Help!!! Smoke From Engine!! - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

jtmcgrat · 06-23-2006, 09:24 PM

HUGE SMOKE PROBLEM! I just spent a few hundred dollars having some seals replaced, namely the Spark plug's gaskets, washer seals, crank seals, cam seal, valve cover gasket and an oil change. This was all in the hopes of preventing smoke that would come from the exhaust manifold everytime i drove. Well, it hasn't prevented it. The toyota mechanics said it was oil dripping on something hot... I took it to a local shop and they said this would prevent any dripping and should elminate the smoke. CAN ANYONE HELP ME OUT? I'm out of money and out of luck.

IT's a 1992 V6LE with 75,000 miles on it.

marc780 · 06-23-2006, 10:06 PM

Quote:

The toyota mechanics said it was oil dripping on something hot...

How much did these guys bill you for the work and that advice

??
All that work, why did they not find the leak? And gave it back to you without fixing the issue???!!!

It was not stated whether the leak was external or coming out the tailpipe as blue smoke. But from your post it sounds like an external leak. So where can the oil be coming from? I can think of several places to check: oil filter, oil pressure sensor, cylinder head. The thing to do is clean the engine within inch of its life and then check for the leak. And you can also buy/rent/borrow the special black light and dye you dump in the oil. And then shine the black light to spot the dye coming out of the engine, and then you have found the leak.

jtmcgrat · 06-24-2006, 07:54 AM

Thanks for the reply. I'm going out today to clean it again, and I'll try that dye in the oil. I didn't know that you could that.. Last night i was revving the engine to around 2000rpm and the smoke would increase when I did that. Would that still be somewhat of an oil leak issue? The leak is not coming out of the tailpipe, only from under the hood. It's barely noticeable when driving but as soon as I come to stop somewhere you can see it coming from all sides around the hood.

marc780 · 06-25-2006, 12:53 AM

Yes sounds like a leak and not burning, the reason you cant see it much when your moving is of course, that the airflow is dissipating it. And the smoke increases with engine speed because the oil pressure increases too. So that might be a clue for you as to where it might be leaking. Maybe its your oil pan leaking, they did not change that.
But i'm still baffled to why they would do engine work, and charge you and give it back to you with the problem still unfixed. ?? This is a basic oil leak issue that every auto shop in the world deals with every day.

skewe · 06-25-2006, 06:49 AM

Hey bro,
I had the same problem

93 camry. baD ass oil leak.

These are some of the things that i fixed and it still did not go away.
Oil Pan
>>Still smoked cos of oil dripping on exhause

distributor seal
cam seals
>>Still smoked cos of oil dripping on exhause

Rear main seals and another seal (can't remember)
>>Reduces it greatly. No more smoke but still leak

Oil Pump
>>Reduces it more

*note, if you want to do the oil pump, prepare to spend like 400-500 cos you might as well do the belts, water pump cos they have to remove that to get to the oil pump

skewe · 06-25-2006, 06:51 AM

Ohh, i would bring it back to the shop and either get a partial credit or something

cos you bring it to a professional shop and they did not fix it
and you are paying for something else

i understand how you feel.

check on my car listed in the link below

.

***toyomoho*** · 06-25-2006, 02:18 PM

If you wash the engine, watch were you put the water. There have been many posts about rough running or no start engines after washing the engine.

jtmcgrat · 06-26-2006, 09:54 AM

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm taking it back today to see why it wasn't fixed. Hopefully they'll give me something good. Yeah the smoke doesn't start til the cars been running for a while then its pretty much constant until about 5-10 min after I turn it off. Hopefully they can spot it/fix it or tell me whats wrong and I can do it myself. But thanks again for the replies, I'll post an update when I figure it out.

skewe · 07-05-2006, 09:44 PM

how did it go?

i think it is oil dripping on the exhause

jtmcgrat · 08-10-2006, 10:22 AM

Sorry for the delay in replying. There was a gasket around the oil filter that was dropping a few drops on the exhaust manifold when the car was first started up - once it heated up this lead to the smoking. At least thats what Ive been lead to believe. Either way, the smoking has stopped. Thanks for everyones help.

ghettosled · 08-10-2006, 12:31 PM

the mecahic changed all of those seals to stop the mysterous leak that was coming from the oil filter??? dude, you need a new mechanic.

Sniperdude · 08-10-2006, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toyomoho

If you wash the engine, watch were you put the water. There have been many posts about rough running or no start engines after washing the engine.

yup, mine misfired after getting some water in the spark bays.

marc780 · 08-15-2006, 04:11 AM

Quote:

If you wash the engine, watch were you put the water. There have been many posts about rough running or no start engines after washing the engine.

Toyo yes, you could not be more correct. I have a post about how to wash the engine, because i do it all the time at work, and these are not my car after all so i just go nutsto make the engine clean and not much concern whether it starts afterwards, frankly!

And actually i DID have a problem after washing my own engine once. And it cost me big time (Pep Boys, $200), but only because i didn't know the information i'm about to relay to you!!! I washed the engine on me then wive's 1993 Sentra, and after next start up, it would not idle right! Idle was very rough and performance even worse, the mechanic at pep boys was a nice guy and quite competent (Call Ripley's lol) and he explained that water had creeped in around the spark plug coil packs and was shorting out the spark plugs! So, if i had just blown out the holes with compressed air i'd have been good to go, fixed the problem and saved all that money.

Wash your engine all you want to, just avoid these areas: ALTERNATOR cover it with plastic, i use plastic bags from the store. STARTER. PLUG HOLES/COIL PACK/FUSE BOXES.
Buy some simple green or gunk, let the chemical do the work for 10 min and use spot free rinse, and you will have no problems with restarting the engine afterwards.

Gellenole · 08-15-2006, 07:48 PM

Long time no see all.

well my car just went in yesterday to get this, smoking from engine, issue figured out.

I spent $$ on the following:

$85 for solution cleaning to find out where the leak was coming from.
$600 for the timing belt package (water pump, sealer, gaskets around the bottom of the engine [not too familiar with names])
$160 for the sealer/gasket for the top part of the engine
$25 for the oil/filter change

and now -- another $400 for what I'm guessing is the sealer/gasket behind the transmission.
someone shoot me...

I hope this should resolve the oil leaking onto the exhaust pipe and causing smoke to come up through the engine.

I wish I knew for sure that this leaking issue will be resolved. I asked the mechanic and he stated that because it's an old car, it's not going to completely stop leaking, but if it'll do a lot of help so that it doesn't leak.

ghettosled · 08-16-2006, 08:23 AM

if you replace all of the seals, i would think it should stop leaking. my car is a 96 with 112k miles and has zero leaks.