Smoking 93 LS400

[dacecil]

I just purchased a 93 LS. Nice car. Only 126k miles. Appears to have been well maintained. It looks great and almost everything works (except the climate control/clock readout.)

The big problem that I didn't notice when I bought it is that it smokes a lot upon start up. After it has warmed up a little, it's fine. But, let it sit overnight or even for a shorter period of time, and you could drive away mosquitos.

Any ideas on this? Is this a common problem?

I would plan to fix it myself depending upon what it is.

Thanks,
Dale

[clubfoot]

What colour is the smoke?

[lexusmech]

I'm going with the valve guide seals and/or the idle up valve on the back of the power steering pump. When you turn the steering wheel, pressure drops on that valve to allow a little more air into the motor in order to up the idle when you're sitting. For that, check the two vacuum lines that go to the very front of the intake plenum and make sure they're both dry. If one of them is wet (should be red p/s fluid...maybe....) then thats the valve. It still may not fix the problem, but it would need to be fixed anyhow. Also check (or have checked) the front lower ball joints and the rear trailing arms.

Better yet, take it to a dealer, pay an hour diagnosis and find out whats really wrong with it before you go throwing money around.

[lextechautomotive]

Any loss of p/s fluid? even though these engine will almost last forever they are known for blue or grey smoke in am on first start up due to valve stem seals on high mileage vehicles. Check for p/s fluid loss as there is a vacumn switching valve on the p.s pump that is known to allow p/s fluid to be sucked into the intake when the valve on the p/s pump begins to fail. the valve stem seals is not a job you would want to tackle on you own with out removing the cylinder heads