Normal Or Not?

[4ss4s1n]

I've had my 96 in storage for a good 5 days now,and today I felt like driving it instead of my new explorer.

Anyways im driving down the road when all of a sudden some smoke comes out of my dashboard,I immediately pull over and inspect. I saw nothing out of the ordinary so I went back to my house for further inspection. As I went,white smoke came out of my exhaust... Im pretty much thinking to myself that im screwed.Then I hit a red light,when all of a sudden my rpm's dropped to a little less than 300,so I have to push the gas a bit at stops now.

So I then take my car to a local mechanic. He then tells me that its because I haven't driven it in a while,and that its all normal. I seriously dont think that normal for a car.

So what do you guys is wrong with my car,IS it all normal? Or is there some other problem that should be checked.

[thunderbird muscle]

What size motor do yo have?

Have you had any major problems with it before?

How many miles are on it?

[4ss4s1n]

Damn,I should have posted that before...

4,6 V8

Nope,except I got a flat once.

110,000 mi.

[solaris=amazing]

Usually, whats normal when a car ain't turned on for more than a week is the battery dies-or when started you have a rough idle. Where as the rpm will jump to over 1000 then fluctuate between 700-1400. After about 5 minutes of that, it should be normal again.

Check ALL hoses..fluids.. That doesn't sound normal.

[flewthecoupe]

I've left my cars sitting for months and haven't had anything go wrong other than when I had a dead short. But that caused the battery to die after 6 hours of sitting so it really doesn't count.

[Mike75]

Any car that I have had, from a Honda Passport, to a T-Bird, has run pretty rough, and smoked after sitting for some time.

I was told that the smoke was from condensation and it's deposits burning off. The longer they sit, the more there is to burn off.

I imagine that every morning you see a little bit of "smoke" come out of your exhaust when you first start your car up. The increase is probably exponential each day, because the larger the deposits, the longer it takes for them to "burn off".

Just a theory, but kinda makes sense. Keep driving it, and see if it goes away.

[RickwithaTbird]

I've let my t bird sit for a couple weeks once when I thought it was broke down but actually wasnt.. It ran rough for about the first 10 minutes of stop and go driving, but I didnt get smoke from my dashboard. What was the weather like? Maybe if it was really cold it could be normal, but im no expert. and btw... how much have you driven it since then, and whats the deal with it now?

[Franky-5-Fingaz]

Hey, i had the same problem with my 97', i was stumped for a couple days then i thought it could be the flow of air and fuel to the cylinders n all that. All i did was take off my intake and throttle body, cleaned the throttle body out with spray on cleaner and a towel. That got it running, a little better actually.