Occasional Blue smoke on startup

[raaizin]

I have a 2002 Maxima which I purchased new which has 79k miles on it. Occasionally when I start it up there is a puff of white/blue (oil) smoke on startup. It occurrs once every 100 starts or so. There is a significant amount of smoke for about 1/2 a second or so. I noticed it occurrs mostly when I start car to move it in my driveway shut it off, then restart shortly thereafter.

What is causing this? This car has an OCI of 3k miles.

Ray

 

[Pablo]

Borderline build-up/leak past valve stem seals.

 

[bmwtechguy]

You're getting oil into the combustion chamber somehow, so possibly some oil is getting past the valve stems or rings once in a while. What oil have you been using? I'm not familiar with the particular engine issues these cars have-sorry. When your catalyst is hot and operating at temp, it is probably burning up any oil before it gets out of the exhaust as smoke. So I guess this smoke is only seen when everything is cold? Does it use any oil between 3k mile changes?

 

[mechtech2]

Valve guides/seals.
But it is very odd that it only occurs 1 out of every 100 starts.
This makes no sense to me.

 

[03cvpi]

My bet would be seals also. I had an escort that had a few bad seals and would smoke for several seconds on startup if the car was parked facing slightly downhill. On level ground it didn't smoke except for one little puff. Parking with the nose downhill caused the oil to pool by the valve seats rather than run down the drain holes in the head.

 

[raaizin]

I burn 1/2 quart every 3-4k miles so oil consumption isnt an issue. Its just that the smoke is VERY noticable whenever this happens. I really dont stick with any one brand. I have used Penzoil, QS, Mobil 1 & Valvoline in the past

 

[duaneb9729]

are you having to add any antifreeze?

 

[JHZR2]

run an auto-rx. helped a lot on the MIL's 01 camry v6 sludgemonster that would smoke at cold start.

JMH

 

[Ryan]

Probably valve seals. I changed the valve seals on my 95 Neon and went from over a quart every 1,000 miles to pretty much none every 1,000. My other car would smoke on startup too until I replaced them. Just think it is a rubber seal that gets hot as [censored], heats and cools hundreds of times. It just hardens up and stops sealing.

 

[Ignatz]

You mentioned starting a car briefly and shutting it off...When I did this to my 91 Saab 900 turbo, the lifters would stay noisy for 10-15 minutes and then quiet down...Only happened when I rearanged the cars in my driveway. Maybe yours is a "Cold Start" valve for the fuel injection not completing its cycle and clearing out the next time you start up the car. Just an idea..

 

[raaizin]

I dont add antifreeze. Besides color is whitish/blue which would mean oil.


Ignatz, just about the only time this happens is when I "rearange" my cars also. You might be on to something

 

[Whimsey]

My 1996 Contour will do the same thing if I start it cold, move it and then turn it off and restart it within a very short time period. It doesn't smoke bad but it does emit some smoke, not water vapor. Otherwise, I don't use any measuable amount of oil in my 5,000 mile OCI. And I don't use any coolant either. Needless to say I try to avoid doing that.

Whimsey

 

[Jim Spahr]

raalsin, that is the classic symptom of bad valve seals, except for the only every 100 starts. If seals are bad, they would do it more often. Not every time, maybe, but more than every 100 starts. have you ever considered that the cat. converter is masking the oil puff on start most of the time except when there is a large amount of 'oil puff' and then it is visible. White smoke usually is water vapor. Blue as you said is oil smoke.

 

[sprintman]

Run Auto-Rx it will help rejuvenate valve stem seals. Cheap fix

 

[Donald]

I would pull the valve cover and have a look. Auto-Rx may help if the valve stem seals look halfway decent, but if they are broken apart they need to be replaced.

 

[raaizin]

Originally Posted By: Jim Spahr
raalsin, that is the classic symptom of bad valve seals, except for the only every 100 starts. If seals are bad, they would do it more often. Not every time, maybe, but more than every 100 starts. have you ever considered that the cat. converter is masking the oil puff on start most of the time except when there is a large amount of 'oil puff' and then it is visible. White smoke usually is water vapor. Blue as you said is oil smoke.


It really doesnt burn much if any oil. Maybe 1/2 quart every 3-4 k miles. Besides doesnt the cat converter need to get to operating temp before it could mask the oil. I dont think I will touch it till it gets worse. It just didnt make sense to me that it doesn't do it all the time.

 

[Jim Spahr]

You are right. At start up, the cat. is not up to operating temp.but the blue smoke is still passing through the cat. and coating the insides.
You may consider pulling all the plugs to see if there is any oil fouling evident. This may tell you (if it is valve seals) which seal is bad. There may be only one or two leaking ones or they may all be leaking.

 

[Vander1]

I have Civic from 1996, same issue
Maybe once in twenty starts or so there is a little bit of blue puffy smoke for about 5 seconds.

 

[wtd]

Funny this thread popped up. I started my 2014 Mustang GT the other day and it blew blue smoke out of the pipes. Car only has about 34,000 miles on it. First time I've seen that happen and the car uses no noticeable oil.

 

[joekingcorvette]

I noticed when you turn the key on to roll up a window and and turn the key off it could pump some fuel. I have noticed this with several different vehicles. If you start it up the next day it can puff some smoke.