So it seems lately when I start my car after it sitting for a little bit it lets out a small puff of smoke when it first starts. Its pretty small. But still visible. I don't know if its oil or not that its burning. I guess my question is , is it common at all for the valve seals in an lnf to be seeping oil ? My car only has 26,000 miles on it. Id hate to think a trip to the dealer is needed already for new valve seals. I dont even know if they would be covered under warrenty ?

 

what color smoke? could be many things if it is only at start up. could be piston rings too

 

I cant tell what color it is yet. I just noticed it today and there was a little wind that carried it away kinda qwickly. So I was only able to see it for a split second. It only does it after it sits for awhile. If it runs. Shut off and then back on even with in half an hour it doesnt do it. It seems to have to sit for a least a few hours.

 

Often times its moisture in the exhuast. If you can see the color, that would be helpful in determining what it is.

 

From what i could tell it seemed to be white. It only is a very small amount. About a second or two after it first sits. Id hate to think my pistons are bad? Or the valve seals. I really don't beat on the car at all. Id like to think its just moisture. It is cold lately. I will double check the color tomorrow morning

 

are valve seals something that would be covered in the powertrain warrenty ?

 

Mine does that too on startup. its just condensation. if you were burning blue/black then i would be worried. Does it do it when you are driving?

 

it could just be when its cold outside? lol


if your motor is cold, and its cold outside it will always shoot out white smoke... especially if you have no cats

 

After sitting all night. It looked to be brownish black id say. It was near freezing last night. 3degrees.(35 f ) i took a video i will put to photobucket to see what you guys think. But it actually looked normal to me. I think anyways.

Video


http://s1074.photobucket.com/albums/...0646093055.mp4




The sound may be out of sync with the video for some wierd reason. The puff of smoke in question is around the 14- 18 second mark. It looks like it may just be normal exhaust fumes on cold start up due to the car running rich first thing in the morning where it is cold out. Like I mentioned before the puff looks brownish/blackish. But probably mostly browinsh which I think is unburnt fuel is it not ? Is that normal ?

 

Prob just condensation on your 02 and maf sensor. Perfectly normal.

 

So its normal to get a little brownish smoke at very first start up ? And is that ( brownish blackish smoke ) unburnt fuel from running a little rich on initail start up ?

 

I wouldn't worry about it until it continues while it's running.

 

It is only a qwick puff and then thats about it. It never smokes once its running or even after only a few seconds of idle.

 

what I see is a quick puff of rich mixture on startup, which I would not be concerned about, and then after a few seconds of warmup, steam coming out as everything warms up.

H2O & CO2 are what you want coming out of your tailpipe anyways.

Nothing to be concerned about.

 

Yes, its going to run rich with a water/condensation on the maf. The maf will read incorrectly and send a lot more fuel than needed on initial startup until the air flowing across it dries the sensor.

 

What about white smoke, and lots of it, when you let up off the throttle after full boost?

 

Don't forget too that unless you've had the cat warmup deleted from your tune the car runs super rich on cold start and will blow a puff of sooty dark colored smoke for a second.