'99 camry puffing

There is nothing to worry about its not the rings but valve guides, Dont put in thicker oil as you dont consume any more than normal. Actualy my opinion is its good for the motor, that bit of oil lubricates your motor on startup when its needed most. Ive heard 50% of motor wear is on startup before the oil circulates. Mine does it to, its embarising but wont hurt anything.

Friend has a '99 Camry 160,000 miles . Does the same thing. I would not change the weight of the oil at all. Just try to ignore the puff. Scott

================ As others have stated, it is almost considered normal since this is so common. I would not use a quart of straight 30 weight when 5W30 is specified, probably wouldn't help anyway. Even though the cold viscosity is higher, would still run down to the oil pan when parked over night. It's not so much the valve guides as the valve guide seals. These are little rubber doughnut shaped caps that surround the valve stems in the head, but as the oil remains over night, a small amount of seepage into the combustion chamber can occur. I noticed this starting around 85,000 miles. You might want to check out auto-rx.com. Their product was originally designed for cleaning industrial printing presses of ink and they contend that over time, deposits form on the engine seals which harden the surface reducing flexibility and diminishing the ability to seal. I figured for $20 couldn't hurt. I also began using Lucas oil stabilizer which clings to metal parts. Has no solvents or particulate additives, only petroleum and is said to eliminate dry starts. Also, when I acquired the car, I changed the oil more frequently. Seems to have worked. No more puff of smoke on cold start and I'm now at 156,000 miles. One of the reasons I sought to eliminate this characteristic is the potential to foul the oxygen sensor more rapidly when exposed to burning oil even briefly, also doesn't seem particularly healthy to me for the catalytic converter.

the little puff comes when the car has sat for a couple days then is started. it goes away immediatly.

mike...........

========== If it goes away immediately and is just a small amount of smoke and only occurs after sitting for a couple of days probalby safe to ignore. Mine was intermittent but occasionally would get a fairly decent sized cloud of blue smoke on cold start. I'm glad it's gone. I was using synthetic oil so that may have contributed, plus the car had used conventional oil for the first 85,000 miles.

No, it's the valve stem .

Leaking stem seals are benign unless it happens to bother someone.

A little smoke after a couple of days may be small leaks past valve stem seals. I always use the thickest approved oil. You can consider High Mileage oil that has rubber conditioner that may help seal the leak.

JerseyMike wrote:

By "thickest approved oil" do you mean 10W-30 instead of 5W-30?

Michael

Yes, 10W-30 for temperatures above 20degF. 49-69 cents a quart on sale. Every 3000 miles with a Purolator PureOne. Cheap insurance. No smokes. BTW, some 97 and later 5SFE engines are sludge makers. Those may require a more frequent change interval because higher cylinder head temp cooks the oil more.

My un-scientific method is to see whether any light shines through the oil as it drains (use your experience here) in combination with miles per gallon (when it drops 10% it's way overdue, like if I change at

$20 oil analysis should be able tell you a more precise interval using your oil and filter combination. But these are Camrys and we don't do that. So, IMO, 3000 miles is a better interval I'd use.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

Also, there are two common causes of blue smoke inthe exhaust: valve stem leaks or piston ring leaks. The latter, when big enough, can be checked with compression test and then performing the same test after squirting oil into the cylinder. If it's a ring leak then compression pressure will increase after oil in the cylinder seals the rings. Not sure if this works for minor ring leaks tho.

It's probably late, but a good oil filter that can filter very fine particles is quite important. For example, Purolator's PureOne is much better than their Premium Plus for a couple of dollars more. The PureOne is the only filter I'd use. Personally I wouldn't use Toyota's new filters imported from Thailand. Some web pictures showed paper end caps that look like Frams.

Purolator web site:

JerseyMike wrote:

Cool... I'm about to do the same. (I live in Sacramento.) Kragen (Checkers in other parts of the country) had a sale on Castrol GTX,

Took the '99 in to the dealer for a sludge check last week - no sludge was found. (One of the dealerships offered to do the inspection for free, plus free sludge removal if any was found; a different dealer in a different part of town wanted $100+ for the "valve cover gasket" inspection.) Told my dad to take his '01 Camry in for a free inspection, too...

Michael

Yeah, Toyota is settling the Meckstroth class action suit supposedly this week, to be approved by a Louisiana state court. According to the class action, Toyota was aware of the problem but formed a policy just to deny everything. That's too bad.

Check this out. The web page lists affected Toyota and Lexus models:

(Checkers in other parts of the country) had a sale on Castrol GTX,

rebate. Got 5 quarts of 10W-30 for my wife's '99 camry.

dealer for a sludge check last week - no sludge

dealerships offered to do the inspection for

any was found; a different dealer in

the "valve cover gasket"

for a free

Michael

I'm also from Sacramento. Which dealership did you go to? I might need a sludge check myself (creamy puff of smoke every time I start my '98 Camry when it's cold...).

Bartek