Smoke In The Morning...

[bainzey]

I've had my 04 RX 330, for about 2 yeards now, and its been running great. No complaints really. But I've noticed something. If I start up in the morning and don't warm up at all, and just pop it into reverse and I'm gone, I've noticed some smoke. This is the not kind of smoke that is caused by exhaust in cold weather, but looks like oil burning smoke, thekind that kind of lingers in the air. Which I've seen too much back in my uni dayz, when I was rolling in an 86 Honda CRX, that needed as much oil as gasolin to run optimlly.

If I warm up, for even a couple minutes I don't really see, or maybe just don't notice it. But my questioon to you is. Should I be concerned.

Other than that it runs great is serviced regualrly, and I've been checking the oil level regulry and it hasn't changed.

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(Oops that was supposed to be in the RX forums..)

Admin feel free to delete this one, as I cross posted.

[camlex]

PCV?

[gbhrps]

brainzey,

Years ago my wife had a Cressida that had the same symptoms. Blue smoke on startup after the car had sat for a while. Otherwise you never saw the symptom at all. Over time it became worse. Toyota techs sourced the problem to worn/tired valve stem seals. Oil leaked down the valve stems into the combustion chambers and showed up after the car had sat overnight. During normal driving the leaks were so minute that no visible oil smoke could be seen. They removed the spark plugs, valve covers, etc., pumped each cylinder up with air(To keep the valves in the head) and then replaced the valve seals. Parts weren't expensive, but there was a fair amount of labour involved. Still, in our case, it was a fairly cheap fix that granted us several more years of trouble free motoring. Good Luck!

[bainzey]

brainzey,

Years ago my wife had a Cressida that had the same symptoms. Blue smoke on startup after the car had sat for a while. Otherwise you never saw the symptom at all. Over time it became worse. Toyota techs sourced the problem to worn/tired valve stem seals. Oil leaked down the valve stems into the combustion chambers and showed up after the car had sat overnight. During normal driving the leaks were so minute that no visible oil smoke could be seen. They removed the spark plugs, valve covers, etc., pumped each cylinder up with air(To keep the valves in the head) and then replaced the valve seals. Parts weren't expensive, but there was a fair amount of labour involved. Still, in our case, it was a fairly cheap fix that granted us several more years of trouble free motoring. Good Luck!

Hmmm,

Thanks for the reply. That does sound like a feasible scenario... I'm hoping the labour won't be too bad. I've got a pretty good import mechanic I use when I can't do it my self. I think I'll mention this to him, get his thoughts, and an estimate... Hopefully its not my first born.

For the time being I think that its ok, as it is barley noticeable. What causes this? can it be caused by driving to hard ;) ?

[gbhrps]

I rather doubt that hard driving would cause valve stem seals to leak. Its usually the result of old age on cars ten or more years or on high mileage vehicles. It may be the result of one or more faulty seals improperly installed at the factory or made with some imperfection. A five year old Toyota engine shouldn't exhibit this problem, unless it has over 350 000 miles. The car should be fine to drive as is, as long as oil doesn't start to foul a spark plug. Then the car will start to run rough. Pulling the plugs and reading them will tell which cylinder has faulty seals, and how bad the problem really is. That is, if leaking valve stem seals is really your problem.