Smoky Avensis

May 05, 2004 7 Replies

Recently part-ex'd my 2 litre Primera P11 1997 vintage for a 2001 Avensis 2 litre VVTi. Fuel consumption on the Avensis is probably similar or marginally worse than the Primera it replaced and I'm okay with that. What worries me is the plumes of blue smoke from the exhaust when firing the Avensis up from cold.



Never had that on the Primera, or certainly not to the extent that you could clearly see it in the door mirror. It only seems to occur for the first few minutes and appears to be normal after that but being able to see plumes of blue smoke on a car that's done less than half the mileage of the car it's replaced worries me.



I've not owned the car long enough to see if there's any oil consumption (3 weeks) but there's no indication on the dash that anything's wrong (ie engine management light) and it runs well enough. Just wondering if the blue plume could be considered normal for a car that's cold? If not then I have to take issue with the garage I bought it from whilst I still have some warranty left to run.



It's done 37,000 miles and has been serviced at 10,000 mile intervals according to the information I have.


Well normally blue smoke is oil smoke...the fact its doing it on startup suggests that oil is getting through somewhere it shouldn't (like the piston rings) and then burning up when you start the engine, all burning off after a few minutes. However, on a 37k mile, 3 year old Toyota i would be VERY surprised if this was the case...but then, stranger things have happened i suppose.....

More likely to be valve stem oil seals if it only does it on startup. Still a wierd problem to have on a (supposedly) low mileage Toyota....

May have been overheated earlier in its life.... they DON'T give problems with oil burning unless something like that happened........ however after 3 weeks the oil will be down on the dipstick if it using it..... in any case I would have it back where you bought it and report your concern and have them do an oil consumption test...(i.e.) fill it to the mark and re-check after

1000 miles or so..... the Di Vectras had a problem with oil consumption and that is what we did with them.... at least that way you have reported your concern and therefore any warranty concerns later will be entertained by the dealer.

JK

Thats what i meant :) It was 3am, and i had been in the library for summet ridiculous like 10 hours yesterday...

Thanks for the advice, I'll pop it back to the garage and voice my concerns.

Cheers, Dave

Could it be over-filled with oil?

Nah, about 3/4 full on dipstick. Don't think I can find time to go to garage till early next week. :(

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