I've noticed lately that my AE is smoking at initial startup. Oil smoke from what I can tell. I've got about 92,000 on it 35,000 or so from me with Mobil 5w30 full synthetic between 4,000 and 5,000 miles. Is this engine known for valve seals going? It's been running pretty bad lately especially since it got cold here. I'm pretty sure I'm rich from previous tuning experiences and if I can find some time I'll hook up the S-AFC but that won't be till mid_Jan. sometime. I guess my question is are others having this problem with smoking?

 

I've never known any particular tendency for the maxima to smoke... might want to have a compression test done on it to see?

 

how do you know it's "oil smoke". is it a shade of blue. blue is oil, gray is just water condensation and is normal during the cold seasons.

 

Yeah its Blueish. I've got the condensation like everyone else too. They are easy to distinguish. Like I said it does go away shortly after startup thats why I thought maybe valve seals. I guess lots of hard driving and a high flow intake are finally taking their toll. I guess I just need to do alittle diagnoses to narrow it down. I sea-foamed it back in the Summer and I'm hoping it wasn't the cause

 

You can see by doing the compression test, or even if you were to pull the plugs out, look for the one(s) that are abnormally chared. If the seals are leaking, the oil will burn inside and will likely leave a mark on the spark plug(s) especially if leaks over it...