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Bought a car that burns oil and puffs out blue smoke, need advice
I bought a 2009 Lexus IS350 with 98K miles for 10K. 2 previous owners, one was a Lexus employee and according to the history it was used as a loaner vehicle.
I paid for it in cash 2 weeks ago and I’m now only finding out the car burns a lot of oil. It actually triggered the low oil level warning as I was driving on the freeway and I just changed the oil less than 1000 miles ago.
This morning, I did a cold start and a puff of blue smoke came out of the exhaust. And after lettin it warm up for 10min, I checked my CO detector in the garage and it went up to 35ppm!! My other cars never go up that high when parked in the garage. And yes the garage door was open!
When I bought the car they told me it burns oil but they didn’t say anything about the blue smoke from the exhaust. I don’t see any smoke when driving so it must only happen in the morning when I first start it up.
The dealer took it to Lexus of Concord in CA to do an inspection before I bought it and they found no issues.. the oil burning is apparently “normal” and told me to monitor it and just add when it’s low.
Now I’m stuck with a car that burns oil... and puffs out blue smoke that could potentially kill me. I need help deciding what I should, i can still get the power train warranty which covers 50k miles from what I was told and have them rebuild the engine. But then again I don’t have 2.5K....
Need advice
ive already tried the following:
- replaced the PCV valve
- techron fuel system cleaner
- rislone stop leaks oil additive
Perhaps you can pull each plug and do a wet and dry compression test on each cylinder and figure out which one or if all of them are shot. Typically burning oil means that you have a problem with oil entering the combustion chamber and burning up, hence the blue smoke out your exaust. For oil to bypass your pistons means your Piston Rings are shot or your Cylinder walls are bad. This means your engine would need rebuilding. If you are in need of a new engine, then go the route of getting one from Japan or a wrecking yard or see if you can return the car.
Adding to the above, combustion gasses expanding help seal the rings to the cylinders. Engines that don't see high loading can varnish the cylinders and drop compression. Also an event such as a fouled plug can cause the above to happen.. sometimes a good flogging will help once up to temperature.
Pull the plugs and replace them (verify gap before install).
Check that air filter is clean. Clean MAF with MAF cleaner.
Put the best oil in it you can afford and change it often.
Flogging it:
Find a long steep hill and pull that hill at rpm using a gear that allows the rpm to climb and presents a maximum work load on the engine. This can remove carbon and varnish. This process will not help fix worn valve stems/valve guides, valve seals. The will smoke the most while decelerating which pulls high vacuum.
Be safe.
As was mentioned, check if oil is entering the combustion chambers by leaking in through the leaky gaskets/seals OR by worn/bad piston rings. Removing each spark plug and examining the tube AND the plug itself will determine which cylinder is at fault and should give you a clue was to if it is the rings or a more simple leaky gasket/seal.
Thank you all for the suggestions. I was able to pull out a couple of spark plugs and there's definitely some oily residue, here are the pics:
Spark plug under the ignition coil Spark plug #2
Sorry guys for the blurry pics I was rushing to work and didn't have time to do it all. But judging by those pictures, would you say it's definitely a valve cover gasket leak? Also, how often do spark plugs need to be replaced?
Did mine at 52k mi. Looked like so.
Valve cover leaks or even plug well leaks that do not induce misfire will not cause blue smoke, simply oil loss vs oil burning/consumption.
If the plugs are not seated completely, they can allow combustion gasses pass the plugs gasket that looks like oil as it is an oil product that has condensed into a black mass.
A plug having more deposits than others can indicate oil usage through that cylinder. That said a leak down test would be invaluable. Tho a compression test can suggest gross anomalies but not pinpoint the source.
Say what? Just because they published a specification that doesn't mean they intended it or all of them to consume oil at the maximum rate.
I will agree to disagree as the OEM released clearances do not have a bulk of the engines released consuming oil.
Oil consumption is likely a matter of manufacturing defects and/or end user usage. Heavy on the later...
The oil consumption is definitely not normal. When the low engine oil light came on, I turned back home and when I checked the oil level, there was no trace of oil left. And it’s not leaking anywhere so it’s eating up oil and getting stuck somewhere
I will try mounting a GoPro on my rear bumper to see if any smoke comes out when accelerating. But so far the blue smoke only happens when I first start it up in the morning
Blue smoke from the exhaust is oil consumption. No doubt. Us buying used cars we have no idea how they've been used. The worst offense is reving and loading a cold engine before it reaches operating temperature.
That said I would advise against most fix it in a can solutions. All I can say is I have bought used vehicles that smoked and burned some oil. Pulling RPM out of them once warm never made them any worse.
What brand of oil are you using and how is this vehicle used? Does it see the freeway often?
There have been several threads about oil consumption in the past. Someone on here told me about BG pn109 EPR. It works by cleaning out the sludge on the piston oil control rings. A number of Toyota’s face this issue. I’ve had success with it after the first change. I went from about 1 qt/2500 miles to about .5 qt/7500 miles. I’ve also convinced my friends to try and they’ve seen it work too. One had a GM 6.0 with a sticky lifter that it completely solved. Give it a shot, it’s cheap.
Quick update, I just changed the oil yesterday and used Mob1 5w30 high mileage and OEM Toyota oil filter. The last oil change they used the regular Mob1 5w30 so hopefully there’s at least some improvement.
I let someone drive my car the other day and saw blue smoke when entering the freeway. Another issue I noticed is an odd burning smell of some sort when accelerating hard uphill. It doesn’t smell like burning oil or rubber and it doesn’t smell like rotten egg either but then again idk what that smells like. All I know is it smells like something burning and it’s not always consistent. When I flogged it uphill, I didn’t smell anything.
It got me worried as it could be toxic so I will let the car sit in the garage while I wait for the warranty to process my claim
That is hard to believe. All the cars I have had I never topped up oil between changes.
On a whim I'd replace PCV valve just to be sure. Don't need to do compression test
manually(lot of work). Hook the engine to 'scope do a dynamic comression test.
Perhaps you can pull each plug and do a wet and dry compression test on each cylinder and figure out which one or if all of them are shot. Typically burning oil means that you have a problem with oil entering the combustion chamber and burning up, hence the blue smoke out your exaust. For oil to bypass your pistons means your Piston Rings are shot or your Cylinder walls are bad. This means your engine would need rebuilding. If you are in need of a new engine, then go the route of getting one from Japan or a wrecking yard or see if you can return the car.
It could also be the valve stem seals. I think this is more likely. They're relatively cheap (Probably $60 for both intake and exhaust seals) but they are a PITA to replace. It requires pulling the cams and removing the valve springs. I've only done it once on a 4 cyl Camry. I place each piston at TDC, had my wife hold it in place with a breaker bar on the crank pulley and used an adapter to pressurize the combustion chamber with air to prevent the valve from dropping into the combustion chamber when the valve spring is removed. You then take a valve spring clip removal tool, remove the springs, pop off the old seal and replace with new etc etc etc. It made a significant difference in my oil consumption. I would have to add a quart of oil between oil changes before (on a 4 qt motor) to not needing to add anything afterwards. I did this with 200k miles on the car and the fix was holding strong until I sold it with 270k miles.
Here's a video I found that kind of explains what you have to do. The difference is obviously that our engines are DOHC and the one in the example is a pushrod motor. I had to use a different style of valve keeper remover with the Camry, not sure if the same applies to the Lexus.
12-09-18, 03:35 PM
Bought a car that burns oil and puffs out blue smoke, need advice
