When my car is cold (has been off for a few hours), it smokes for about 5 seconds at startup and a burning smell comes out of the exhaust. The smell and smoke are gone after those few seconds but it is concerning... My car has 145k miles. Any ideas? I've also been hearing some ticking under my hood but I dont know if that is related. My belts/oils are all good. The car basically has all highway miles... Let me know if anyone has experienced this before...

Thanks

 

black smoke?? white smoke?? what kind of smell?? does it smell sweet??? does it smell like gas??? you need to put more details

 

does your oil level drop in between oil changes?

 

Its white smoke and it smells like something is burning...

 

You probably mean your car smells lean right? Mine does too and it has about 158k now. Since this is only for the beginning I wouldn't really worry about it. Now if you had blue smoke and it smoked like all hell, then we have a problem.

 

White smoke that smells sweetish is usually anti freeze. Not a good thing because you are usually looking at a Head Gasket.

If it's bluish white it could be oil. If it only smokes when you first cold start it likely could be bad valve seals.

The oil that is sitting on the head around the valves leaks through the seals while it is sitting.

When you first start it you are buring all of that at once.

Not much will leak during running and what lttle does just gets burned off without much of a telltale.

As asked above you should see some ussuage between changes. Not a big drop, but something.

many folks can live with this for a long time without any real issues.

 

He hasn't really gave us very specific details so its hard to pinpoint the solution. Plus he said its only a few seconds and then its gone. Wouldn't worry about it. If it smelled for a while or most the time, yea I would take a look asap.

 

I would agree with flint 18 with the info that was gave I would also say valve seals.

 

I agree also... It seems like that. Is this a big deal/job? I'm hearing some valve tapping now as well. The car still runs very well but I dont want to end up screwing more things up...

 

There are some places that will attemp a valve seal change without pulling the head. I did it once on another motor and got it done, but it was a pain.

You can check around and see if anyone will try it.. And while they are in there they can adjust your valves to get rid of the tap.

This might sound stupid, but you might want to try some

"Marvel Mystery Oil"

I know some people that swear by it (including my dad who was a mechanic for 45 years).

It helps lubricate the top end of the motor and will sometimes help soften the valve seals which could help stop the leak.

The stuff has been around for a hundred years. I think they carry it at Walmart.

Don't get carried away with it. Just follow teh instructions.

Good Luck.