Smoking

[czou]

I have 160,000 miles in my car. Now it always produces a big cloud of smoke from the exhaust pipe when I start the car(particularly the first time in a day).

Can this problem be fixed? Will it help by using thicker engine oil?

Thanks

[Kain]

More info would help in diagnosing your problem. If you live in a cooler cliamate, this is pretty normal. What color is the smoke? Does it go away in time? If so, how long does it take? Does it smoke worse under certain conditions? This could be several things, ranging from an oil leak, water leak, bad cataletic converter, worn rings, leaky valve seals, and probably a couple of other possible things. Sorry if I'm not very helpful at this point, but without clearer information I can't properly diagnose your problem.

As an aside, with such high millage you should probably be running the thickest oil allowable. I personally use Mobil1 10W40 high-millage. It's pretty good stuff (though I strongly urge against carrying the bottles in your trunk as they do leak) and I've had no problems. Although, do not use oil additives that claim to stop smoke. They are bad for your engine, and could clog the smaller oil passageways. Resulting in premature engine failure.

[czou]

Kain, Thanks for your comments.

I live in Texas and the climate is hot, hot and hot!. In fact, I bought this car around three years ago and at that time, the car was smoking (not so bad though). The smoking get worse and I need to put about half bottle oil every other a couple of thousand miles to keep the oil level.

I am pretty sure that the oil was burnt, not leaked. I would also think that this is caused by the worn out of the rings and therefore it is not economically feasible to fix this problem. At this milage,I do not really care much about the potential slightly damage of engine due to additive or using thicker oil as long as it will not smoke so badly.

You recommend Mobil1 10W40 high-millage, does that reduce smoking problem from your experience? Can I use any thicker oil?

Thanks in advance

[Kain]

Hmm, yeah, you can go up to 20W50. Sounds like an internal oil leak all right. You could take it to a garage and have them do a combustion chamber leak test. Though with that kind of millage, you may be better off just buying a newer Galant, or perhaps even a diffrent car. Though, the oil leak you describe does not sound that bad. (my Blazer loses about a quart every two weeks) And I've never actually seen an oil additive actually work before. (the shop I worked for used to have it if customers wanted it, but we always told them there was little chance it would work) The Mobil1 was just an example of using thicker oil in higher millage vehicles. It's somewhat expensive, you'd probably be better off using say Castrol GTX 20W50 as it's pretty good (I use it in all my cars except the Galant) and relatively cheap at only about $1.30 a quart. Also, what color is the smoke? I feel given the relitively small oil loss, the smoke you are seeing may be water rather than oil. Check your water level in the radiator. It dosen't take much to make quite a bit of smoke.

[czou]

Kain,

I found your information very helpful. The smoke is blue and my radiator seems to work good ( I have not added any fluid for more than a year). I would assume that the smoking is not that bad when I actually drive since I never see any smoke from my rear mirror. After driving a certain time, stop and re-start, the smoking is far better than you started the first time in a day.

Anyway, I will use Castrol 20W50 as suggested by you and see what will happen. I may leave a post here if it reduces smoking.

Cheers!

[Kain]

It probably won't stop smoking. If the smoke is blue, you've got an oil leak. That narrows it down to: Leaking vavle seals, Leaking head gasket, or bad rings. Any of the three is going to cost you quite a bit to repair. I'd suggest you sell the car. Fixing the problem is going to cost you around $2000 to repair. Or you could always just live with it. Being that it only occurs at startup, I'd guess it's the rings. But that's only a guess.