, but later when I parked and shut it off, it seemed to have 'spit' the water out again instead of just dripping out. It was only about a third of the amount in the photo. Any ideas for me??

Is all the moisture in the PIC from the tail pipe or just those few drops?

Maybe it just had some bad mexican food?

Quote, originally posted by silverbullet »Maybe it just had some bad mexican food?Lol!There was no other moisture on the pavement so I think it all came from the car. Its never spewed that much and hasn't since. I assumed part of the quantity is because I was just at the car wash...?

OK....that makes sense. How long was it idling for?

Lol yea obviously that was not helpful but I couldn't resist. My guess would just be water got shot up the pipe, and it would make sense that it would come out nasty once it mixed with some of the carbon that would be all over the pipe walls.

It wasnt really idling, I started it in the wash bay, backed out to shammy the windows, restarted it and drove it over to the station about 4 blocks. It spit the second amount out later that night. Nothing so far today but the usual little drips with the idling.I hope it was just a flush out...On a different, but equally bumming note, I was washing bugs off and had never actually gotten that close to my fogs before... One is cracked and sealed with silicone

I don't think it is something to be concerned with. Like the others said, it is probably something that came loose when it got wet.

As an experiment, you should try washing my car and see if the same thing happens. Then you can try waxing it and see if it happens again.

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »As an experiment, you should try washing my car and see if the same thing happens. Then you can try waxing it and see if it happens again. Sure, right after I wash/wax the Vibe, the Ranger and the S-Dime lol. That's my job at our house lol

Ok, I'm dredging this up because I'm having issues with this again. The pic is what the spots look like dry, after letting it run to warm up. Sometimes quite a while. I'm having oil consumption issues, but I can't pin it down because it's sporadic. In town driving and my daily 60mile commute don't seem to phase it, but driving a constant 70/75 on interstate sucks it down. I'm always alert for ground leaks, and never see a drop of anything. I constantly check the oil so it never gets dangerously low, but I'm starting to wonder if the oil consumption, the soot, and my p0420 code are related? If my cat is bad, will that up usage? Any ideas?

One (or both) of your O2 sensors is covered in that stuff, which is probably the cause of the 0420 code. The higher rpm of interstate driving will suck it down faster. Try changing oil brands.

Wha would you recommend for oil? I use Mobil 1 5 30

That's the exact stuff in my hatch basket. Hasn't improved my consumption like it said it could. Thanks for the link

Compression test on all cylinders would tell you something about whether or not oil is slipping past your piston rings. The gauge could be bought at an auto parts store for probably less than 1hr shop labour.

I'm sure I know someone with one of those. That's a good idea

You need a compression test. If the Dry is low then try the wet. If wet is still low then it's the valves. If it comes up then it's the rings or something eles on the low end. Also have you replaced the PCV lately? If it's not working correctly it could put oil back into the intake and cause the cat to go bad or cover the downstream O2 with oil. This is the easiest and cheapest repair.Or maybe the CAT could be plugging and back pressuring the which could cause some wierd issues. Both could cause the P0420.