Every once in a while, after it sits overnight, my car spews out blue smoke for a few seconds when I start it. The car (95 GLE) has almost 120k miles, and I got an oil change right before I started noticing the problem. I also towed a dirtbike 900 miles over mountains right after the oil change. Any ideas as to what's going on, and how I can fix it? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

your piston ring might be busted, or one or a few of your valves might have blown, most likely the exhaust valve. put that slick fifty stuff in and see if it'll help, it usually does a lil.

gluck mang.. keep us posted

 

if it pretty much blows smoke when startup then your valve seals are bad. the oil that are around the valves seep into the combustion chamber and when you turn the key it burns it out. if you get smoke other times..IE WOT runs..then it might be your rings...but just startup i'm pretty confident it's your valve seals.
get a compression test and check it out.
sounds like u need some head work.
Dan

 

Is usually the result of oil that has drained down the head and into the combustion chambers (cylinders). When you shut the engine off, there is still oil hanging out in the head. If the valve seals are worn just enough for the oil to seep through, then it will collect in the cylinder (not more than an oz. or two at the most.) Then you fire the car up, and the oil burns off, hence the blue smoke.
My 95 did it every now and then (maybe once or twice per year, if it sat more than a day). Not to worrry too much about it, you really can't do anything other than have the seals replaced. Only other significant concern is if it happens too regularly, it may foul the cat.

 

Jim..what do u think..?? maybe run a little bit heavier oil to slow it down a bit??
give that a shot..not a good time to switch to syn oil..
Dan

 

Anybody know about what it costs to have the valve seals replaced? And would I get the same thing if they overfilled it when I got my oil changed? Thanks for all the help.

 

well depends what u mean by overfill. if it's really overfilled..then it might do that.
the valve job..i would say it's pretty $$.
Dan

 

My 95 did this for a while earlier this year. It hasn't done it for a while now, and I don't know why. But when I asked my mechanic about it, he said the same things about the seals on the valves, and that I shouldn't worry too much about it unless it starts doing it when I am driving around town. I was told it would be about $500-600 to redo the valve seals, so I decided that I will just live with it everytime it happens, and if it got worse, then I would consider redoing the valves.

 

w/o removing the heads. there are kits that uses air to keep the valve up(not drop into the head). this way you can take the valve retainer/spring/seal with the head on. Lot's cheaper I would think if it's possible on the the VQ. Good luck.

 

everytime I left it for a few hours or overnight...start it up.....blue smoke screen all over the driveway

I was told the same thing by a few Toyota gearheads that it was the Valve seals and oil was leaking down in there and burning off when I started her up. Nothing to worry about I was told...depends how nutso you are about stuff like that...I was at first.

I swear it started doing it after I added this crapola to my crankcase called "Tuff Oil" Whether it was a coincidence or not I'll never know but I'll never ever add another oil additive(Duralube, Slick 50, Motor U etc)to any car that I own