Loud Bang and White Smoke

TeamWahoo

New Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2019
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After sitting for about a month and a half, through period of unseasonably warm then freezing weather, I went to start my 2000 TJ.

When I turned it over, I heard a very loud bang and then saw a cloud of white smoke billow out from the hood! I immediately opened the hood but by that time all trace of smoke were gone. I looked around to see if anything obvious was out of order but everything looked ok...nothing smoldering/on fire.

I figured I would leave the hood up and watch as I tried to crank it again. It started with no problem. I let it run for a minute and took off around the block. The only thing I noticed was that the idle remained higher than usual while shifting.

Can anyone give me a clue as to what might have caused the bang/smoke?

No work had been done to it recently (maybe that was the probem ;-)
 
I didn't think to check the a/c. That will be easy enough to check in the morning.

A Freon leak could possibly be the cause of the problem. Looks like my a/c is not cooling now.

I'll have to figure out how to track down refrigerant leaks.

The a/c was the last thing the previous owner had worked on before I bought the Jeep. It did go through last summer without a problem though.
 
And with a 23 year old vehicle, there's a chance that somewhere along the way, fluorescent dye was put in the oil to detect leaks, so it might be even more obvious under black light...