Troubleshooting a Yamaha Golf Cart Smoking and Burning Oil

Why is your Yamaha golf cart smoking bad?

A Yamaha golf cart may be smoking because the exhaust is plugged with burnt oil that causes back pressure. If it’s blowing the oil fill cap off, then oil is clogged up and causing pressure in the crankcase.

Why is your Yamaha G1 smoking?

Your Yamaha G1 is more than likely smoking because your muffler is clogged with oil and soot. The muffler becomes like this over time, especially if your car is only used in short bursts.

There are two ways to fix this problem; the first is to run your cart long and hard for 30 minutes to an hour and then let the cart cool off. The second is to remove your muffler and burn it out on a bonfire to clear up all the oil and soot in it.
Your Yamaha G1 might be smoking because of stale gas or your gas has stabilizers in it that make it smoke a lot. To fix this, drain out all the old gas and replace it with fresh gas.
Using the correct oil in your engine can help to prevent smoking. For example, if you use your cart at low speed most of the time then use a premix of Yamalube at 80:1.

Why is your Yamaha G9 smoking?

Your Yamaha G9 might be smoking because of your oil being overfull. This is probably because the reading on your dipstick is wrong.
To fix this, fill in your engine with exactly one quart of engine oil and then mark the new full position on your dipstick.
The G9 might also be smoking because of a float stuck which allows gas into the crankcase. Get the float to work properly to stop this from happening.
There may be oil in the airbox that needs to be removed that’s causing your Yamaha G9 to smoke.
Your valve guides might be worn out and need to be replaced.
Your Yamaha G9 might be smoking because your oil rings are stuck on a piston due to engine sludge buildup. If this is the case, your engine needs to be rebuilt to fix it.
Your G9 might be smoking because of oil in the muffler. Run your cart hard for 30 minutes to an hour or cook your muffler in a bonfire to fix this.

Why is your Yamaha G16 smoking?

Your Yamaha G16 might be smoking because there’s too much oil in the engine that gets backed up in the pipes of your engine and gets into your air filter box.

Check your airbox as well as the hose that goes through its front, and then see if it’s still blowing oil.

Fix this by draining your G16’s oil and then filling in exactly one quart. Clean out the excess oil in your airbox as well.
Your oil being overfull might be because you lifted your cart which causes your oil dipstick reading to be off (the full mark is incorrect). This causes you to overfill your oil.
If your oil smells like gas and is too overfull then gas will get dumped into the crankcase of your G16 and cause smoking. This is usually caused by a carb float or fuel pump that needs to be either mended or replaced.
Sometimes if you’re lucky, just cleaning your carburetor will fix your carts smoking problem.
If you’re unlucky and your G16’s smoking is caused by a blown oil ring. If this is the case, you need to rebuild your engine to fix it.
Sometimes, dirt gets in your carburetor which causes your float to stick which will make your G16 smoke. To fix this, take out your airbox and clean it, clean your carburetor, drain your oil and fill in exactly one quart of oil. You should change your fuel filter while you’re at it.
Your Yamaha G16 might have a valve cover gasket that’s become brittle and leaks. Replace it to fix the smoking problem.

Why is your Yamaha G22 smoking?

Your Yamaha G22 probably has oil in its airbox if it’s smoking. Remove the airbox and clean it then see if your cart still smokes.
Sometimes there’s excess oil in the muffler of your G22 that just needs an “Italian tune-up” to burn off. Just run your cart hard for 30 minutes to an hour to burn off the excess oil in the muffler and see if your smoking problem is solved.
Cleaning the carb of your cart or replacing it with a new OEM carb can fix needle/float issues which cause smoking problems. Replacing the fuel pump, fuel filter, spark plug and air filter of your cart can also fix smoking problems.
If your G22’s oil is overfilled then it will smoke. Drain the old oil and clean out your airbox if there’s oil in it. Then fill in exactly one quart of oil to your G22. This should fix your smoking issue.
If you’re unfortunate enough to have a blown oil ring, you need to rebuild your engine to fix it and will have a smoking problem unless you go through with the rebuild.

Why is your Yamaha gas golf cart blowing white smoke?

White smoke is caused by oil burning or “too full” oil condition in your engine. “Too full” oil condition is what happens when there’s too much fuel in your oil.

