Picked up this very clean pathfinder for a cheap ride for son (October of last year). 2002, 234K miles, only thing wrong that I could find was that the power steering belt slipped a bit. Ran without a hitch. Lost an ignition coil - easy fix.
So, last Saturday I'm changing the oil in my other car and topping up fluids - added coolant and windshield cleaner to the pathfinder. The car had been driven the day before, but son was coming down with the flu, so it sat in the driveway until Thursday. Go out to crank it, won't start. It's cranking, but struggling to run. Today, I checked a few things, charged the battery then was persistent in cranking it. Gave it a little gas and it started running... held the cold idle at 1500 rpm then dropped back to normal. Noticed a lot of white smoke coming out of the tailpipe.
Head gasket? I don't think so, I know what that smoke smells like and this had the distinct odor of fuel. This seemed to be the engine and exhaust burning off excess fuel. After a few minutes, it was gone. Note: since August, it has never done this. I ran around town doing errands - no CELs or missing at all - ran perfect like it has before.
Any ideas? Guess I'll have to keep an eye on it.
cg
