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hey guys im havin problems with my mx. the other day i was driving with my dad and the car started smoking from under the hood. it looked like it was coming from the alternator?(lol it was wierd) but we couldnt tell. so we took it to a carwash and hosed down the engine bay just to make it wasnt just burning up oil that i might have spilled. we start it up after letting it dry off and it still was smoking not as much but it still was(color of the smoke was white and it smelled like burnt oil, my dad couldnt tell what it was becuase it wasnt leaking and the oil was full). so we left it overnight. we come back the next day and now the battery is dead!! now im going nuts so we jump the car and i put it into drive and it stalls.......jump it again same thing happens. so now i FINALLY get the car to drive and it starts running like crap. the car just started sputtering all the way home. i would get my rpms to 4k and it was still sputtering and the car felt like it had barely any power and took forever to accelerate to 35mph. so the next day i went out and bought another battery and put it in the car started up and ran better but not great. but now i go out today to start the car and it wont even turn over!! and i just spent 100$ on the battery. plz help me out i have no clue wuts going on and if the repairs sound like there gonna be expensive i might have to get rid of the car becuase i dont have alot of money at all.

You should of posted before you bought that battery. 0% chance it would of fixed anything. Did you blow a line at the oil filter and it sprayed the alternator? Are you sure it's oil and not a coolant issue. Oil should be appearant in the engine area. If you don't see oil then it's coolant. Did you blow the upper rad hose and it srewed your alternator? Have a good look around, take the rad cap off and see if your coolant is low. If it is top it up, start the car and it'll start leaking as it warms up. I don't think this is the end of the world, use your eyes, investigate. Cheers

Its hard to tell whats going on with the information you've given us so far. Is your check engine light on? If so, pull the codes using the procedure in the FAQs. Is the battery dying while the car is parked? You can check if it is drawing current with the car off by putting a multimeter in series with the positive terminal on the battery and the car.

Also check to make sure your alternator is working. Connect a voltage meter up to the main positive wire going to the alternator and ground. Do the same for both the pins in the harness connector as well. They should all read between 12 and 15 volts.

The car could be running poorly because of low voltage or excessive power consumption, but its hard to say. Right now my alternator doesn't work at all, and once the battery gets to a certain point my gauges stop working and the cars starts to stall.

I wouldn't think about selling the car with that type of problem, just fix it. no one is going to give you much for it if its not running properly anyway.

Let us know what you find out.

EDIT: I just noticed that you said you washed the engine, whenever I do that my car runs like absolute crap for a day or too since there is water in the sparkplug holes. Figure out why your battery is dying and I think you'll solve your problem.

David

It sounds like your alternator from what you described. That would explain why battery is dead and running like sh*t

I'm gonna say Alternator too. Something brooke inside and friction made that smoke.

hey guys sorry for freakin out lol i was a little po'ed wen i posted lol cause everything started goin nuts and the car was running like crap out of nowhere. but anyways i was checkng it out and talking to my buddy and we both think its the alternater so im gonna get that checked out and we'll see what happens. once again sorry for freakin out lol and thanks for the help. o and daninski i checked the coolant in the radiator and it was full and didnt seem to be leaking anywhere. i also checked for any oil leaks and i couldnt find any.

you gotta be careful man cause if your temp was really hot and possibly over heating....then pouring water onto the engine could crack your block! Just a heads up for next time. i agree with the alternator theory