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What color smoke? How many miles on engine? (archive)
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Posted by Lars PNW 82_733i on June 08, 2001 at 16:40:22:

In Reply to: Smokes When Starts posted by Daniel on June 08, 2001 at 13:34:42:

Most (all but one) of my bimmers have from 10 to 30 seconds of light blue grey smoke on startup, under the same time frames you mention. It's caused by oil running down the valve stem, through worn seals and pooling on the valve heads until you start the car, then the blast of light grey smoke. It's fairly inconsequential, but increases oil consumption to the degree the seals are worn. Another way to test if this is what's happening, other than the color, is to find a long downgrade, get up some speed and then decelerate sharply. Worn guides and seals will create a vacuum under these conditions, drawing oil into the chambers.

Frankly (flames here please) my choice is to keep the oil topped up, since putting new seals on is a fairly large job, akin to a valve job. Many differing views on this.

I think if the problem was rich mixture, the smoke would be black???



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