The white smoke can be caused by having too much oil that’s too full and you probably need to change your carburetor needle in that case.
Your oil rings might be gummed up or full of carbon.
You might have an oil leak. To fix this, take the plastic shroud off then find and plug the leak then fill your cart with exactly one quart of engine oil.
You should also make sure that your airbox isn’t full of oil and if your air filter is full of oil then you need to go ahead and replace it.

Why is your Yamaha gas golf cart blowing blue smoke?

Blue smoke is caused by oil being burnt which makes your smoke look bluish in color.
Your cart might be blowing blue smoke because it’s running rich. If your paper filter is oiled down, then it’s like running your engine with the choke partially on and this draws too much fuel for the amount of air and so your engine runs rich.
The blue smoke might also be caused by your valve guide being worn out after being in use for a long time. This means you need to replace your valve guide.
Your cart might also be blowing blue smoke because your oil control rings are spoilt. You can tell if this is the case because you usually get blue smoke when you hard accelerate or decelerate.
To fix this, you’d need to rebuild your engine and replace the broken oil control rings. If you do choose to do this, then use new OEM rings instead of used original rings because the new rings will last longer.
If you choose not to rebuild your engine, your engine will still last a long time with the smoke problem as long as you make sure there’s oil in it.

Why is your golf cart burning oil?

Your golf cart is burning oil because it has too much oil in the airbox. If your oil is overfilled, then drain it out and put in exactly one quart of oil into your cart engine.

You may have overfilled your cart with oil because your dipstick has an incorrect full marking. Fill in your cart then mark the correct full position on your dipstick.
Your cart might be burning oil because your oil rings are bad. Unfortunately, this can only be fixed by replacing the bad oil rings by rebuilding your cart engine.
Your cart could be burning oil because the oil is contaminated with gas or other debris. To fix this, replace the contaminated oil with fresh oil.
Your cart might be burning oil because there’s oil in the airbox. Clean the oil in the airbox and see if that fixes the problem.
A dirty carburetor could be the cause of your oil burning problem. Remove the carburetor and give it a deep cleaning then see if that solves your problem.

Why is your Yamaha G9 burning oil?

Your Yamaha G9 is burning oil because it’s been lifted and you’ve incorrectly overfilled its oil. Lifting your cart tilts the cart engine and makes your oil dipstick reading wrong.
Fix this by draining the old oil and refilling the engine with exactly one quart of oil. Then take the oil dipstick and mark the new, correct “full” position.
Your G9 might be burning oil because of bad valve guides and seals that need to be replaced. Bad valve guides and seals let oil suck up past the valve which leads to your cart burning oil.
If your oil ring goes bad, your G9 will burn oil. There’s no quick solution for this and you’ll need to rebuild your engine to fix the bad oil ring.
Overfilled oil that gets to your G9’s air cleaner on the filter needs to be cleaned. If it’s too serious then you need to replace the air filter entirely.

Why is your Yamaha G16 burning oil?

Your Yamaha G16 is burning oil because it has fuel in the oil. The first thing you should try to fix the burning oil problem is replace the old oil in your cart with exactly one quart of high quality oil. Hopefully this immediately fixes your problem.
If your oil is overfull then your G16 will burn oil. You need to put in exactly one quart of oil in your cart. Check to see if your dipstick is marked correctly and if it’s not then put in exactly one quart of oil in your engine then mark the correct position on your dipstick.
Your G16 might be burning oil because your carburetor is dirty. Remove your carb and clean it very well. You should use a good carburetor spray to shoot every jet as well as passageway in your carburetor in both directions if at all possible.
You need to replace oily air filters because a clogged air filter will lead to a rich condition and cause a black sooty plug.
Your G16 might be burning oil because it has worn out oil rings. If that’s the case then you need to rebuild your engine to replace the rings and fix the problem.

Why is there oil in the airbox of your Yamaha golf cart?

There’s oil in your airbox because there’s too much oil in your engine. If there’s too much oil, it’s probably because of a mismarked dipstick in your engine.
To fix this, drain out all the oil in your engine then fill in exactly one quart of oil. Take your dipstick and mark the correct “full” reading on it.
Oil in the airbox of your golf cart could be because of a bad needle or float valve in the bowl of your carburetor. The float setting in your carburetor is off and needs to be fixed.
Bad needle valves in the carburetor need to be fixed because they cause unburned fuel to contaminate and dilute your cart’s oil.
There could be oil in your airbox because your valve cover gasket is old, brittle and leaks. Replace it and check if your reed valves are out of spec and need adjustments while you’re at it.