White smoke coming from Muffler

[Laureen Robichaud]

Hi.  I just purchased a pre-owned certified Toyota Rav4 last Monday.  It worked fine all week and today I decided to drive out of town on the highway.  I had it on cruise control and suddenly I noticed the white smoke coming out from the muffler.  I pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine.  No lights came on in the dash.  We checked the oil and found the oil was higher then the 2nd mark for normal oil.  I called my local toyota and they were closing soon and all booked up so could not take me.  I revved the engine and the smoke got less.  I turned back to head back home as felt it was not wise to go to my destination and when I climbed this steep hill again on acceleration this time not on cruise control it created another big puff of white smoke and then after that it did not do it again.  I went as high as 120km and it still did not smoke like it had done earlier.  I am going to Toyota early this week anyone have an idea what could have been the cause??? Anyone ever had this experience?  Oh another thing when I had shut down the engine after the smoking I could hear the muffler sizzling or crackling.  Also there was like some black stuff on the muffler and I wiped it off after it cooled down and it smelled more like oil than gas.

[Dougster01]

Laureen,   It was a good call to turn back as a precautionary measure.  It could be a number of things. Did you recently fill up with gas?   It may the fuel. Or it may be coolant seeping in the head thus mixing with fuel. If this were the case, the RAV4 would be running very rough. When you checked the oil, did you notice any frothing or bubbling on the dip stick?  At this time, is it running smoothly or roughly at idle?  Is there any moisture coming out of the tailpipe when it is running now?  It may have been none of the above and it could have been something as off the wall as water in your tailpipe and or muffler from driving in deep water from heavy rain.