For the past few months, when I start-up my BMW I get this cloudy smoke that comes out the tailpipe... It does this mostly if the car hasn't ran in a few hours.... I called bavauto.com just to ask a technician what he thought .. He suggested a tune-up & new filters. I had a tune-up & filters done December 2004. Any other ideas of what could cause this blueish cloudy smoke when I start my car? Soon as the car is warm . .it goes away.
How much oil is the car using?
Bad valve guide seals somes to mind, also the possibility of bad rings. You didn't mention how many miles are on the car.. both these problems are very uncommon before 200,000 miles.
Also - bavauto - there is no technician there. There are people who sell parts for a living. Big difference.
Later..
Sorry the car has 110,000 miles.. thanks for the info on the bavauto.com Ask OTTO .... He didnt seem experienced ... but neither am I. .
car seems to be using alot of oil ..I get it changed every 3000 or 3 months but before the scheduled interval it runs about a quart low...
wrote
That's not terribly unusual; our '91 525i with around 150K miles uses about a quart in 1500 miles - the valve guides need replacing but you can buy a lot of oil for the $1000 or more it would take to correct the problem.
Best thing to do is to have a leak-down and compression test done. This eliminates the valve seats and rings as a source of the oil usage, and pins it on the PCV or guides. The PCV is only $150 or less to replace.
Floyd
Wouldn't heavy oil consumption ruin the cat?
Mine uses oil too but it never has trouble on the MOT emissions test. The manual says 250 miles a pint max consumption (or more than a quart in 500 miles to compare with the above!) and even mine doesn't use that much, so I guess it's ok. It definitely relates to hard driving and/or high speed motorway running. I've suspected that if I gave the car to my mum it wouldn't use any oil at all...
I've never seen any smoke or a leak big enough to drip.
Dan
Hello Kevin,
Sounds as if the car has an air leak. I would remove the intake boots and check them over; Checking them on the car is not a the proper proceedure.
Blue smoke is typically caused by a rich mixture as is black smoke. White smoke is either steam or oil. Oil is easy to check..take a whiff. If you know what burning oil smells like then it will be obvious to you.
Some may say "Oh, its your cold start valve....but your car does not have one. Once you have checked for leak then it would be wise to look at your ECU temperature sender. These truly are a tune up part and go out of calibration quite easily. I think I replaced a neighbors for about 18$US. Another doo-da that can give you fits is the pressure regulator valve; Have that checked as well. I also consider the pressure regulator a 100K tune-up part.
Best of luck, Blake
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