Have you experienced steam front the grill or the fron if the hood of a Buick Enclave, Chevy Traverse, or GMC Acadia during a rain?

Question

I ask because my wife has seen this white smoke (or steam) several times, primarily while driving in the pick up line to get our son from school in the rain. She gets home, pulls our Enclave in the garage, and tells me about it. I have yet to be able to make the steam/smoke show up. This past week during a heavy rain I drove her car. I saw the smoke. I put the car in park, left the car running in the rain and got out and opened the hood. No more smoke. Frustrated, I closed the hood and got back in the car. And saw the smoke. As best I can determine, (maybe because the engine compartment is almost fully covered by a hard plastic) rain runs down onto or is splashed onto the radiator or the grill close enough to the heat to steam up and rise in the front of the car. Has anyone else seen this in these very similar or other vehicles?

Frank S · Answer

Yeah, when i wash the engine at the car wash. Check if you dont have missing coolant. If you do, you have a leak and itll smell like coolant. (run and smell the white smoke). If you still have the same level of coolant and you dont smell anything, its just water evaporating on hot metal.

The Devil · Answer

Trade cars with her and keep looking.

I M RIGHT · Answer

Many women and other bad drivers like to drive through puddles rather than trying to avoid them.

? · Answer

I take it you don't have any coolant issues. In that case this is indeed simply steam from the rain or maybe a puddle splashing onto the hot radiator or other hot engine parts. Quite normal. Some cars are more prone to it than others.

JetDoc · Answer

The "smoke" you are seeing is steam coming from the cold rain water splashing over  the hot radiator and engine parts.  It's NORMAL

Have you experienced steam front the grill or the fron if the hood of a Buick Enclave, Chevy Traverse, or GMC Acadia during a rain?

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