Hi my 96 uk turbo impreza wagon has just started playing up now the cold weather is here.
It's pumping out a sweet smelling white smoke when cold, well 1st thing I thought and I'm sure ppl reading this is thinking the same already is burning coolent. However I really don't think this is the case as the coolent has no antifreeze in it. Also the whitr smoke is only visible when it's cold outside.

When driving around town the car feels sluggish but I get no CEL no matter how long I town drive for. Once I hit the motor way the CEL light comes on and shows fault 32 which is maf or o2 sensor. I know its not maf as 2 known working ones of the same colour have been used. This leaves me to beleve it's either o2 sensor or unmetered air is getting in somewhere i have looked for leaks and can't find any and the o2 sensor is 6 months old

So my question is this, could the sweet smell be from it running rich due to a knackered o2 sensor? I had the o2 sensor go before and the sluggishness feel the same but not as intence as before

Thanks

 

White is probably coolant mate

 

"No antifreeze"??

Why on earth not? It also acts to stop corrosion inside the engine.

 

About 2 weeks ago i split a radiator hose and was a road side repair so didn't have any to hand. and my memory is so bad i forgot it didn't have any until i started this post. it has now though.

today I've checked for combustion gasses in the water and it's all clean, and struggled but successfully checked compression, i'm 99% certain the white smoke isn't water from the engine unless it's getting in before combustion.

The strange thing is if it's warm out their is no smoke other then the 1st few minutes after starting it's only when it's cold out weather she warm or not warm or not. I'm starting to think the sweet smell is from over fueling as my fuel economy has hit the floor the past week and it feels like a bad air/fuel mix.
But what could cause the o2 sensor to die after 6 months and as the original one had died also I'm not looking forward to replacing it every 6 months it it is the problem. i should also mention that 6 months is about 10k miles for me.