what causes the smoke?

[genz11]

i heard a lot of you guys talk about how your car starts up with a little smoke out of the exhaust.. mine never did this until recently.. and i realize that im due for an oil change and im about to get that done and so that may be MY problem with the smoke but what actually causes it to do that when you start up?

[FirebirdHatesRice]

Yeah, I've noticed that smoke myself. Occasionally my car lets out a puff when it hasn't been started in awhile. It also happens if I rev the engine up really high. Weird.

[PewterBird]

To put it simply, the oil seeps past the valve seals and collects in the cylander. When the car is started it burns and puff you get smoke. Bluish white smoke. This is not a huge problem, unless it leaks so much, it makes it hard to start or consumes a lot of oil. So generally don't worry about it.

If you get bluish white smoke under load, or hard accelleration, that is bad, make sure it doesn't do that.

If you get white smoke, that is bad too, that would be the burning or coolant.

[camaro_speedemon]

Are you talking about black smoke? When I get on it or rev it up high, black comes out and that's just carbon, it's normal.

[Tyler]

my car never smokes...


not even when i did seafoam