blue smoke at morning startup

[howru]

My 2000 camry 4 cyl has blue smoke for 3-5 seconds at the first startup in the morning, and then the smoke disappears. It has only 59k on it. I searched sites and it seems caused by "valve stem seals" leaking. Please help me with these questions:
1. How serious is this problem? How long will it be before I run into big problems?
2.What will be the reasonable price to fix it? Can I do it by myself? (I did oil change, coolant flush, ATF change etc.)

Thank you.

[Erbe]

mine does this too...my dad tells me that my piston rings are fried which sounds pretty logical to me...in order to replace this you have to rip apart the engine and bascially change the rings and/or pistons...in your case, it could be something different

[BLUEMEANIE]

Nope, that little blue puff on startup is leaky valve seals. Fried rings would constantly smoke each time you punched the accelerator.

Leaky valve stem seals are a known 5S-FE problem.
Its not all that severe at this point... you can wait til the smoke gets bad enough to annoy you i.e. the worse the smoke the worse the problem kinda thing.

My 95 puffed on start up for as long as I can remember, at least the last 75-80000mi

It can get a bit pricey to fix. If I remember correctly it was in the $700usd range. If you do it you're best to wait til your valve cover seal needs replacing too cause that'll get replaced either way.

[KevinLi]

it is the same with my 95 camry V6 138Km. it is NOT pistion ring problem.

do not worry. Oil is much more cheaper than replace those valve seals. Just top up oil.
How much oil did you burn? mine is 1L/1000Km. Who cares?

Let's wait until gasket has to be replaced.

Good luck.

[howru]

I have not noticed any oil level drop since last oil change in september. So, it looks like I can ignore it now.

Could it be related with the infamous "camry engine sludge" problem?

[BLUEMEANIE]

Originally posted by howru

Could it be related with the infamous "camry engine sludge" problem?

Nope, thats an exclusive 1MZ problem.

[KevinLi]

My one is the problem of sludge.
I bought it this May. Then I found lots of sludge under oil cap.

Now I am trying Auto-Rx to remove the sludge.
It burn less oil now, but mileage drops dwon from 21-18. I do not know why.

Check your oil level frequently, if it smokes blue smoke. 100% oil level will go down.

Good luck

[howru]

Kevinli, what type is your engine? 1MZ or 5S-FE? Thank you.
If Bluemeanie is correct (I believe so), yours should be 1MZ.

[howru]

Has anyone tried Auto Rx to correct the seal leak problem? Is it safe?

[howru]

Originally posted by BLUEMEANIE
Nope, thats an exclusive 1MZ problem.

It looks like 5S-FE is affected. http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...ota-sludge.htm

[deekay140]

blue is correct, the 5sfe is valve seals leaking. However, that doesnt mean its sludge, some of the 5sfe engines will get the seals leaking, ever though its not sludged.


Howru,,, that has a 5/60000 warranty, so get it to a dealer before you hit 60000 and there will be no charge to you for repairing it.

[KevinLi]

My one is the stupid 1mzfe.
It works perfect. But people said this baby likes to be a sludge baby.

[howru]

Deekay140, thank you for the reminder of the warranty. Today I asked two toyota dealers. One asked $85 for diagnosis and the maintenance records. The other dealer has a nicer gettleman. He asked me to leave the car on Sunday overnight and they will check it the first thing on Monday. I will let friends here posted.
Thanks again.

[howru]

Today the dealer said the blue smoke is caused by valve stem seal leaking. However, in the phone message, they recommend to change the timing belt (1 hour labor, $85 per hour) and to do the 60k maintenance.
I know the maintenance guide asked me to change the timing belt at 90k. Do you think the repairment of the valve stem seal would make the replacement of the timing belt necessary? Or I can just tell them I would like to do it at 90K?
Regarding the 60K maintenance, I just did it by myself (flush coolant, replace spark plugs, replace ATF and differential oil, etc.) So I don't think I need it.
If I don't accept anything they recommended, will I offend the dealer? I will feel sorry if I just let them repair the seal and give them no money. Will they be angry about this? Will they get me some trouble therefore ( Ask for maintenance record, which I don't have, and therefore void my warranty)?
I am not that rich, I am a student. Please help, thank you.

[deekay140]

no , they wont be offended. tell them u had the service done and u will do the timing belt at 90000 ,, u should get new oil and coolant anyway. thats if they are pulling the head off .

dont worry , the dealer gets paid from the factory and is happy to it.