Why is My Lawn Mower Blowing White Smoke?

You just went out to mow the lawn, you turned on your mower, and white smoke is pouring out of it – now what?

What caused this fiasco and what can you do about it? Fortunately, a smoke-blowing engine may not be a serious issue unless you don’t pay attention to the smoke.

Here’s a list of things you can do to if your lawn mower is emitting white or blue smoke.

White smoke is usually caused by excess fuel burning – Many times this is a very simple issue to resolve. If you’ve recently turned over or tilted the machine, a portion of the oil may have leaked out and started to burn, which creates white or blue smoke.

The solution is the same for those times when you have overfilled the oil reservoir – just let it smoke and burn off the excess oil.

There are times when white smoke isn’t an infrequent problem but is continual.

The first thing to do is to examine the crankcase and check if there is an air leak.

Air leaks will let more air into a mower’s crankcase than necessary and will cause a greater quantity of oil mist than the breather of the crankcase can handle, which then results in too much oil being burned off.

A professional mechanic will cost you a bit more money upfront but will save you time and headache in the long run.  Angie’s List is a good place to start if you don’t have a shop in mind already.

To sum things up, white smoke emerging from your lawn mower is not a sure sign that it’s broken.

Your mower might just need a bit of TLC. Before you take that drive to the mechanic’s place, take a little time to smell the smoke and note what color the smoke is.

Your problem might be as minor as having to buy a new inexpensive air filter, and not serious enough to require a significant expenditure on labor and parts.

This video may help you out as well:

Side Note: I am not a mechanic, so my suggestion is if you aren’t comfortable digging into this issue, take your mower to a pro.