CoryMiller

Hey all, I just bought my first lexus on Monday. Its a 200 es300 with 98,000 miles. Well when I test drove it, i never noticed any sort of smoke at all. So I hop in it on tuesday after work and crank it up, it had been sitting for about 6 hours, and smoke starts pouring out of the exhaust. I've driven enough beat up hondas in my day to know what that means. Its burning oil like crazy. But it only does it on start up. After it runs for a few seconds, the smoke is gone. My guess is the valve seals are worn and that oil is seeping by them and falling into the cylinders through the valves. Is this common? This really sucks bc I havent even had this car for a week and there is no warranty. What should I do? Im pretty good with cars and my dad is a mechanic so we would do any of the work ourselves. But i was really looking forward to having a much more relaible car when i bought this one. Would it be worth having the head work done, replacing valve guides and seals? What kinda engine swaps can I look into? I really do not want to change engines...at all! I did the swap thing when I was into hondas and I just need a good reliable car to take me places.

PFB

Before you do anything else, change your PCV valve. You may be lucky and its only that. Also make sure your are not over the full mark on your oil dipstick.

If all fails, drive the car like that for about 1,000 Miles and see what happens. You will probably find that even though you have some smoke at start-up, that your oil consumption is negligible, or even non-exsistantor, and that your engine runs just fine.

Another thing to consider if the above advise does not resolve the problem is to remove the front Valve Cover and inspect for sludge. If no sludge than you can probably drive the car like that for many more years, without having to repair the valve stems.

Also next time you do an oil change, consider using a heavier oil ie: 10W-30 Oil instead of the 5W30 which is probably there now.

You should be Ok.

Good Luck

Phil

PS: I expect the forum member named llCoolpass to jump in any time, and spew his usual doomsday scenarios, negativistic predictions, and remarks. So be prepared.

llcoolpass

pfb, are you serious, no smoke to massive smoke? well, you could be right. but wouldn't this also be a huge sign of a head gasket failure or worn valve guide bushings or oil level too high?

please note, these engines tend to have bad sludge problem which can manifest in other things going wrong before a complete engine failure occurs.

llcoolpass

gee, thanks pfb for preempting me. i guess i can not be right. my name is LLCoolPass, by the way. llcoolpass in all lower case.

CoryMiller

oh no, the oil level is def dropping. I've monitored it over the past week and its burning it at an alarming rate. The whole reason I got a new car was because my paseo would burn 4 qts in a 3000 mile span. I was happy with my car when I bought it, but 4 days in, I am not happy! This shouldn't happen on a ten yr old car with less than 100k miles. I told my dad and he said its a pain to replace the valve stem seals, but we were going to replace the timing belt and water pump soon, so looks like we will be doing this during that. I am going to try a heavier oil to see how that compares. Im thinking a high mileage 10w-40? And how would oil consumption be a head gasket problem? It's not coolant I'm burning, its def oil.

PFB

Three things you still have to try before your other major fixes, and even before your oil change.

1) Check your PCV Valve
2) Remove front Valve Cover and Inspect for Oil sludge (VERY IMPORTANT)
3) Check for Oil leaks around the front, and especially rear Valve Covers


Phil

Lexusfreak

Did you get the service history or take it for a mechanical inspection before you went ahead with the deal?

CoryMiller

whoever owned the car before me didn't keep any kind of service history. I have the original owners manual with even the card from the original salesperson, all the way in Las Vegas, NV, but no service history. And no I didn't have it checked out, I did it myself. This didn't happen while on the car lot, it happened the day after. If this would have happened on the car lot, I would have said no to buying it, but I reckon this is what I get for buying another used car.

I keep hearing ppl talk about sludge in this engines, why are these engine so prone to sludge? I never had that problem out of any of the honda's I've owned,

97'ES

Their prone if people don't change the oil religiously or run synthetic. I bought the car w a full service history from lexus. If routine maintenance is performed its highly unlikely.

They run hot for emissions reasons so there ya go. People tend to make a bigger deal out of it then it really is. ex. mine had both vcgs replaced and it looked normal for age and mileage, I've also been running mobil one for over 60k and its now got 111k.

I can see it now, someone not changing dino oil on time in those 110* temps in Vegas.......

Lexusfreak

Well said & exactly right ^

Here is a recent thread (you might already seen) that is an excellent example of a well looked after ES...

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...nspection.html

Did you buy it privately or from a dealer?

One product you can try that works well (depending on the severity of the problem) is the Amsoil Engine Flush & follow the directions...

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/aef.aspx

03 ES

sounds just like my best friends 99 avalon....104k and it smokes like crazy at cold startup, then stops completely...its also burning oil at a pretty fast rate as well....id say pull the front valve cover and look for sludge, as sludged engines have a tendency to have bad valve seals and smoke a good bit...you can remove the sludge and replace the valve stem seals, but its quite a process...

this is why i treat my 1mz to mobil 1 fully synthetic 5w-30 oil and a fresh toyota oil filter every 3000 miles. my engine has 82k and is clean as a whistle...the car also came from a lexus dealer with a full service history including oil changes at lexus every 3-5k.

llcoolpass

a lot of oil consumption, exhaust with oil in it, that problem is the piston rings or head gasket, less oil consumption than that would be more valve guide bushings; both forms of wear would happen at an accelerated rate in an engine that is suffering from sludge due to what happens when an engine gets sludged

03 ES

true that.
piston rings generally would cause constant smoking....head gasket is pretty obvious through coolant loss and milky looking oil.

the best way to tell if theres a sludge issue to pull that front valve cover.

llcoolpass

head gasket failuremode can be just oil getting into cylinders

03 ES

i think the lesson at hand is to be careful when buying a used ES. you could be getting someone else's issues....
used cars are always a gamble