smoke from tail pipe

[shevtriz]

Hello all I am so glad to have found this forum. I am hoping that I can get some help!

We have a 97 Avalon, and for the past couple of years when we start the car up smoke emerges from the tail pipe. We have no clue as to why this is happening. We have installed new gaskets, changed the oil we even put in an new engine and it's STILL smoking. The car is running fine and we have no other problems with it. It's really embarrassing when I start it up and it looks like my car had just smoked 348 packs of cigars.....Has anyone else experienced this?

Please help!!!! I love my car and I want to be able to have it for my children when they become of age......even though thats in 11 years but still.....LOL...so anyone with any advice.......please help. Thank you!

[sseaman]

this happens all the time, year round?

[shevtriz]

it happens all year round

[swiftjustice]

Smoke at start up after the engine has sat for a while is a classic sign of worn valve stem seals. Valve stem seals are rubber compound or some similar material that controls the amount of oil that goes past the valve stems to lubricate them as they move up and down.

Worn seals means that now too much oil goes past - leading to burning while running (its a small amount so its not noticed), or smoke at startup. The smoke is due to the fact that when you stop the motor, some of the valves remain open or partially open, allowing oil to run past the leaky seals under gravity and pool on top of the piston. When you start the car, this pooled oil gets burned, producing the smoke until its all burned off.

You didn't say what mileage is on the engine, but this is typical of high mileage cars even if well maintained. My single owner 1993 Camry always dealer serviced with the same engine now does this also.

You should also have noticed increased oil consumption than before, as some of it is now being burned during the combustion cycle.

Only fix is to pull the heads and have new seals installed.

If you see smoke all the time, even after startup, then it is usually something much more serious, like a worn out engine or broken oil control rings on a piston.

[shevtriz]

OMG that sounds like my car...it's not smoking while we drive....well only if I don't wait a little after starting it up. But yeah that sounds like it....so I wonder if we just put a "new" engine in for no good reason......before the new engine our avy had 145k miles on it and the "new" engine has about 50k.....I will get this fixed asap!!! I'll also let you know if that helps....hopefully thats the issue cuz I love my car and with investing so much into it it would be great for this to be a quick fix.....

[swiftjustice]

The only way I would pull an Avy engine at 145K is because of a catastrophic failure. My '93 Camry has 180K on it and my 95 Avy has 130K and both run like tops, the Camry does have worn seals but we live with it as that's its only problem. Many on this board run their engines to much higher mileages than that with no major work.

[sseaman]

i assumed when you said "new engine" you were talking about new or freshly rebuilt, just one pulled from another car doesnt mean it it new, maybe less miles but not new. Good luck with changing the seals

[BMR]

Yup, valve stem seals like swiftjustice said. My Camry's been doing that for quite a while now. It doesn't do it every time, so there must be only a few seals that are bad. It doesn't consume enough oil to be noticeable; maybe a half quart every 3K miles. My Avy doesn't do it yet.

[YarFrankl]

I agree with the analysis that valve stem seals are a major contributor to this kind of problem at start up. I am puzzled that the dreaded 'sludge' issue is not mentioned in this thread. I had this problem occur at 86K on my '97 Avalon and the dealer put a 'new' engine in the car. I have changed the oil religiously every 3K miles in hopes that my Avalon will last the desired 200K miles. It is a great car, engine problems excepted of course.

[sseaman]

it could also be leaky fuel injectors, did you resuse these when you swapped the engine? If they leak fuel after the car is stopped, when you restart it has to burn the added fuel out of the cylinders, thus some extra smoke on start up but none when it is running.